FYI Stock lolipop tether bypasses T-mobile tether data caps - Onetouch Idol 3 General

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

Related

Sprint Hotspot vs Wireless Tether

Howdy everyone. I'm a long time HTC Hero user who upgraded to the Evo today. So far I love it. I'm paying for the extra $29.99 Sprint Hotspot service. I'm actually traveling now, and I've gotten to use it pretty heavily. Also, keep in mind that speeds I discuss below are on the 3G radio. There is no 4G available (yet) in New York. Also, I'm doing the speed tests on the 20th floor in a hotel room, which obviously affects coverage (if I'm on the ground the 3G in NYC is super fast, but up all these floors the reception is a different story).
First of all, I'm pretty sure when you start the Sprint Hotspot, you actually connect to different internet servers. When I first got the phone, they didn't activate the hotspot service on my phone (even though I ordered it with that), and when I started the hotspot it would have an internet connection error about some username and password. It was like "error 67" - and that number stands out to me becuase somehow that was a data error back in my WinMo days .
Anyways, I have a feeling the switching of the servers actually limits your bandwith somehow. If I do a Speedtest.net speed test (on the phone using the speedtest app), I'll get pretty decent (300k/s-500k/s) speeds before starting the hotspot, and then < 5k/s after activating it (aka no usable connection at all).
So I finally broke down, and rooted the phone (using the unrevoked method - I am running the OTA update). I installed Wireless Tether for Root Users Pre14 (which obviously does not change servers when you start it), and I'm noticing about 2x the speed and lower ping times with it.
I ran two tests on my laptop on speedtest.com. I've attached to this post the results of each. The higher numbers are with Wireless Tether.
I'm curious to see what you guys think could be the issue with the Sprint app. Are they limiting the tethering speed? Should I just drop the Sprint service and use Wireless Tether?
I really don't mind paying a little more to Sprint if their Hotspot app works well.
Hmm, I would verify they are on the same server. You might also try changing the server you run the speedtests to and see if that changes things. The only thing I could think of is the way it handles the connections because the Wifi tether is an adhoc connection.
Are you using WPA/2 with Sprint Hotspot?
heygrl said:
Are you using WPA/2 with Sprint Hotspot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I actually figured that this would increase overhead, so I shut off all encryption.
The thing is, when I turn on the Sprint Hotspot, the internet on the phone itself is really slow. I'm not even talking about what it is on a laptop or something.
I can see this being true. The only thing I want to know concerning the NotSpot and rooting tether is it legal or not. I am only going to use the HotSpot app one in a blue moon so I am not going to ay for it. I am just wondering if it is legal to use the rooted way.
It's not illegal people, it's not that serious.
its not illegal, but the question is what will they do with your plan when they find out... worst case i can see is add the $30 hotspot fee as we already have unlimited data plans
tekmaven said:
Howdy everyone. I'm a long time HTC Hero user who upgraded to the Evo today. So far I love it. I'm paying for the extra $29.99 Sprint Hotspot service. I'm actually traveling now, and I've gotten to use it pretty heavily. Also, keep in mind that speeds I discuss below are on the 3G radio. There is no 4G available (yet) in New York. Also, I'm doing the speed tests on the 20th floor in a hotel room, which obviously affects coverage (if I'm on the ground the 3G in NYC is super fast, but up all these floors the reception is a different story).
First of all, I'm pretty sure when you start the Sprint Hotspot, you actually connect to different internet servers. When I first got the phone, they didn't activate the hotspot service on my phone (even though I ordered it with that), and when I started the hotspot it would have an internet connection error about some username and password. It was like "error 67" - and that number stands out to me becuase somehow that was a data error back in my WinMo days .
Anyways, I have a feeling the switching of the servers actually limits your bandwith somehow. If I do a Speedtest.net speed test (on the phone using the speedtest app), I'll get pretty decent (300k/s-500k/s) speeds before starting the hotspot, and then < 5k/s after activating it (aka no usable connection at all).
So I finally broke down, and rooted the phone (using the unrevoked method - I am running the OTA update). I installed Wireless Tether for Root Users Pre14 (which obviously does not change servers when you start it), and I'm noticing about 2x the speed and lower ping times with it.
I ran two tests on my laptop on speedtest.com. I've attached to this post the results of each. The higher numbers are with Wireless Tether.
I'm curious to see what you guys think could be the issue with the Sprint app. Are they limiting the tethering speed? Should I just drop the Sprint service and use Wireless Tether?
I really don't mind paying a little more to Sprint if their Hotspot app works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, you actually got your laptop to connect using unrevoked+ota+wifi tether for rooted phones from the market??? why is it that i cannot get my ipod touch to see my connection...ARGH!!! i hate this! i may just go back to winmo...this is my first android phone. had tp2 and wifi tether worked perfect for it.

