TRS-80

The last couple weeks I have had problems browsing the web via wifi tether. The app comes up on the phone, I get the ul/dl numbers, my PC finds and hooks up to the hotspot, but then I can't seem to get any http traffic. I can get google results, but when I click on them to go to a page, or enter a page url directly, it takes forever and nothing ever comes up. Funny thing is, email, IRC, and my SugarSync client all work.

Searching around, I found a thread on Howard Forums about this (HQ Metropcs is Blocking Tethering). I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it here. Is anyone else experiencing the same issues?

FWIW, I deleted the MetroPCS proxy in the hidden data menu, that didn't help anything. I am using wifi tether 3.0 pre-12, in Epic 4G mode.

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Last edited by TRS-80; November 30th, 2011 at 02:21 AM. Reason: "update: YES!" in title

jsummer

Man.. And i thought i was tha only one havin this problem... but yea everythin loads into nothing besides facebook,google (link results dont work), and youtube...

tiede

Open Garden works just fine, AFAIK....
I used it just a couple of days ago.

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k0nane

Have you tried changing DNS servers on your client PC, and/or running through a VPN service?

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tiede

Also I just used wireless tether for root users two days ago with my wii, and it worked just fine.

cafonez

Well, I have tried all the wireless tether things I can find, hotspot, wi-fi tether, wireless tether for root users and all my pages dont load either, except for facebook, news.yahoo.com, google. and they dont load very fast at all.

i also deleted my metropcs proxy to see if it makes a difference and it doesnt.

i have not tried to change my dns servers or connect through a vpn .. i will try those next.

changing to Google DNS servers on the phone made no difference on wireless tether.s
using an application like pdanet made no difference, same results, facebook, google and barely any yahoo news.

Last edited by cafonez; November 29th, 2011 at 04:52 PM.

tiede

Strange ... are you using Basix, and have you tried deleting dalvik cache to check what's up?
I just tested OpenGarden about an hour ago, and it works fine.
Only other thing I can think of, maybe metro's blocking is in specific areas for the time being?
I'm in Orlando, anyone else in the south/central FL market want to share their tethering experience to help us diagnose this better?

cafonez

I posted the solution here Solution to Wi-Fi Tethering Issues I was having the same issues...it appears that maybe it depends on the market your in, the tower your connected to but metropcs is reading the user agent header of the browser

TRS-80

I am in Tampa market. Not using Basix right now (I never got around to reinstalling it on my... what is this now... third or fourth warranty phone? (all legit hardware issues + warranty claims, believe it or not)).

But yeah, changing my user agent solved the issue (for every higher wall, a taller ladder). So, +100 cocktails to you, cafonez, for your taller ladder, sir. In other news, Metro can go F themselves.

Thanks also for PM'ing me, man. I was literally filling out my name, address, etc. in the checkout form to finalize my purchase of 50 ft. of 400 class ultra low loss coaxial cable (soon to be followed by a large 24 dbi parabolic grid antenna) when I received your email with the PM on my phone. Total cost would have been about $100 (although the ability to pick up WAPs miles away, would have been priceless. ) Well, that will still be a fun project for another day; in the meantime I'm happy not to have to spend the dough right now as I really need to replace my water heater first. So yeah, anyway... thanks again cafonez!

I'm actually typing this from my browser right now on my PC. I use Firefox sometimes, but nowadays my daily driver is Opera. It took me a while to figure out how to enter a custom user agent string in there, I actually ended up having to use a hex editor on opera.dll (in Opera, you can only select from a pre-defined list of a few options, not enter your own custom string). So yeah, if any other Opera users out there are interested in that, maybe I will post it. Just let me know.

TRS-80

Other types of traffic seem to go through fine. The only problem I had was with http (web browsing) traffic.

Well, http traffic is fixed now, by changing the user agent string. But what I would still like to know: is anyone (who hasn't updated their user agent string) able to browse the web via wifi tether?

cafonez

I am in the tampa market as well. It would be interesting to compile a list which markets are blocking vs which are not.

Also wondering if forcing no user headers if it will stop the mobile version of sites. Just leaving em blank but not sure if this will trigger other issues.

n4zty

user agent string ....lost me there and i suppose next best solution is to usb tether instead it has its benefits like dosnt heat up while u tether.

tiede

I'm browsing and posting this on my lappy right now, and http traffic works just fine...
But I just thought about this earlier today: I don't use windows. I am actually using Ubuntu Linux, so maybe the metroPCS block is not whitelisting the R910, but rather blacklisting windows as OS. So if you don't want to be plagued with Mobile versions of websites while trafficking because your user agent appears to come from a phone, try to change the OS to say Linux instead of MS Winblows...

For example, here is my user agent string
Mozilla/5.0 (Ubuntu; X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0
and it's working just fine.


Done rambling on... Hope this helped...

TRS-80

That could very well be, tiede.

Can anyone else confirm or deny their experiences with this? We are trying to get this one nailed down. Please post whether or not you can browse the web (via wifi tether) and what operating system + browser you are using, so we can test this theory further...

cafonez

tiede's theory is correct. Dolphin emulates as if it was a Mac OS X for desktop pages

DMRCKR

I've had the same problem since a few months back, usually only solved by using Win7 + Google Chrome (the user-agent might be edited) or booting up my Ubuntu partition. I also don't seem to get throttled or blocked when I tether my iPad or another person's phone.

n4zty

nize going ya great find and interesting, so if metro is just blocking the microsoft internet explorer then wow epic effort in trying to stop tethering lol i just used open garden and im on my ipod touch using safari to surf around and its working fine lol. i suppose we can use safari on windows too if ya dont wanna use firefox.

seems everything else connects online just fine like yahoo messenger windows live messenger and probaly any other chat application u might use on ur pc just internert explorer is being blocked completley. im beginning to wonder if they just added a filter to our phones from letting it connect.

