Metro finally blocking tethering? Am I the first?

FWIW, I even had the brainstorm this morning to Forget the connection on the iPud and reestablish. That went just as it normally would but with the same non-results as last night.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Act Two, Scene Really Ass Baffled now.

I got my laptop into Safe mode With networking and even hardly being able to see the screen from the futzed video card, got into Chrome and loaded in the user agent switcher and hooked up to the N4 just fine. I even sent a mostly legible email that went through.

So either Metro figured out a way to lock down the Apple OS in the iPud or it's just an iPud issue on my end I can't noodle out. Weird though that I've tethered just fine on it for the past 2 weeks until last night.

Seems to me that if Metro did something I'd still at least get the T-Metro tether upsell screen as usual.

Baffled as hell am I.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

My notebook is a 4 yr old Asus Aspire 1, 11.6". It's been a wonderful unit but 4 yrs to me is a little early for only circuitry, non- mechanical (drives) items to go TU. My graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 4225. It is integral to the motherboard, not stand alone. I sniffed around and couldn't even find a replcement motherboard though replacing that would be more than a new laptop (low end) could be had for. I may can rebuild a Parker 51 fountain pen but replacing a motherboard is beyond me.

I'm kind of in a financial bind right now. I just don't have the money to spend right now on a replacement.

I was doing OK on the iPud my parents gave me for Christmas a couple years ago, but it's not much good with my poor signal free Wifi. I don't mean to sound whiny but that's my deal right now.

I have free Wifi where I live but lately it's been about 70% unusable. If it weren't for the nice size screen on my N4 and my recently seriously bumped up Metro signal (that I had a whole month before my pooder died) I would be Seriously SOL.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Well, there have been further Confirmed developments.

Hear me know and believe me later, if you are tethering Outside of your plan allotments, Metro Is Indeed shutting the door on you.

Here is what I Now know. I suggest you sit down and buckle up, these developments will probably be the same somewhat shocking surprises to You they were to me.

Recall we last left things with my month not quite ended, my pooder basically dead **but Still able to tether** and my iPud Locked Out of tethering.

First, the one bit of decent news. My month ended, my data amount reset and BingoBango, my iPud was able to tether again. This was 2 days ago on the 29th. Whee! Still, I had heard the call of the evil tether blue meanies and I seriously backed off tethering, using it Only if my free wonkiFi here was Completely Unusable. For the 29th and until late last night, all was fine. Still able to tether just fine on the iPud.

Then I made a fatal mistake.

I have no music loaded to my iPud as all my tunes are on my pooder and I listened to it from there while my pooder was still operational. So around 7 last night I decided to upload about 2.5 Gs of music to my Google Drive so I could access it from the iPud and maybe even download it to the on board iPud storage. I figured that Maybe could see the futzed screen on my pooder Enough to get the upload started. Miraculously enough, somehow, the pooders vid card had at least temporarily healed itself. I had a perfectly normal screen to do the upload with. Whee!

Big mistake. I should have gone next door to McDonalds and done that with their wifi instead of tethering. (My free wonkiFi here was not a good enough a signal at the time.)

First, the upload Did happen but it took 4 hrs for 2.5 G to unload. This while my phone speeds were 5-8 Mps. Then things went downhill Fast. Around 11 last night the upload finished (well, at least I have a fair amount of decent tunes sitting in Google Drive now) BUTTT, **the pooder was Now locked out of data for tethering!!** like the iPud before, I could still hook the pooder On to Metros signal, just No data comes across.

This morning, the same condition exists on the pooder but then the vid card went TU again to a barely visible screen.

No problemo right? I Can Still go Back to the able to tether once again iPud right? (Since I had done that fairly large upload from the pooder)

Wrong answer Tether Troll under the bridge breath. Now, the iPud is tether locked down Again too. It like the pooder Still locks on to Metro but no data comes across.

So, I'm typing this on my iPud hoping the free wonkiFi here will send it sooner or later. Meanwhile, my phone speeds are perfectly normal enough for me to stream and watch my church service on the N4 this morning.

Now the $64,000 question is, in a couple three days, with semi normal non-tethering data usage, with me still being at the beginning of my month, will Metro unlock either the iPud or pooder again for tethering? Honestly, I'm Not holding my breath for that but hey, there's sure been some pleasantly surprising developments with this so far, so who knows.

But rest assured. The Mothership Has activated its tethering force shields. They DO appear to be able to selectively lock out devices that use a user agent switcher or not, from tethering while Still leaving your phone unaffected.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Ok, this just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

It's been four days now since I last got locked down from tethering. Probably once a day since then I've double checked to be sure I was still in tether jail. Yep.

My free wonkiFi has actually been working pretty well here for a change until it burped a few minutes ago. I'm still using the iPud. For grins and giggles I hooked up to tether with it. (Remember it's been Showing Connected but just with No data coming through.) I jumped over to the Speedtest app where it usually just searches and searches for a server it can't find. Butttt, This Time, BingoBango, it locks right onto a server and pumps out a perfectly normal, decent speed, test.

BOGGLE...

I can only Guess now that it locks you out of tether only after it sees Very High short term data uses, then resets after a few days of more normal usage. I've Still been using a good bit of data the past 4 days, but I'm Sure Less than if I'd been tethering.

I'm going to be Real sparing with the tethering and see what happens.

Stay tuned...

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

No. I'm rooted, and an eedeeit nOOb at doing That. I think I know how to do the upgrade with the Wugs tool kit I have but my phone's been uber-critical lately and I haven't wanted to take the chance of screwing it up.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Now just tell me how to make that Incessant never ending Update Available notification icon go baabye... Grrrr.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

DirtyDee said:

How to re-enable tethering in KitKat with T-Mobile | Pocketnow

This guide worked for me on the moto g and moto X

Click to expand...

My N4 came with the KitahKat 4.4.3. On all Windows PCs I DO have to use the Ultimate User Agent Switcher extension in Chrome, then everything works fine. I was not able to find any way to do a user agent switcher with my iPud. My issue IS NOT any issue with my N4 itself. I'm tethering now on the iPud typing this. THE issue is that Metro Can, whether they do it to everyone who tethers or not, lock you Out of tethering. Again, in My case the N4 Fully hooks up to the network, it evens shows my IP #, just No data comes across. The "good" news is this appears to happen only after periods of a Large data usages in very short periods of time. I am guessing this Is the "going after" torrent users and tetherers that was mentioned on the T-Mobile Faceplant page. I haven't watched any Netflocks lately (and I Should test That out soon) but usual surfing including YouTube and Tune-in Radio Are Not causing any tether lock out.

new optimus said:

hmm I managed to do that for a while but I think what I did, I was rooted and modified system so I hit update, it ran its thing and came back saying failed, then it went away.

Click to expand...

Is it 100% safe for me to do the OTA update without messing up root or my phone?

I rooted via the Wugs tool kit but I don't know how to do much more than that. I even still have the stock Rom.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

N.O., though it seems our phones are diametrically opposed, I don't see from your message Why I shouldn't do the OTA, but I understand the just don't do it part pretty clear.

Thanks,

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Ahh. MUCH clearer, Thanks.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl