Database Users

t-mobile US USB tethering (not wifi)

Tried getting an answer on t-mobile's forums but it seems mostly people *****ing or having no clue about anything so couldn't get a straight answer and thought someone might know here.
I heard someone say wifi tethering is fine, but if you USB tethering and use more than 100mb they charge an insane per mb fee, does anyone know if that's true?
I just would rather be able to use USB because i've noticed the wifi on it (at least with the t-mobile US rom) is horrible and has issues holding a connection often even when a foot away from the computer connecting and I also noticed while HTC's wifi router is running the phone itself has no internet access and won't download emails, etc which is very annoying, but window mobile's internet sharing tool doesn't have that issue.

I use USB tether on a daily basis, and have been for at least the past six months. I just started using the feature on my Leo, but I've been with T-Mobile for over a year now and been tethering on a MT3G and Nexus One. I'm 100% certain that I've gone waaaay over 100MB, but I have never seen any additional charges on my bill because of data usage.
Edit: Actually, after thinking about it...each Leo ROM is over 100mb soo...

great! thanks, tethering has been my biggest concern switching to t-mobile with them lacking any official tethering plan, I don't mind paying for it if they offered it and did on at&t, just so long as I can do it averaged 4gb on at&t.
now if only the radios on the stock rom weren't so bad, and I'm kind off leary on the whole rom flashing thing.

I wouldn't be too leary on flashing. I was a bit when I first did it with my first phone. But I did a lot of reading, double/tripple checking. With the HD2, I'm just giving it enough bake time so people work out any kinks in flashing first.

shiltz said:
I heard someone say wifi tethering is fine, but if you USB tethering and use more than......
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id be really interested in how they could tell the difference.

With an unlimited data plan, almost all US carriers kind of turn a blind eye to tethering (or suspected tethering) as long as you stay under the technical data cap (~3-5GB for the US carriers, I think 5GB for TMo).
I've tethered my MT3G with T-Mo for a long time, using nearly 1GB in a day as a wifi router for friends in an apartment, and heard absolutely nothing from TMo.

Thraka said:
I wouldn't be too leary on flashing. I was a bit when I first did it with my first phone. But I did a lot of reading, double/tripple checking. With the HD2, I'm just giving it enough bake time so people work out any kinks in flashing first.
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Well I did try once with my Fuze unsucessfully and worried to try it and brick my HD2 because i've found the instructions i've seen on here not very clear, like I know there was one program it said to flash before flashing rom's but it was only for certain roms and none of the roms seemed to indicate which was the proper way to flash that specific rom :/
samsamuel said:
id be really interested in how they could tell the difference.
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Well I know when I had my HTC Fuze on AT&T when I would tether the phone it showed 2 different active data connection, I belive one was called internet and one data, though I don't see that on T-mobile, just have internet so maybe they can't, just kind of want to be sure and not get some crazy bill.

I'm also not worried about a limit or being charged for it, but was hoping for faster connection speed with TMo. Averaging 800kbps 2 days after receiving my HD2, about equal to my omnia with verizon.
Havent readup on it much yet, but is the 7mbps a TMo rarity?
And I too plan on flashing a ROM, trying to wait...

Anyone have a cab to add the USB internet sharing to the menu that pops up when I connect to USB on my computer? It only shows 2 options, and on custom roms it shows internet sharing. Also has anyone found a cab to add the WIFI Router to the Sense Wireless Settings menu? Thanks

I have been tethering for almost 7 years with T-Mobile.
The OP stated 100MB may refer the original web2go thing. The truth is: you'll be upgraded to smartphone data once you go over 100MB, but it's never enforced.
To tether with HD2, you need to use internet sharing in tools sub-menu. T-Mobile Data or Internet doesn't really matter.
It's said there's a 10GB softcap and you're throttled thereafter till the next billing cycle, but I don't hear anybody (including myself) got hit yet.
You can tether, just use it sparingly. It's not your home internet replacement.