Last edited by n4zty; December 2nd, 2011 at 08:52 PM.

demarsjcd

hey guys we are having the same problem over at the lg esteem forum. Maybe we pool in our thoughts. I'm dual booting my acer aspire one with crunchbang linux and win7. I'm having the same findings as some others over here. Except they really haven't caught on yet lol.
My linux OS flies when I tether of the esteem.

heres the thread:
Did Metro do something recently to block tethering?

demarsjcd

double post

califathug13

This block only blocks PC because i could still use my ps3 and my tablet

ShinySide

just so everyone knows

MetroPCS's Official Tethering Policy

locashandroid

Im in the boston area. Im running basix. I have no problems using wi fi tether with my ps3 or other phones or tabs. Havent used it with a mac or pc in a while, i'll try it out and post the results.

rooob

i have my phone rooted and i use wifi tether with no issues. im on a macbook

Reaper man

I'm sorry.

Kyle2011

The Mod blocked the other tethering thread so im posting here. Youtube no longer loads user the user agent. Any body else have this problem? Any solutions? Thanks!

traajik

metro detroit. tether and youtube work fine.

johnnyl1111

i use pdanet and it works fine. it has an option to strip the pc info from the data. its called hide tethering.

alfick3

Last week, I was driving across town and had my son with me. He was using our ipod (it was a Christmas gift to our family) and asked if he could tether. I set it up and he had no problems accessing the web over his wifi and my 3G connection.

n4zty

3g isnt being filtered by metro i can confirm this with friend's phone since speeds on it is around 100-150 kbps which isnt any worries for metro.

alfick3

Ah, ok. Good.

TRS-80

Are the numbskulls at Metro back up to their old tricks? I'm having some issues today browsing from Opera on the PC. I had allowed Opera to update at some point, thus overwriting my custom DLL, but it seemed to still be working until just a little while ago. Checked Firefox (which has user agent switcher installed and set to Android) and still no joy. Funny thing is, I can browse from my Nook Tablet just fine. In fact, I am posting this from it now. I'm in the Tampa market.

Anyone else having issues this AM?

n4zty

nope for me also in the tampa bay area carrolwood village to be exact ive been tethering alot more lately on 4g seems metro isnt filter 4g for me anymore but i have a few friends on the admire and their 3g is being blocked if they dont change user agent on browser.

TRS-80

Seems like I sounded the alarm a little too early. I'm posting this now from stock Opera (no user agent modifications) from PC. Maybe their DNS servers were just down or something earlier (earlier today when I had the problem, I could sync data, email worked, just not browse the web). Now it's working again though.

traajik

barnacle still seems to be working for me, i've had more success with that compared to tether for ROOT users.

But with both there still is the occasional strange down time where i cannot connect to a few different sites, actually it's not all that occasional it's fairly frequent.

oakland county, michigan.

tifsim.ctj

I am in the Bay Area and have had no problem with Easy tether. I will return to this thread tomorrow with the results of a Speed Test

Canabitual

I'll link to my tething post

Got a call from "METRO PCS" today from 888-863-8768?! Am I busted??!!

myshkin

Last week on my rooted samsung admire that I had changed the tethethering command in the build prop, I still couldn't access any web page on either IE or Firefox on windows 7. It took me right to metro's page but it didn't load, just a link with metro's terms & conditions about wifi tethering. No matter where I tried to go I got that message. One of my roommates has the lg esteem & has no problems. Then my phone was stolen, I got another one & tonight tried several of the tethering apps for non rooted phones & had the same problems I did before. So the issue here obviously isn't the area we live in. I guess it could be tower since he gets 4G . I don't have problems connecting to the net, just once I'm on I get the metro warning

myshkin

easy fix by just adding a user agent switch to firefox. firefox isn't my favorite browser, but it's getting some much needed work i needed to do done.

Atlboy21089

Metro PCS has only blocked the 3g users from wifi tethering. All 4g users will have and continue to have wifi tethering for a while. Metro hasn't gt a total grasp on the network at all so far. Until then it will mostly go unregulated

Atlboy21089

You could even test what I'm saying 3g users by trying it, and every web page will bring up the metro PCS agreement about tethering.4g users, Even if you start your tethering on 4g and your browsing the net, if for some reason your signal drops down to 3g coverage, the agreement pages will start popping up on every page. The second your signal kicks back to 4g, your able to browse again instantly. That's exactly how it works. I use to tether all the time on my last 3g phone I had some months ago. One day the messages started popping up when I was browsing, it never stopped to this day. Got a 4g indulge, I can tether again... This is from experience not just browsing forums. So please feel free to test it. :-)

n4zty

Your wrong tethering on 4g isnt possible on pc or laptop without changing user agent on your browsers. as far tethering on any other mobile devices you should be fine.

killer101

tethering works perfect for me without changing anything for both 4g and 3g.

bowtomecha

I agree. I'm using a user agent switcher on my chrome browser. Its the only way to get proper access via wifi from my phone. I'm typing this on it right now actually. Its annoying with some sites but it delivers. Thankfully, I'm grandfathered in and get to keep my plan and rate. I figure its not like I'm using the phone in addition to my laptop and I do everything on my laptop pretty much how I do it on my phone internet wise. No shame here heh.

reddarin

Same here but with Ubuntu derived PinguyOS 12.04 using Chrome.

PinguyOS with Chrome.