Help 3g Throttling Cap/USB Tether/Wifi Tether

[ProgramIchiban]

Does anybody happen to know the throttling cap amount for Virgin Mobile? Ive heard anything from 2gb, to 3gb, and up to 10gb. I just want to be sure what the real cap is so I know how to set my 3g watchdog. =) ALSO can anyone here suggest a good usb tethering app other than PDAnet, keep in mind my phone is NOT rooted. On another side note how many of you guys use Wifi Tethering with your Optimus V. I read somewhere that its against the TOS to use Wifi Tether since the option is technically disabled. Have any of you been throttled or cut off from 3g because of using wifi tether? Answering any of these questions would be great =)

 

[smittyzz]

idk about the cap but theres a free hotspot widget (free in market) that you put on your home screen and it will active your wifi hotspot, and i tether my phone alot, ive used it to play on my xbox and surprisingly it worked pretty good, and i have used allloott of data and i havent been throttled yet. i would say its safe to tether so enjoy

 

[djs7566]

It's against the TOS to share your 3G data connection with any other device through any other means, so USB tethering could potentially get you TOS'd as well.

I use Quick Settings to manage my WiFi hotspot, and I have my 3G Watchdog set to 5 GB. I haven't heard of VM actually checking your traffic for application data or streams, I'm pretty sure the only thing that could tip them off is excessive data usage, but even then, I don't think they have the means to determine if you're actually tethering or not if all you do is web browse and stream YouTube. They'll probably just send you a warning letter (like my home ISP did when they discovered I was using a P2P torrent service), and let you adjust your behavior on your own before they kill your ESN and lose hundreds of dollars in subsidies and continued monthly service.

If you're really worried about this, I would advise you to keep your 3G use less than 5 GB, probably closer to 2.5. As long as your don't raise any eyebrows and try to fit in, you should be fine. The whole reason why they ban tethering is because some reckless people try to torrent and stream video 24/7, racking up 30+ GB/month. Like I said, as long as you fit in with the curve, you should be fine.

 

[treven21]

I don't know. There speed is too slow for me to ever worry about reaching any kind of limit. I would never dload movies or games at this speed.

 

[Thorsten]

I'm pretty sure the only thing that could tip them off is excessive data usage

Wrong. Go visit Whats My User Agent? with your phone and then again with a tethered device. It is trivial for VMU to tell what kind of devices people use on its network.

I agree on the larger point, however. It doesn't make much sense for VMU to restrict sensible uses of tethering which don't result in higher bandwidth usage.

 

[Thorsten]

There speed is too slow for me to ever worry about reaching any kind of limit. I would never dload movies or games at this speed.

Exactly. Theoretical caps in the neighborhood of several GB are irrelevant for uses that are appropriate for a smartphone.

Any amount of bandwidth used while actually looking at the tiny screen will be well within such a cap. Only when people abuse their phones' data plans for continuous and/or huge batch downloads of data not meant for a small screen, do such theoretical caps become a concern. In that case, people should be kicked off the service, because they're destroying the economics of a $25 data+ plan.

 

[greg4android]

Look at what happened with Virgin Mobile's "unlimited" mobilebroadband2go device.

People severely abused this service. $40 was cheap for all your can eat data, but recently they put a stop to that, offering limits of 2.5 and 5gb, and throttles to 256Kbps after that..

No such thing as "unlimited", period. Its just guessing what the "invisible cap" is until its too late.

Virgin Mobile will stop tethering/mobilehotspot in this phone just as they did with the OPTIMUS S (directly thru Sprint), with a OTA firmware update. Just a matter of time.

Exactly. Theoretical caps in the neighborhood of several GB are irrelevant for uses that are appropriate for a smartphone.

Any amount of bandwidth used while actually looking at the tiny screen will be well within such a cap. Only when people abuse their phones' data plans for continuous and/or huge batch downloads of data not meant for a small screen, do such theoretical caps become a concern. In that case, people should be kicked off the service, because they're destroying the economics of a $25 data+ plan.