mingkee said:
I have been tethering for almost 7 years with T-Mobile.
The OP stated 100MB may refer the original web2go thing. The truth is: you'll be upgraded to smartphone data once you go over 100MB, but it's never enforced.
To tether with HD2, you need to use internet sharing in tools sub-menu. T-Mobile Data or Internet doesn't really matter.
It's said there's a 10GB softcap and you're throttled thereafter till the next billing cycle, but I don't hear anybody (including myself) got hit yet.
You can tether, just use it sparingly. It's not your home internet replacement.
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When I went into the store an got my HD2 at launch, The sales rep and I were talking about tethering...he said that he tethers all the time on his rooted Nexus and now on his demo HD2 that he was given. He said that he has never run into a problem and has never heard of any customers having an issue with billing. He said that he uses anywhere up to 3-4gigs a month and personally I have never even come close to that. As the quoted poster put it "It's not your home internet replacement" so don't use it as such...
...he did say that they know when you do it though which is a bit concerning...and if you call customer care with a problem concerning tethering, they will not assist you.
...the first rule about tethering, you don't talk about tethering...

...the first rule about tethering, you don't talk about tethering...
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lmao!
and I gotta remember my days of 14.4kbps tethering with sprint (tarred and feathered for talking about it back then) and be dang happy with 800kbps!... its stupid FIOS in our home making me think 7mbps is subpar.

I asked Customer care and they were quite helpful. I have the legacy data plan for all windows mobile phones. The plan is 19.99, but is grandfathered into the newer data plans that are going at 34.99. Now, for my plan at least, they told me I have a 10GB bandwidth limit and can use the 3G network as well as tethering is supported. I consider myself absolutely lucky with that data plan. And from what I heard, if you hit your limit, you will be dropped off the 3G network and will run on the EDGE until your limit gets resetted.

mingkee said:
You can tether, just use it sparingly. It's not your home internet replacement.
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Man, what I wouldn't give to be those guys in Philly playing with HSPA+ right not...it could easily replace my home broadband...

noellenchris said:
Also has anyone found a cab to add the WIFI Router to the Sense Wireless Settings menu? Thanks
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I don't know if this is what you were looking for but I attached the wifi router cab for you.

ddgarcia05 said:
I don't know if this is what you were looking for but I attached the wifi router cab for you.
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Thanks, but I was looking for the Manila Settings Tab - Wireless, where it shows the Wifi Sharing. It's probably cooked in some roms that I used in the past...

I did a search for HD2 tether, and came up with this thread. I don't see my question answered in it though, although I may have missed it, or somewhere else.
My question has nothing to do with whether T-Mobile allows it or not. I have tethered for years on T-Mo (with other phones), with no problem.
My question is simple and basic--How to tether on the HD2?
Since this thread is about USB tethering, my question here could simply be about how to USB tether, although I would also like to find out the best way to Bluetooth tether. (I read something about wi-fi tether in this thread, and have no idea what is meant by that.)
For USB tethering, I assume a driver is needed, for the computer to see the phone connected via USB as a modem. In fact, I probably have an HTC USB driver from previous HTC phones I had, like the MDA (and even the Audiovox SMT5600), but I don't know if there is a newer driver more suited for the HD2. Where does one get the USB modem driver for this phone?
For BT tethering, I think there are two ways-Dial-Up-Networking, and a newer way, I think ICS. I have only used DUN before. I think I might have read that the other way is better though. Is there a thread I missed, with a guide to BT tethering with the HD2?
Thank you for your input.

http://www.htc.com/us/support/t-mobile-hd2/help/connectivity

And it has indeed replaced my home internet. Pings suck for games, but other than that, it's completely serviceable.
The way if was explained to me by TMO folks, is you essentially have an uncapped bandwidth limit. However, once they see you hit 5gigs for the month, they will throttle you down somewhat.

