Bought my first ipad...

Mix1 · Apr 24, 2012

Just a quick one guys, been lurking a while. thought i'd sign up.

So I bought an iPad 2 wi-fi 16gb yesterday from my local apple store. Brought it home thought i'd attempt to tether to my iphone 3GS and it connected.

So what's my point? Well after reading here and after doing some of my own research i shouldn't be able to do that as i'm on an all you can eat data plan with the UK provider 3 which dosen't allow tethering. however it seems to be doing it flawlessly with no issues so far.

Anyone else had a similar experience and is it ok to keep tethering? Or will i more than likely be shut down in a few days. I have a zero spending cap on my account with 3 so no worried about running up charges.

Just confused. If anyone could shed some light on this i would be grateful.

Thanks

Macman45 · Apr 24, 2012

UK mobile carriers seem to know nothing about tethering....I'm with O2, and after hours on the website, and several useless calls to customer services, I just went ahead and did it...I needed a bolt on in the end, so if I were you I would contact them...One thing is certain...They do know and they will throw toys out of the pram if you don't make them aware of what you are doing. I would just ring them, tell them what you are doing to cover yourself, and get a name of the individual you spoke to....That way you are covered.

Dan14 · Apr 24, 2012

Are you using the 'official' way of tethering through the settings app? Only reason I ask is because some carriers can detect this method, and very few UK carriers detect the jailbroken method. If it is in fact the earlier method, I used it briefly and Vodafone instantly detected it and started charging me. 3 may not actively check for tethering, I'm not sure.

But if you're jailbroken, unless carriers are implementing DPI (UK carriers currently don't), you'll be fine.

Macman45 · Apr 24, 2012

Dan14 said:
Are you using the 'official' way of tethering through the settings app? Only reason I ask is because some carriers can detect this method, and very few UK carriers detect the jailbroken method. If it is in fact the earlier method, I used it briefly and Vodafone instantly detected it and started charging me. 3 may not actively check for tethering, I'm not sure.

But if you're jailbroken, unless carriers are implementing DPI (UK carriers currently don't), you'll be fine.

Yes, that's true, I don't JB my devices, so O2 know my IMEI and they know I'm using a 4S even though the phone has nothing to do with them and was purchased through Apple.

Mix1 · Apr 24, 2012

Dan14 said:
Are you using the 'official' way of tethering through the settings app? Only reason I ask is because some carriers can detect this method, and very few UK carriers detect the jailbroken method. If it is in fact the earlier method, I used it briefly and Vodafone instantly detected it and started charging me. 3 may not actively check for tethering, I'm not sure.

But if you're jailbroken, unless carriers are implementing DPI (UK carriers currently don't), you'll be fine.

Thanks for the responses.

I haven't jailbroken it no, and i have done it via the settings>personal hotspot. Hmm i'm not sure on them actively charging me, i've set up a zero spending cap, on my phone account. So i'm fairly comfortable in continue tethering in that way. I can't incur charges so to speak.

@Macman i don't want to notify them incase they shut me down. Haha may sound sly but i'm rather enjoying it. Perhaps i should give them a call and check for certain i havent incured any charges.

Macman45 · Apr 24, 2012

Mix1 said:
Thanks for the responses.

I haven't jailbroken it no, and i have done it via the settings>personal hotspot. Hmm i'm not sure on them actively charging me, i've set up a zero spending cap, on my phone account. So i'm fairly comfortable in continue tethering in that way. I can't incur charges so to speak.

@Macman i don't want to notify them incase they shut me down. Haha may sound sly but i'm rather enjoying it. Perhaps i should give them a call and check for certain i havent incured any charges.

I would, just to cover yourself, then down the road if anyone tries to hit you with charges (and they are big) you can say "your customer services rep such and such said it was okay....That way you have a name, and they might grumble but can't clobber you.

Dangerous Theory · Apr 24, 2012

If the personal hotspot feature is active then they allow tethering. The carriers that don't allow tethering disable and remove the hotspot option from your settings.

Mix1 · Apr 24, 2012

Dangerous Theory said:
If the personal hotspot feature is active then they allow tethering. The carriers that don't allow tethering disable and remove the hotspot option from your settings.

Interesting. Ive been told on the phone that with my particular tariff they do not alow it, and i hace to remove my all you can eat data add on and activate a tethering add on.

Do you think i've just struck lucky?

Ecoh · Apr 24, 2012

Mix1 said:
Interesting. Ive been told on the phone that with my particular tariff they do not alow it, and i hace to remove my all you can eat data add on and activate a tethering add on.

Do you think i've just struck lucky?

I think you will be served with a large bill at some point. They might even take away your unlimited plan and put you on another plan.

Mix1 · Apr 24, 2012

Ecoh said:
I think you will be served with a large bill at some point. They might even take away your unlimited plan and put you on another plan.

I have a zero spending cap on my account, they cannot legally charge anything other than the agreed monthly amount to my bank account.

