Database Users

AT&T Tethering Detection

I just got a warning letter from AT&T in the mail for tethering without a tethering plan and they are threatening to eliminate my unlimited plan. I am going to stop now that they have warned me so I don't loose the plan but does anyone know how they detect it. I tethered a lot last month but I have been tethering for about 6 months now undetected. Last month though, I used 2GB of data compared to the 1GB I normally use. Is it only the spike which made them guess. I use the android wifi tether app. I heard a couple ways of how they do it.
1) They look at the user agent.
2) They look at the TCP/IP header for the number of hops. (Tetherers will have an extra hop) -if this is true if I used wired tether it would be fine
3) Just the spike in data usage.
I'm curious to know how they do it and if there is a way to stop them from knowing. There is a lot of this for the iphone but not for androids. Anybody know more about this

I have used wired tether and they stilll detect it.... Time for you to invest in home broadband.

How were you contacted or notified that you were tethering from AT&T? I have done it a number of times using wireless AP and never heard a thing.

Tethering with Easytether in SPITE of T-mobile.

Well T-mobile has been playing heck with my grandfathered data plan and the new phone....I could get on net on the phone but not on my laptop which was what my old Total VPN Internet was FOR......I've been looking at options..once the phone is rooted I can put in a change to make the phone use the same apn for tethering as normal but in the meantime I found I already owned easytether from amazon (normally a $9.99 app) as a free app from as recently as March 19, 2015. Their timing was excellent. It's usb or bluetooth but it will do just fine for now. Now to put the ubuntu .deb's and the windows drivers onto the phone sd card so I can install wherever needed.
I figured I'd mention this for anyone else in a similar situation.

Hi, I am wondering if you were able to tether from this phone without using the data from the tethering bucket?
In other words, Were you able to tether from it and use the data from the data bucket?
I have unlimited data with 3gb of tether. I would use the data from my unlimited data bucket to tether.
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks

Were you able to create a new APN by clicking on the + sign in the "tethering and hotspot" section?

ahgahg said:
Were you able to create a new APN by clicking on the + sign in the "tethering and hotspot" section?
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Why on earth would I create a new apn when the whole point was to use the existing one? You don't use the tethering and hotspot section at all with easytether. Everything in that section automatically adds a "tether" tag which is how they track you in the first place.

Dude, you can create a new apn with what ever apn address you would like to use specially if you have unlimited tethering.

famewolf said:
Well T-mobile has been playing heck with my grandfathered data plan and the new phone....I could get on net on the phone but not on my laptop which was what my old Total VPN Internet was FOR......I've been looking at options..once the phone is rooted I can put in a change to make the phone use the same apn for tethering as normal but in the meantime I found I already owned easytether from amazon (normally a $9.99 app) as a free app from as recently as March 19, 2015. Their timing was excellent. It's usb or bluetooth but it will do just fine for now. Now to put the ubuntu .deb's and the windows drivers onto the phone sd card so I can install wherever needed.
I figured I'd mention this for anyone else in a similar situation.
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Click to collapse
Nice! Thanks for the info! I'm going to try this out tomorrow.

Looks like T-Mobile might be making some adjustments to their tethering rules for ALL of their users (prepaid/postpaid/pay-as-you-go)
Not too well versed on the topic, but it seems like a good sign

macallik said:
Looks like T-Mobile might be making some adjustments to their tethering rules for ALL of their users (prepaid/postpaid/pay-as-you-go)
Not too well versed on the topic, but it seems like a good sign
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the interesting info! I'll wait and see if this actually shows up on my old plan which has no hotspot at all...they also banned my nexus 5 from being able to be used on my old Total Internet VPN plan so perhaps that will be "fixed" as well....on the other hand I currently get unlimited 3g/h+ (wcdma) and I don't want it watered down to the throttled speeds they are showing either.

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.

Is there a Hotspot Limit Work Around?