As far as tethering goes, TMO is probably one of the friendliest towards it in the US. Just don't call into 611 asking for support or how to tether, they wont throw you under the bus and start billing you extra, but they just don't officially support it, you might get a rep in a good mood and willing to help though
I've been tethering for at least 6 years on TMO, started with a seirra wireless GPRS aircard then upgraded to an EDGE card. I would swap my SIM out of my phone when using the card. technically not tethering i guess, but then I got a Samsung phone that supported bluetooth and always tethered with it to my laptop and winmobile PDA

4G, but only getting 3G when tethered?

I get 4G in Chicago and usually pull high 4s. When I tether to my laptop and test from the laptop, I only get 1 - 1.3 Megs. Can anyone explain this? Thanks in advance?

software bottleneck? maybe app has a transfer data broadband limit... when in tether... phone stays connected to 4% o switches to 3G?
Live long and prosper- tapatalk

There are other threads about this, can't tether 4g, it uses mac address to authenticate, it will bump you to 3g when you tether.might say 4g in rare cases but its 3g

coopapi said:
I get 4G in Chicago and usually pull high 4s. When I tether to my laptop and test from the laptop, I only get 1 - 1.3 Megs. Can anyone explain this? Thanks in advance?
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It will depend on how you're tethering. Are you using the built in usb tethering or hotspot? If you are, are you paying for it or using calkulin's fix?
With the native tethering and Calkulin's fix, you won't be able to authenticate for 4g yet, so it will drop back to 3g. When it does, your 4g signal bars will disappear and the 3g icon will reappear. Your 4g radio will go into a bit of a fit and continue scanning and attempting to connect until you turn it off.
If you are using a third party app like Easy Tether, Wireless Tether, PDA Net, Tether, or Barnacle Tether, and your 4g status icon stays up, you are still on 4g, just without a good signal or there is excessive traffic as mentioned earlier.
You can check your actual signal strength buy opening the phone, dialing ##debug# and picking Wimax Engineering from the menu. It will show Rx Pwr, that is your actual signal in db

wait so its impossible to tether at 4g speeds?

Last-Chance said:
wait so its impossible to tether at 4g speeds?
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You can, I do it every day. Use a market app and you're good to go. I get about 3.5 mbs average were I work. But ony 1.5 mbs at home cause my signal is poop.

Last-Chance said:
wait so its impossible to tether at 4g speeds?
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not if you're doing it in a way Sprint considers valid. I pay for the tethering plan and use the phone's built-in features, and tether at 4g all the time.

JTNiggle said:
You can, I do it every day. Use a market app and you're good to go. I get about 3.5 mbs average were I work. But ony 1.5 mbs at home cause my signal is poop.
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wireless teether app? The app doesn't seem to work well on 4g. Tried on fresh evo, evio, and some others. The speed just drops to 10-20kb/sec. But with speedtest app on the phone, 4g reaches like 9mb/sec

I've never had that problem. I usually use Easy Tether though, no problems with speed at all. In fact, in back to back speed test ran on my phone first, then on my tethered laptop, the laptop always tests a littler faster.
Hey... This thing makes phone calls too!

I need to use wifi tether then, always used usb and couldnt get 4g to work correctly

This has been an ongoing issue for 'most' people. Some ppl somehow manage to tether at full 4g speed somehow, but myself and most others have tried many different fixes and apps and still only get 1.5-2.5mbit tethering off the 4G (not kickback to 3G) even though we get much faster on the phone. Example, I can get 16mbit on my 4g running speed test.net on my phone, then switch to wifi tether and immediately run speed tests and get no better than 2mbit. I originally thought it was a problem with the WIFI Tether app, but other apps do it too.. I think it may be something with the phones hardware, who knows. ****ty though, I am glad Im not paying for a tether package from Sprint or I would be REALLY pissed.

wmblalock said:
This has been an ongoing issue for 'most' people. Some ppl somehow manage to tether at full 4g speed somehow, but myself and most others have tried many different fixes and apps and still only get 1.5-2.5mbit tethering off the 4G (not kickback to 3G) even though we get much faster on the phone. Example, I can get 16mbit on my 4g running speed test.net on my phone, then switch to wifi tether and immediately run speed tests and get no better than 2mbit. I originally thought it was a problem with the WIFI Tether app, but other apps do it too.. I think it may be something with the phones hardware, who knows. ****ty though, I am glad Im not paying for a tether package from Sprint or I would be REALLY pissed.
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16mbit??? pic!