@martha: interesting, through a little bit of reading apparantly aslong as when you tether it is not significantly more than your usual usage they seem turn a 'blind eye' so to speak.

r-sparks · Apr 24, 2012

Mix1 said:
After reading here and after doing some of my own research i shouldn't be able to do that as i'm on an all you can eat data plan with the UK provider 3 which dosen't allow tethering. however it seems to be doing it flawlessly with no issues so far.

I'm on Three UK with my iPhone 4 and it's always allowed wifi tethering (a.k.a. personal hotspot). It never occurred to me that I might be charged extra for this, and I never had been. I use it all the time with my notebook when out and about.

With iOS 5 it's got a bit buggy, in that activating it means it doesn't always appear in my list of hotspots until I deactivate and reactivate it. But it does work eventually.

I'm sceptical that people in the UK need to buy an iPad with 3/4G, at least if you have an iPhone 4/4S on Three. Just get a wifi model.

Congrats on your new iPad, by the way.

Mix1 · Apr 24, 2012

r-sparks said:
I'm on Three UK with my iPhone 4 and it's always allowed wifi tethering (a.k.a. personal hotspot). It never occurred to me that I might be charged extra for this, and I never had been. I use it all the time with my notebook when out and about.

With iOS 5 it's got a bit buggy, in that activating it means it doesn't always appear in my list of hotspots until I deactivate and reactivate it. But it does work eventually.

I'm sceptical that people in the UK need to buy an iPad with 3/4G, at least if you have an iPhone 4/4S on Three. Just get a wifi model.

Congrats on your new iPad, by the way.

Thank you dude

I'm loving it. Took me a while to save up for it.

Cool, its good to get some info from a couple of people on three, it does overall seem to be that as long as you dont take the 'mickey' so to speak they will turn a blind eye.

Dan14 · Apr 24, 2012

How about playing it a bit differently... rather than telling them you're tethering, simply enquire (as a new customer so they don't record your current number to check) as to if they charge for tethering from an iPhone to an iPad, if so how much, and how can they tell.

r-sparks · Apr 24, 2012

Mix1 said:
Thank you dude I'm loving it. Took me a while to save up for it.

Cool, its good to get some info from a couple of people on three, it does overall seem to be that as long as you dont take the 'mickey' so to speak they will turn a blind eye.

Just a quick note to point out I'm an idiot. 3G/4G models aren't actually that useless. You get GPS too. Kinda useful I suppose.

The wifi model has a makeshift form of GPS that can locate you with a certain level of accuracy (i.e. tell you what street you're on) although in my experience it's been very accurate indeed, placing me in my own home when I used Google Maps for example. However, it couldn't be used for navigation and indeed if you try and install a navigation app you get told the unit doesn't have GPS.

Dangerous Theory · Apr 24, 2012

r-sparks said:
Just a quick note to point out I'm an idiot. 3G/4G models aren't actually that useless. You get GPS too. Kinda useful I suppose.

The wifi model has a makeshift form of GPS that can locate you with a certain level of accuracy (i.e. tell you what street you're on) although in my experience it's been very accurate indeed, placing me in my own home when I used Google Maps for example. However, it couldn't be used for navigation and indeed if you try and install a navigation app you get told the unit doesn't have GPS.

It doesn't have GPS, it works on WiFi only, which should be more accurate than gps

r-sparks · Apr 25, 2012

Dangerous Theory said:
It doesn't have GPS, it works on WiFi only, which should be more accurate than gps

Is that a typo?

I agree the wifi model doesn't have actual GPS technology but it has a system whereby the iPad can be located based on the physical location of the wifi base station it's using. However, this is inherently fuzzy and nowhere near as accurate as actual GPS hardware. This is because of the way the data is collected: a car drives across the nation with an antenna and records the location of each wifi base station that identifies itself. However, the car has no way of knowing if the base station it senses is in my house or my neighbour's house, or even a little further down the street. This is especially true of business wifi, which will have a stronger signal intended to cover an entire building block.

Dangerous Theory · Apr 25, 2012

r-sparks said:
Is that a typo?

I agree the wifi model doesn't have actual GPS technology but it has a system whereby the iPad can be located based on the physical location of the wifi base station it's using. However, this is inherently fuzzy and nowhere near as accurate as actual GPS hardware. This is because of the way the data is collected: a car drives across the nation with an antenna and records the location of each wifi base station that identifies itself. However, the car has no way of knowing if the base station it senses is in my house or my neighbour's house, or even a little further down the street. This is especially true of business wifi, which will have a stronger signal intended to cover an entire building block.

Hmm, I thought that WiFi was more accurate. On my 3G iPad 2, I sometimes get a message that says something like "turn on wifi for more accurate location". Maybe WiFi just improves the speed of
location discovery,

Mix1 · Apr 25, 2012

So I was wondering in terms of not getting found out to be tethering would it be best to untether the devices when not using? Or just leave them tethered all the time? Just wondered if the constant tethering and untethering i'm doing at the moment may trigger suspicions.

Or does it not really make any sort of difference?

Thanks for everyones contributions in the thread so far been a big help

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