I know sprint limits your hotspot use to 3gb with some plans and then drops the speed.
Is there any sort of work around for this without rooting since rooting isn't possible?
Thanks in advance. ♡

Kozinu said:
I know sprint limits your hotspot use to 3gb with some plans and then drops the speed.
Is there any sort of work around for this without rooting since rooting isn't possible?
Thanks in advance. ♡
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Click to collapse
I'm using PdaNet without any problems. Have to do USB tether and share your internet thru the computer with the PdaNet wifi share feature. Because I'm paying for the hotspot I could also use FoxFi, but that part of PdaNet does use your allocated Hotspot data. So I stick with the USB tether through PdaNet.

TDStewart said:
I'm using PdaNet without any problems. Have to do USB tether and share your internet thru the computer with the PdaNet wifi share feature. Because I'm paying for the hotspot I could also use FoxFi, but that part of PdaNet does use your allocated Hotspot data. So I stick with the USB tether through PdaNet.
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Pretty sure he was asking about bypassing wifi hotspot speed restrictions set by the carrier. If you didn't take the last update and can still adjust your apn settings I'm pretty sure you can.

Reboot device, turn hotspot/tether on within 5-20 seconds after boot up and it will turn on. I have tried it with device without the hotspot service, hotspot does turn on without the subscription notification but I didn't have any connection to the web, I've tried it on boost mobile with and without hotspot subscription devices. Downloading junk over 8GB plan limitation so far with the subscription though, I "think" boost mobile is now somewhat is unlimited to 1TB on hotspot now with the 1TB service is what they call unlimited. I don't have enough time to download over 33GB files all day to prove them their service is not truly unlimited.

Kozinu said:
I know sprint limits your hotspot use to 3gb with some plans and then drops the speed.
Is there any sort of work around for this without rooting since rooting isn't possible?
Thanks in advance. ♡
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sprint doesnt drop the speeds on the 3gb hotspot, they charge overages on the unlimited plans, you have to be on the data share pack plans for them to throttle it.

I have an 8 line sprint business plan, they offer a 2 month, 6GB Hotspot add on for 60$.
I also have an att unlocked iPhone 5S on a monthly prepaid smart mobile plan. Which, aside from the unlimited talk and text, I get FULLY unlimited data. Not "10gb at 4g speeds, then unlimited 2g"," II mean full unlimited high-speed. Including over wireless Hotspot. I'm 1 week into this month, and I'm 60gb deep. 58 of which were consumed via hotsoot. No throttling this far (knock on wood). Check the pic.
For how much? 60 DOLLARS. WTF sprint, a gb of data isn't work anywhere near 10$.
Sent from my SM-G930P using XDA Labs

T3chMan1 said:
Reboot device, turn hotspot/tether on within 5-20 seconds after boot up and it will turn on. I have tried it with device without the hotspot service, hotspot does turn on without the subscription notification but I didn't have any connection to the web, I've tried it on boost mobile with and without hotspot subscription devices. Downloading junk over 8GB plan limitation so far with the subscription though, I "think" boost mobile is now somewhat is unlimited to 1TB on hotspot now with the 1TB service is what they call unlimited. I don't have enough time to download over 33GB files all day to prove them their service is not truly unlimited.
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well I tried this on my s8 boost mobile because it turns off after 8 gigs (which aint sh%t) didn't work any other tricks I wish someone would figure out how to root this! any other tricks?

Have you tried the adb commands to turn on hotspot? I have an ed plan, so not sure if they will help you.

luiseno said:
well I tried this on my s8 boost mobile because it turns off after 8 gigs (which aint sh%t) didn't work any other tricks I wish someone would figure out how to root this! any other tricks?
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I can confirm that I can tether/hotspot with samsung j7 and PDAnet/FoxFi. I burn up my 8gb quick then use PdaNet, works like a charm. Phone is rooted though.

I am using an S5 on Safelink (Obama phone) on the bring your own phone program, all free $50 for a used S5 on Offer Up.
(actually it was the second s5 I bought for $50 on Offer Up. I dropped it, broke digitizer & LCD. It's now a $50 extra battery & charger.)
The plan offers 350 voice min, 1gb data & unlimited texting.
However you can purchase extra data for $10/gb I think. BUT for $40 $44.78 w/tax, you get unlimited everything. Voice, text and data . Ironically it's run on Tracfone who charges a hell of a lot more if they even offer unlimited.
BUT, apparantly you can tether. I've been doing it for a couple of days for my boyfriend. 15gb so far. I've searched a lot online, read all of Safelinks TOS and legal mumbo humbo and can't find any mention of throttling or tethering. except 1 sentence:
Safelink reserves the right to terminate service for unauthorized or abnormal usage. but nothing about tethering. Towards the end of the month I may start streaming video 24/7 to test this.