T-mobile Blocking all forms of Tethering.

I was just using PDANet on my friend's laptop and I got two texts from T-Mobile saying the following: "Free T-Mobile Msg: Phone Tethering & Wi-Fi Sharing access has been blocked. Please add a Phone Tethering & Wi-Fi Sharing plan available at my.t-mobile.com"
Now I ignored it until the browser sent me to a signup page. I've tried WiFi Tether, Bluetooth, and Barnacle and it blocks each one. Anyone else get this?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

using wireless tether right now... no problems...
maybe they'll end up sending me a text.

I don't have my laptop with me, so I can't test this myself. But if it's true, the Nexus One forums are about to A-SPLODE. You'll be able to hear it from space...

ryaninc said:
I don't have my laptop with me, so I can't test this myself. But if it's true, the Nexus One forums are about to A-SPLODE. You'll be able to hear it from space...
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A-SPLODE!! Lmfao just made my day!
But yeah... if this is true then all I can do is throw the f-bomb around because I rely heavily on tethering and no way in hell am I going to pay for a service I've been using for free...

No problems with Wireless Tether on my G1...and I tether a ton. I was up to 7gb last month :/

Kazan22 said:
I was just using PDANet on my friend's laptop and I got two texts from T-Mobile saying the following: "Free T-Mobile Msg: Phone Tethering & Wi-Fi Sharing access has been blocked. Please add a Phone Tethering & Wi-Fi Sharing plan available at my.t-mobile.com"
Now I ignored it until the browser sent me to a signup page. I've tried WiFi Tether, Bluetooth, and Barnacle and it blocks each one. Anyone else get this?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=840423
Not just you.

That would suck. Would this apply to USB tethering as well, or just WiFi?

PDANet IS usb tethering.
:O
oh... and someone at the Vibrant forums is having the same issue... which is why I'm here.
:X

I am tethering from my G2 (USB tether) to post this message. It works fine, though TMO might be rolling this block out.
Edit: I am posting this via Wifi tether, so that seems to be working for me currently.

I just checked PDANet and WiFi hotspot and they both worked, so I guess they're "rolling" this out.
Makes me wonder...some of us never got the OTA rollout. I wonder if perhaps I'll never get this rollout either.

I think they can affect PDANet and Easytether since they are market apps. Wireless Tether for Android and Wired Tether for Android aren't market apps so im pretty sure those are beyond T-Mobile's grip.

Might have something to do with the G2 not being rooted and trying to tether. I think after its rooted it should work without a problem. At least thats what a tmo rep told me.

When I read all this on the xda app, i went ahead and hooked up to wifi tether. thats how i'm writing this msg. I am rooted and do have the largest plan tmo offers which includes the unlimited data. idk. we shall see. oh yea, no tmo msg as of yet.

I'm unrooted and used wifi tether this morning for 3 hours with no problems. I just don't understand how they can detect us using it.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk

johnbibbs said:
I'm unrooted and used wifi tether this morning for 3 hours with no problems. I just don't understand how they can detect us using it.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk
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There are various techniques they could use to do this; if we know exactly what they're doing, we can probably bypass it.
Probably one of the simplest techniques would be user agent sniffing; if they see desktop user agents from the same device, they'd know something funky was going on.
I'd be interested to know whether the OP can work around this situation by changing his user agent string on his desktop browser. I'd also be interested to know whether the phone browser continues to work properly even after he's been caught, and if so, whether changing the user agent string on the phone causes it to report the block message as well.
Another test for whether they're sniffing user agents is to try to make an ssl connection instead of http from the desktop browser. Assuming that the phone browser still works, SSL on the desktop browser should also still work, if all they're doing is user agent sniffing.