 

[djs7566]

Wrong. Go visit Whats My User Agent? with your phone and then again with a tethered device. It is trivial for VMU to tell what kind of devices people use on its network.

I doubt that Sprint/VM actually sniffs packets for user agents, probably just keeps short term records of IP adresses and amounts of data transferred. But even if they did, I doubt that the process is automated. It would likely require VM to open up an investigation into the user through Sprint's NOC if they're suspicious. I doubt VM has the infrastructure/manpower to do that for every user unless they're tipped off by large amounts of data usage. But I'm just speculating.

 

[clicheName]

Just be careful. A few months ago, I bought a Nokia E71 on Straighttalk's pre-paid plan, and after using "too much 'unlimited data'", they terminated my phone and banned the serial number associated with my phone. $200 down the drain. Thankfully, I haven't run into that type of issue with my Optimus V.

 

[greg4android]

StraightTalk is the most god awful company you could ever deal with.
My brother has been thru alot of issues with them. They change his phone number, cut his service when he's paid up. He finally cancelled it, and did a chargeback for the phone (since they wouldn't give him a refund---and correct his issues).

Depending on how long you've had the phone, you might can file a chargeback if you used a credit card to pay for your original phone.
(usually 60 days).

Not getting off the subject talking about StraightTalk, but they own Net10 and TracFone as well. (and most of their phones are pure crap).

Just be careful. A few months ago, I bought a Nokia E71 on Straighttalk's pre-paid plan, and after using "too much 'unlimited data'", they terminated my phone and banned the serial number associated with my phone. $200 down the drain. Thankfully, I haven't run into that type of issue with my Optimus V.

 

[Thorsten]

I doubt that Sprint/VM actually sniffs packets for user agents, probably just keeps short term records of IP adresses and amounts of data transferred. But even if they did, I doubt that the process is automated. It would likely require VM to open up an investigation into the user through Sprint's NOC if they're suspicious. I doubt VM has the infrastructure/manpower to do that for every user unless they're tipped off by large amounts of data usage.

VMU wouldn't have to investigate specific users. All it would have to do is look for HTTP requests with non-phone user agents and stick the IP addresses (or whatever VMU uses to match traffic to users) into a database. Once a user's counter of non-conforming packets hits whatever magic number, action is taken. Wouldn't be difficult to implement or computationally expensive at all.

Now, if it would make sense for VMU to do that 

 

[djs7566]

VMU wouldn't have to investigate specific users. All it would have to do is look for HTTP requests with non-phone user agents and stick the IP addresses (or whatever VMU uses to match traffic to users) into a database. Once a user's counter of non-conforming packets hits whatever magic number, action is taken. Wouldn't be difficult to implement or computationally expensive at all.

It makes me wonder if they have the right/ability to sniff packets without a warrant or something like that. Does anyone know the legal specifics of that? Or is all unencrypted traffic up for grabs?

I have a buddy that rooted his Backflip and somehow gave his computer direct access through port 8080 via USB. His useragent came up as "unknown" when he visited that site. But I guess an even easier solution would be to use Opera and select an Android useragent.

 

[Thomas S]

StraightTalk is the most god awful company you could ever deal with.
My brother has been thru alot of issues with them. They change his phone number, cut his service when he's paid up. He finally cancelled it, and did a chargeback for the phone (since they wouldn't give him a refund---and correct his issues).

Depending on how long you've had the phone, you might can file a chargeback if you used a credit card to pay for your original phone.
(usually 60 days).

Not getting off the subject talking about StraightTalk, but they own Net10 and TracFone as well. (and most of their phones are pure crap).

That was not my experience with them. I thought the service was(and is) great with them. I did the automatic refill and never had an issue. I just hope that Virgin's service will be as good.

 

[Thorsten]

It makes me wonder if they have the right/ability to sniff packets without a warrant or something like that.

Well, I'm not a lawyer