How does rooting's Tethering Provision feature work?

I've been a grandfathered in unlimited data user of VZ for about 7 years.
I've used rooted phones for quite some time to unlock the tethering ability of my smartphones on VZ's network.
I'm curious how this feature actually functions. VZ's new "Unlimited" plans reduce tethering speeds from 4G to 3G after 10gbs are used.
Without spelling it out, my main question is whether or not using a rooted phones' tethering provision feature will simulate normal cell usage.
In other words, does Big Red see both tethering through the phone's native wifi-tethering app (with the provision enabled) the same as normal cell usage or does can their system determine the difference.
Thanks,

Anybody have any insights?

I am also curious about his! I am on the grandfathered unlimited plan also, but would change over to the new plan if I could get more than 10 gig on my hotspot. I live in a rural area and most of my internet use at home is on my hotspot.
I currently use Foxfi on my S7 and it works fine. I had it rooted with native hotspot, it worked OK but the phone performance sucks.
I also hear that Foxfi will not work with Nougat either so there are two reasons I need to bypass this 10g hotspot conundrum.
Somebody ???

I feel like I should have put this thread in a more general location, Moderators - can you help me?
It's not really tied to the S7 - it's a more general rooted question.
Thanks,

Anybody?

I would like to know as well

I'm also waiting for a rooted version of nougat with tethering unlocked...
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Like this:
echo "net.tethering.noprovisioning=true" >> /system/build.prop
---------- Post added at 12:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 AM ----------
bart77 said:
I am also curious about his! I am on the grandfathered unlimited plan also, but would change over to the new plan if I could get more than 10 gig on my hotspot. I live in a rural area and most of my internet use at home is on my hotspot.
I currently use Foxfi on my S7 and it works fine. I had it rooted with native hotspot, it worked OK but the phone performance sucks.
I also hear that Foxfi will not work with Nougat either so there are two reasons I need to bypass this 10g hotspot conundrum.
Somebody ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This wont let you have more than 10gb, this is a limit on the server side, nothing you do will change that.

I'm on the grandfathered UDP and don't have hotspot activated on my account. With that I was using hotspot via FoxFi and when I checked my Verizon account it showed up as normal data usage and not hotspot. I connected my smart TV to my hotspot to stream Netflix and it showed up as me using lots of GB's to watch videos. That's all it showed. I'm not sure how you're on the grandfathered UDP and only get 10GB per month for hotspot if you're using FoxFi though, unless you were talking about moving to the new plan, and if that's the case then you would do the work around of removing the SIM card (posted somewhere on these forums) or flash the U firmware and it shouldn't show up on your account as hotspot if the phone doesn't search for subscriber information or is unsuccessful in searching for said info.

d33dvb said:
Like this:
echo "net.tethering.noprovisioning=true" >> /system/build.prop
---------- Post added at 12:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 AM ----------
This wont let you have more than 10gb, this is a limit on the server side, nothing you do will change that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does that string of code actually do and how is it seen by VZ? The 10gb limit is not a cap - it's just a boundary where they're supposed to throttle your 4g speeds to 3g. I'm just wondering what triggers them noticing that. I'm curious how unlocking the native tethering feature on a rooted phone allows grandfathered unlimited plans the ability to use this feature when it's normally blocked.
Does it cover up the fact that the hotspot is even turned on so it changes all tethered data to be seen by VZ as normal cell data (not tethered data)? Or does it just unlock the tethering feature and gives you the ability to use the feature and VZ still knows the difference?
Outbreak444 said:
I'm on the grandfathered UDP and don't have hotspot activated on my account. With that I was using hotspot via FoxFi and when I checked my Verizon account it showed up as normal data usage and not hotspot. I connected my smart TV to my hotspot to stream Netflix and it showed up as me using lots of GB's to watch videos. That's all it showed. I'm not sure how you're on the grandfathered UDP and only get 10GB per month for hotspot if you're using FoxFi though, unless you were talking about moving to the new plan, and if that's the case then you would do the work around of removing the SIM card (posted somewhere on these forums) or flash the U firmware and it shouldn't show up on your account as hotspot if the phone doesn't search for subscriber information or is unsuccessful in searching for said info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Outbreak is right - there is no 10gb limit with the grandfathered plans. I believe Bart is talking about converting from the old plan to the new plan (like I am) if we can get around the possible downgrade in speeds that's supposed to occur at 10gb.
You mentioned 2 possible work-arounds, but one involves pulling the SIM. Could you provide a link for either of the methods? However, from what I know of VZ is that a SIM is required for the phone to work.
Thanks - keep the suggestions coming.

brettdacosta said:
You mentioned 2 possible work-arounds, but one involves pulling the SIM. Could you provide a link for either of the methods? However, from what I know of VZ is that a SIM is required for the phone to work.
Thanks - keep the suggestions coming.
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Click to collapse
Here's the link to the SIM removal method, seems to be a hit or miss though and states it's for nougat but I think it would work on marshmallow as well.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-s7-edge/help/tethering-nougat-t3568501/page2
Or you can flash the U firmware for the US. It should just unlock tethering completely without actually searching for subscriber information. I don't have the link but it's easily found on the forums. Just know that the U firmware doesn't have nougat at this time.

Outbreak444 said:
It should just unlock tethering completely without actually searching for subscriber information.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, Outbreak.
How does it actually work/function though? Will VZ still be able to distinguish between data used by my cell and data transfered to another device via the phone's native hotspot feature?
That's the whole point of this thread, but I can't seem to get any real answers (or even speculations for that matter)

brettdacosta said:
Thanks, Outbreak.
How does it actually work/function though? Will VZ still be able to distinguish between data used by my cell and data transfered to another device via the phone's native hotspot feature?
That's the whole point of this thread, but I can't seem to get any real answers (or even speculations for that matter)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I checked my account it showed 0.0 GB of hotspot used and about 100 GB's of standard data. They didn't see at all that I was using my hotspot, only excessive amount of data usage. I wouldn't sweat it unless you're going to end up using like 300 GB's. I even bought the S7 AFTER having that much used and the reps looked amazed but couldn't see how I used as much as I had. I wish I could pull up what My Verizon showed to prove it to you but it only shows the last two months worth of data and I haven't used tethering recently.

Outbreak444 said:
When I checked my account it showed 0.0 GB of hotspot used and about 100 GB's of standard data. They didn't see at all that I was using my hotspot, only excessive amount of data usage. I wouldn't sweat it unless you're going to end up using like 300 GB's. I even bought the S7 AFTER having that much used and the reps looked amazed but couldn't see how I used as much as I had. I wish I could pull up what My Verizon showed to prove it to you but it only shows the last two months worth of data and I haven't used tethering recently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great info.
- So when you used 100GB of standard data, that was all through your hotspot?
- Which VZ plan are you on?
- What's your current phone setup (aka - what method did you use for bypassing the tethering restriction)?
- Where do you find a breakdown of your hotspot data to standard data (is it on your online account)?
- Since you obviously went over the 22GB, did you notice any slowdowns (like they say they reserve the right to implement)
- What type of area are you in (rural - not a lot of cell tower access / high trafficked area - for the purpose of the last question)?
Thanks for all the great info. I know that was a lot of questions, but I think if you are able to answering all of those, I should have about all I need.
Thanks again.
P.S. - it's my only internet at the house, so I can't afford it slowing me down if I'm at the house wanting to stream a movie or something after 10gb - that's why I'm concerned - just felt I needed to clarify.

brettdacosta said:
Great info.
- So when you used 100GB of standard data, that was all through your hotspot?
- Which VZ plan are you on?
- What's your current phone setup (aka - what method did you use for bypassing the tethering restriction)?
- Where do you find a breakdown of your hotspot data to standard data (is it on your online account)?
Thanks for all the great info. I know that was a lot of questions, but I think if you are able to answering all of those, I should have about all I need.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not 100% of my data usage was hotspot but a good 90% or more was.
I have the grandfathered UDP from Verizon
At the time I was using my rooted S5 with tethering unlocked through xposed, now I have the S7 with FoxFi
Just log into your Verizon account online and it should have a breakdown. Most of my data showed up under the video category, which was correct because I was tethering my hotspot to my smart TV for streaming Netflix. So it can see what I'm doing, just not how, I believe.