In an HD2 thread one guy was saying that he was downloaded a movie to his phone, but wasn't tethering when he got the text. Perhaps they're determining by the amount of data used in a specific amount of time. If that's the case it supports the theory of TMO seeing all data as data.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=840360

ddgarcia05 said:
In an HD2 thread one guy was saying that he was downloaded a movie to his phone, but wasn't tethering when he got the text. Perhaps they're determining by the amount of data used in a specific amount of time. If that's the case it supports the theory of TMO seeing all data as data.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=840360
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That's actually good, then. If they're using such a naive detection method, it's sure to result in a ton of false positives from people legitimately using a lot of data with their phones, and consumer complaints should result in them disabling it before too long.

If this works like any of T-Mobile's other services then they prorate the add-ons so you can add it when you need it, then cancel it when you don't and you would only pay a fraction of that $15. I do this with the hotspot feature all the time - enable it for a trip when I'll spend a lot of time in a hotel (or airports, etc.) where they offer wireless and then cancel it at the end of the trip and I pay less than a single day of wifi at a major hotel.
(disclosure - I snatched this post off the T-mobile.com forum but I was going to say the same thing!)
I need to confirm this "add it when you need it". Not good for everybody but for those of us that need tethering a few times a month it's not so bad, 50 cents for one day. Tried via the chat on T-Mobile.com to confirm this but they are useless!

When I first applied the OTA and started playing with the built in tethering, I noticed some log entries from DataConnectionTracker whenever I turned tethering on or off. When I enabled temp root with Visionary and tried using the stand alone Wireless and Wired tether for root apps, these entries did not appear.
I haven't had time to play with it much, but it might be useful to run logcat with a filter for only DataConnectionTracker activity while trying a variety of tethering techniques under root and non-root circumstances.
Of course the experience reported by the HD2 user does not line up with this theory, but there may be multiple things going on. If T-Mo really is blocking based on data volume, it will completely blow up on them as people start intentionally doing data intensive things without tethering.

I sure as hell hope they don't do this to the grandfathered plans... cause if they do, I'm gonna go on a *****-storm.
Edit: I'm tethering on the WiFi hotspot app and I didn't get any notice. Everything is as it has been since I've had this app. If not, I have Wireless Tether for Root Users. I refuse to pay $15 extra bucks a month when I paid for an unlimited plan a couple of years back.

FYI Stock lolipop tether bypasses T-mobile tether data caps

Just tested the built in tether from the settings and was able to pull down over 25 gigs with no warning texts or slow downs.
Very nice to not have to use a 3rd party app because the performance of stock tether is vastly superior. Could barely even tell i was tethering, just got a little warm but didn't slow the phone to a crawl like some other apps do :good: very impressed just make sure you have an apn using fast tmobile and ipv4 and you should be good to go. Possibly a user agent switcher on a browser but that's it

I'm tethering on at&t unlimited grandfathered data plan. Apparently the aren't throttling anymore unless you are on a congested tower. I'm often hitting close to 60mbps down. Good times.

For t-mobile. I don't believe the stock app bypasses tethering. From what I've read on Nexus 5 forums the stock android tethering app sends data to the carrier to indicate tethered devices. From my experience. I have an unlimited data plan, with either 3 or 5GB cap of tethered data. I found that over several days i was watching streaming video, and got it to about 5GBs, and then the next day, my connection seems to be throttled. This is evidenced by doing speedtest on both my ipad (tethered to the idol 3) and then the idol 3, from the same location within minutes of each other and seeing a vast difference in the download speed I got between the devices.
I want to do this test a few more times to just make sure I wasn't in a shotty connection area, but my belief is that t-mobile throttles but its not an immediate cut off. You might get above the cap, but eventually they catch up with it and shut you down.
Anyone else have this experience?

mikeisgo said:
For t-mobile. I don't believe the stock app bypasses tethering. From what I've read on Nexus 5 forums the stock android tethering app sends data to the carrier to indicate tethered devices. From my experience. I have an unlimited data plan, with either 3 or 5GB cap of tethered data. I found that over several days i was watching streaming video, and got it to about 5GBs, and then the next day, my connection seems to be throttled. This is evidenced by doing speedtest on both my ipad (tethered to the idol 3) and then the idol 3, from the same location within minutes of each other and seeing a vast difference in the download speed I got between the devices.
I want to do this test a few more times to just make sure I wasn't in a shotty connection area, but my belief is that t-mobile throttles but its not an immediate cut off. You might get above the cap, but eventually they catch up with it and shut you down.
Anyone else have this experience?
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I've found "easytether" to be the only solution for me with t-mobile as it uses adb to create a network connection that doesn't send the "tether" tag. It's usb or bluetooth (windows only) though..works well enough for my needs with my laptop. Once the device is rooted a small change can be made to make the device use the same apn for tether as well as phone and the problem goes away. I tried pdanet which supposedly does the same thing via wifi but t-mobile still blocked/throttled my traffic.

Tether/Hotspot killed by OTA b33 and/or b34 Updates? [TMO, Unlocked, H2O]

Reached out on AF, but see some really model-specific discussion here, so thought I ought to ask here as well...
I grabbed my $45 Walmart Family Plan/T-Mobile ZMAX last year, and unlocked it for use on H2O.
All was well on 4.4.2. for a long time, but I did have some dropouts and 3G downspeeds at times, and thought the VOLTE and Band 12 upgrade might solve things. I didn't really need root, so just waited and considered the OTA updates.
Well, in a weak moment, I relented. As soon as completed, I found web browsing seems the same, if not a little slower, despite my seeing the 4GLTE icon more often than before, but real regret set in pretty soon after.
Now, it's stupid of me not to run it through it's paces after b33 to know if it was just this and not b34, but after both updates completed, I found I couldn't tether successfully, nor access the mobile hotspot anymore.
In both circumstances, my laptop connects, but declares no internet connection found despite the successful connection.
I've tried all the proposed setting changes mentioned in old threads despite their more being about the MetroPCS version than the T-Mobile one I have (adding dun to the APN, creating a new APN, putting it into Airplane mode before changing to either connection, etc, etc.)
As you can imagine, no success.
So, I'm desperate to know....
Has this specifically happened to anyone else?
Is there a way to recover this functionality?
Sadly, I kinda depend on this function as I have Carpel Tunnel, and using the laptop for extensive email is easier on my hands.
Thanks for any advice!

I have constant issues with what your describing and it all started with this throttling nonsense, and tmo MPcs, turning into data Nazis, on a crusade to put a limit on unlimited. Apparently the USB drivers for this device have deliberately left a few things out in order to restrict 3rd party usb tethering. The only avail USB tethering are the native tethering/hotspot options. Which once throttled start giving me network grief, usually after about an hour or so and using my phone to surf (while still tethered) that no internet exclamation disappears and I can start laptopping, not always though. Only tried and true guarantee for me is using Easy Tether Pro to emulate USB over Bluetooth which even not throttled maxes out at < 3mbps sucks but good enough for XBMC and Netflix. Foxfi has the same feature but uses the Dun protocol which doesn't work for me problems with improper installation most likely, I use pdanet foxfi for my wireless hotspot data.
Sucks just a few months ago I was averaging 275gb a month at > 50mbps with my rooted s4, now I'm lucky to break 50gb at a snail's pace
Sent from my ZTE Z981 using XDA Labs