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Why not to USB/Hotspot Tether your MetroPCS Android Phone(s)

Kaiser17

Android Enthusiast
I originally posted this in the Samsung Galaxy Indulge and LG Optimus M forum but I decided to share it here to.

This is just a guide I decided to write to warn those of you who Tether your MetroPCS phones and I know there are alot of you out there. Your Android phone is yours to begin with. Do whatever you want with it.. such as root it, flash roms on it, whatever to get a better, richer experience on it as Android is open source and you should be allowed to use your phone to its full potential.
MetroPCS cant do anything about you rooting and modifying your phone, the only thing they can do is void your warranty, but all you need to do is just flash the stock rom back on it and your all safe if your in a situation where you need to take the phone back to them.

Now to begin with the main part, DO NOT use Tethering apps that allow you to use your phone's internet connection on other devices because your MetroPCS account can be easily terminated if they find out, and there has been many cases where customers have had their MetroPCS service cancelled due to MetroPCS finding out about them tethering their phones. Look no further, its right in their terms which im sure 99% of you never looked at:

MetroPCS | MetroWEB | Terms of Use
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Not only do they cancel your service, your phone's ESN gets blacklisted so it is unable to be used again on the MetroPCS network. So say you try to sell your phone to someone, that person wont be able to activate the phone on MetroPCS and people usually steer clear of phones with bad ESN's unless they knowingly buy it with a bad ESN.

Tethering your phone is really not worth it, just get a cheap Internet connection. If you can afford an Android phone and pay $50+ monthly on your phone plan(s) than im sure you have enough money in your wallet to pay for a cheap Internet Connection. Of course you don't have to listen to anything I have said just remember that this does happen and I made this article to make you all aware of it. Feel free to share this article but please give me credit and linkback to this thread.
 
What about if you use it with your Home Wi-Fi Connection (i.e. if you don't have an adapter of if you're a Linux User that doesn't have a supported adapter)?
 
What about if you use it with your Home Wi-Fi Connection (i.e. if you don't have an adapter of if you're a Linux User that doesn't have a supported adapter)?

Im not sure about that.. because even when you have wifi turned on it uses your mobile's internet (Metropcs) and not your home internet.
 
Im not sure about that.. because even when you have wifi turned on it uses your mobile's internet (Metropcs) and not your home internet.
Strange, because I was thinking that for when you use your Home's Wi-Fi Connection that IT takes over and not Metro's, what if your phone's in Airplane Mode, then you turn on Wi-Fi?
 
Strange, because I was thinking that for when you use your Home's Wi-Fi Connection that IT takes over and not Metro's, what if your phone's in Airplane Mode, then you turn on Wi-Fi?

Well whenever you tether your phone it cant be in airplane mode. Whenever you tether it, it always take internet from your service provider and not wifi. Thats why you see wifi turn of when you tether your phone.
 
Actually, I've managed to go into Wi-Fi Mode for AFTER I turn on Airplane Mode, so yeah, it's possible :)
 
If your using your homes wifi for your connection on your phone your fine. Good example even if your phone is not activated you can still use wifi.
 
What about if you use it with your Home Wi-Fi Connection (i.e. if you don't have an adapter of if you're a Linux User that doesn't have a supported adapter)?

Running Xubuntu on an old Presario with my Optimus M USB tethered and sharing the wifi. Works great.
 
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