[Q] Tethering - an option?

Is tethering going to be an option you can sign up for, or rather, something that they will detect and bill you for ?
I can't seem to find anything on their website as far as adding tethering to your plan. I have no gripes about paying for it, especially since now I have WiFi calling... I just dropped my plan down to 500 minutes as I plan on doing most everything via WiFi anyhow.
I do not know their plans. I am tethering with my Nexus while I am waiting on my order for this phone from the retention department.
I will be watching my billings to see if they are able to charge for this beginning today.
JWhipple said:
Is tethering going to be an option you can sign up for, or rather, something that they will detect and bill you for ?
I can't seem to find anything on their website as far as adding tethering to your plan. I have no gripes about paying for it, especially since now I have WiFi calling... I just dropped my plan down to 500 minutes as I plan on doing most everything via WiFi anyhow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was curious as well...I dont know if they can detect that you are tethering, especially in places that have 4G service. The phone itself is capable of pulling quite a bit of data.
I can say that I have already flexed the tethering app installed on the phone and it works great...even on 3G. Its not something I abuse. If I need to tether to my laptop here at work, I do...then get off. I know some people who have cut out their home ISP and rely on tethering even to run their PS3 and XB360. That I think is being a little greedy for a service that T-Mobile has been pretty lenient with thus far.
On a side note...you would think that there would be a popup disclaimer "this app may result in charges...blah,blah,blah" when you open the default hotspot app...but there is not, leading me to believe that they may never take notice of casual tethering.

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.

Bypass T-Mobile Tethering Throttle

Is there a way to bypass this? I have unlimited everything with them, but only 14G tethering limit then super throttled. Any ideas smarter rooters?
I had the same problem with MetroPCS.. 8gb LTE hotspot then throttled.
I installed the latest purenexus and have been tethering to the Xbox to play cod for the past week and my hotspot data allotment hasn't been touched at all. I don't know what kind of witchcraft is happening because I tried everything and nothing worked... tried the build prop edit, settings dB edit, APN settings , VPNs, you name it, I tried it and nothing worked
but then I had the itch to flash pure Nexus and BAM.. unlimited, un throttled tethering
swapavi said:
I had the same problem with MetroPCS.. 8gb LTE hotspot then throttled.
I installed the latest purenexus and have been tethering to the Xbox to play cod for the past week and my hotspot data allotment hasn't been touched at all. I don't know what kind of witchcraft is happening because I tried everything and nothing worked... tried the build prop edit, settings dB edit, APN settings , VPNs, you name it, I tried it and nothing worked
but then I had the itch to flash pure Nexus and BAM.. unlimited, un throttled tethering
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also on Pure Nexus. Gaming actually doesn't run up as much data as you'd think unless you're downloading heavy patches etc.
MatthewRobinson said:
Is there a way to bypass this? I have unlimited everything with them, but only 14G tethering limit then super throttled. Any ideas smarter rooters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the T-Mobile One plan, which has unlimited data & tethering, the rub is that the they route all tethered traffic to a throttled network (complete with separate external IP), so all my tethered devices enjoy the blistering speeds of 512kbps (yeah, that is bits, with latency in excess of 1500ms, that is 1.5s). I suppose I could live with it if the latency was so terrible. Meanwhile, my phone has an LTE connection with speeds hitting upwards of 40Mbps, with latency ~70-90ms.
I have had success using PDANet+ with the hide my usage feature, but I'm looking for 1-time set up solution that doesn't require dedicated software on the client end. I've experimented with TTL settings (as pointed out on Reddit), and with Windows it's not as straightforward, and I haven't had any luck. Obviously PDANet+ proves tethering can be done through my T-mobile's faster "non-tethered network", the solution has just eluded me on Windows.
Can anyone offer some input? Maybe I've done something wrong with setting the default TTL on Windows (I'd prefer to have it by interface, opposed to setting it globally). I'd also prefer to keep my Nexus 6P running stock software as I use Android Pay and Netflix.

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

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