Outbreak444 said:
Not 100% of my data usage was hotspot but a good 90% or more was.
I have the grandfathered UDP from Verizon
At the time I was using my rooted S5 with tethering unlocked through xposed, now I have the S7 with FoxFi
Just log into your Verizon account online and it should have a breakdown. Most of my data showed up under the video category, which was correct because I was tethering my hotspot to my smart TV for streaming Netflix. So it can see what I'm doing, just not how, I believe.
Click to expand...
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Where do you see the breakdown by standard usage and tethering?
I'm still on the grandfathered UDP too, and use tethering all the time, but here is all I see when I log on (no breakdown)...

brettdacosta said:
Where do you see the breakdown by standard usage and tethering?
I'm still on the grandfathered UDP too, and use tethering all the time, but here is all I see when I log on (no breakdown)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Used to show up there. Here's a link from Verizon with a screenshot
https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/mobile-hotspot-faqs/

That's good information.
So why do you use the foxfi app and not the native tethering feature? Because you're on nougat?
Do you think that being rooted and using the XPosed app is what prevents them from seeing it - or the fact that I'm on the grandfathered UDP and their system isn't capable of actually reporting that piece of information (since it's a feature that's technically locked) - and if I go the new plan that "unlocks" the tethering, they'll then be able to tell the difference and their system will be able to display it since it's aware of what's actually happening?

brettdacosta said:
That's good information.
So why do you use the foxfi app and not the native tethering feature? Because you're on nougat?
Do you think that being rooted and using the XPosed app is what prevents them from seeing it - or the fact that I'm on the grandfathered UDP and their system isn't capable of actually reporting that piece of information (since it's a feature that's technically locked) - and if I go the new plan that "unlocks" the tethering, they'll then be able to tell the difference and their system will be able to display it since it's aware of what's actually happening?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't rooted my S7 or flashed the U firmware yet. I want to wait until nougat is released for the U firmware before I do that.
Hotspot is built into the phone already. I believe that if it doesn't search for subscriber information that the phone will just enable the connections and all your phone provider can see is that you're using data, but they can't see how. This is my opinion, maybe someone else could enlighten us on the specifics. But I can say that being rooted, using Xposed, or being on the grandfathered plan has nothing to do with it other than removing the check for subscriber information, basically what one user posted earlier in this post.

The back does not come off of a S7 so there is no SIM card. I also depend on FoxFi i
brettdacosta said:
What does that string of code actually do and how is it seen by VZ? The 10gb limit is not a cap - it's just a boundary where they're supposed to throttle your 4g speeds to 3g. I'm just wondering what triggers them noticing that. I'm curious how unlocking the native tethering feature on a rooted phone allows grandfathered unlimited plans the ability to use this feature when it's normally blocked.
Does it cover up the fact that the hotspot is even turned on so it changes all tethered data to be seen by VZ as normal cell data (not tethered data)? Or does it just unlock the tethering feature and gives you the ability to use the feature and VZ still knows the difference?
Outbreak is right - there is no 10gb limit with the grandfathered plans. I believe Bart is talking about converting from the old plan to the new plan (like I am) if we can get around the possible downgrade in speeds that's supposed to occur at 10gb.
You mentioned 2 possible work-arounds, but one involves pulling the SIM. Could you provide a link for either of the methods? However, from what I know of VZ is that a SIM is required for the phone to work.
Thanks - keep the suggestions coming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The back does not come off of a S7 so there is no SIM card. I also depend on FoxFi in the work I do (teaching) and it did a fabulous job.