PDANet on T-Mobile

[7Priest7]

Greetings,

I am considering purchasing a Android Phone on T-Mobiles monthly unlimited 4g.

There exists some information from years ago about T-Mobile blocking tethering.
Most of the information I was able to find was old and speculatory.

My question is, This year of 2013 on 4g network.
Does T-Mobile still block tethering?
If so, What methods do they employ?
Is it just common ports such as 80, 22, etc.
Or do they have all Ports on the tethered PC blocked?


I thank anyone for any effort made to respond.

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

I have a HTC Sensation and anytime I attempt tethering I get rerouted to a t-mobile page. So they still try to block it. From what I found out, T-mobile blocks by detecting user agents a secret APN. If you change the user agent of the browser on your computer to something else, you should be able to tether.

If you can, you'll also want to change the time to live packet value (ttl) to whatever value Android uses. I don't remember the number and can't seem to find it but Google will aid you. If you don't, they'll know you're not using an android device because your packets live to long on the network.

I don't have much of a clue about the ports. I don't have a problem doing my everyday tasks while tethering that it mattered to me. Unless, you want to do things like torrent or play xbox, it's not a big deal.

Changing user agents and ttl packets is nice but it won't stop a deep packet inspection. You'll want to encrypt all your data with a https connection. A VPN service running on the phone's connection side is the way to do it. This way all outgoing data from the phone is encrypted.

If you just want to browse the internet on your PC, Google chrome will sign you in under your gmail address at launch. Thus, using a https connection for everything in chrome. Although, this idea is just one of my own and might not work.

Unfortunately, I no longer have service with T-mobile to test PdaNet to see if it works. I don't believe the developers of that app say what they do that enables it to tether successfully. You'll just have to try it and see if it works.

I hope your not looking towards tethering to replace your primary home connection to save a few dollars. If you can get cable/dsl internet then pay the damn money. Tethering is not a substitute.

 

[7Priest7]

The problem I have is Comcast will not install internet where I am.

If I could get regular internet I would in a heartbeat.

On a related note the 4g Unlimited costs more than xfinity 20Mbps connection and the phone I was looking into getting is only capable of 21Mbps max speed.

Getting internet via T-Mobile would not save money compared to Comcast.

Anyhow I would really like to know on the port thing.
I need to know if I should stick with virgin mobile or pay $200 for a new phone plus pay twice as much as I am currently paying for net.

EDIT: User-Agent might cover web browsing but I need to know if there blocks are on other things besides regular web pages.

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

I understand your situation. I have a similar problem. Just with Charter and not Comcast. I can't get T-mobile at my house very well so I'm stuck with Boost.

As for the ports, I'm not sure what you want to do, but it's really not a big deal. Just a headache to forward ports and stuff. I can't think of a time when ports are an issue.

Check out xda about tethering on T-mobile, if you haven't yet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sitesearch.php?q=tethering%20on%20T-mobile

T-mobile 3g/4g was way faster than Virgin mobile. To me that speed increase alone is enough. Also, T-mobile doesn't throttle and Virgin throttle's at 2.5 GB. I guessing your tethering on Virgin now? If you don't have a problem with it then you shouldn't have a problem with T-mobile.

 

[7Priest7]

I understand your situation. I almost have the exact same problem. Just with Charter and not Comcast. I can't get T-mobile at my house very well so I'm stuck with Boost.

Sad thing for me is the cable lines are there it is just because I live in a camper trailer at a campground.

As for the ports, I'm not sure what you want to do, but it's really not a big deal. Just a headache to forward ports and stuff. I can't think of a time when ports are an issue.

Games mostly, LoL, APBR, Red Eclipse, Graal, etc.

Check out xda about tethering on T-mobile, if you haven't yet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/sitesearch.php?q=tethering%20on%20T-mobile

Couldn't manage to get that search kept saying "Whoops, it is taking a long time"

T-mobile 3g/4g was way faster than Virgin mobile. To me that speed increase alone is enough. Also, T-mobile doesn't throttle and Virgin throttle's at 2.5 GB. I guessing your tethering on Virgin now? If you don't have a problem with it then you shouldn't have a problem with T-mobile.

As I understand it T-Mobile throttles you to 2g if you elect to get a cheaper plan(The cheaper plans have the same type of "up to" thing as VM.)

The difference between VM and T-Mobile is VM doesn't block tethering at all. As where T-Mobile has a history of blocking tethering.

Yea, Right now I am on VM and I am being throttled to 30KBytesPerSecond. It is definitely bearable and at the moment I am thinking I should just wait for LTE and some more tethering friendly options to appear.