Tethering through a wifi hotspot

cookie365 · Mar 1, 2012

My provider doesn't allow tethering - doesn't offer it as an extra charge, just doesn't allow it.

I have no plans to do so, but if I found myself in a situation where I needed to say check couple of emails on my laptop/android tablet - so nothing more data intensive than everyday phone use - could the network detect it?

I have an unbranded Wildfire S.

Thanks

350X · Mar 1, 2012

FoxFi

cookie365 · Mar 2, 2012

Thanks, but I should have been a bit clearer.

I don't want an app that allows wifi tethering. My phone can already do that.

I want to know what my network will see when I do.

350X · Mar 2, 2012

FoxFi

most in your same situation report back with glee using it.

do your own test before heavy use.

chanchan05 · Mar 2, 2012

350X he doesn't need an app, and FoxFi doesn't answer his question. He wants to know if the carrier can detect he activated the tether, which if they can, using any app or the inbuilt function will not matter.

@cookie - why don't you just name the carrier outright so others can answer? AFAIK some carriers can detect open WiFi app, others can't.

350X · Mar 3, 2012

Cause it would be wrong to inform someone how to cheat their carrier, if he can't take a hint that many said it will do just that, im not gonna make it any clearer.

chanchan05 · Mar 3, 2012

350X said:
Cause it would be wrong to inform someone how to cheat their carrier, if he can't take a hint that many said it will do just that, im not gonna make it any clearer.

Depends on his carrier, which is why I was asking him that. My carrier contract doesn't say anything about tethering anywhere nor is there a charge for it in their services. Apparently they don't care if you tether or not (I asked a representative), which is why I was asking him what carrier he was on.

mikedt · Mar 3, 2012

It all depends on the carrier. Some carriers might do deep packet inspection, specifically looking at browser User Agent Strings(UAS). Something like "Mozilla/4.0 (Windows; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)"... rather gives the game away.

cookie365 · Mar 3, 2012

Thanks everyone

I'm on Giffgaff in the UK - a virtual network using O2's network.

I've previously had no issues with low use wifi hotspot tethering on O2 itself but don't know if that's because they didn't notice or tolerated it despite it being outside the T&Cs.

mikedt · Mar 3, 2012

There was a recent thread about Three UK and unauthorised tethering. Apparently they can tell, but what was actually happening though, the OP wasn't using the phone's stock browser and Three mistakenly assumed he/she was tethering so they where getting an unauthorised tethering warning page from the carrier and internet access was blocked, until they power-cycled their phone. Possibly a browser UAS that Three didn't recognise, so they assumed it wasn't running on the phone.

cookie365 · Mar 4, 2012

Thanks - maybe I should try it tentatively with an android tablet first.

mikedt · Mar 4, 2012

Think you should be OK with an Android tablet, not really much different to an Android phone, it's just larger. Browser User Agent Strings should be the same, if not very similar. Are you using the stock browser on your tablet?

It's not going to have anything like "Windows NT" or "MSIE" in it, that the carrier can detect.

cookie365 · Mar 14, 2012

mikedt said:
Think you should be OK with an Android tablet, not really much different to an Android phone, it's just larger. Browser User Agent Strings should be the same, if not very similar. Are you using the stock browser on your tablet?

It's not going to have anything like "Windows NT" or "MSIE" in it, that the carrier can detect.

Thanks, haven't actually got the tablet yet

I may just risk it and see

Tethering through a wifi hotspot

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