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Anyone been billed for tethering on AT&T?

R

rocwiff

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
17
0
Hello I usually don't post here often, but I just noticed something strange when I logged onto my AT&T account today. It says I have over 500 unbilled data records. I can't seem to find any info on what this means. My next billing cycle just started today and I don't recall seeing this on there yesterday. Does anyone know if this is related to tethering with the recent hacks that came out? Has anyone with an iPhone on AT&T been billed for tethering with this hack before? I'm a little worried about my next bill so if anyone out there knows what this means then please post it. Thanks! :)
 
If you're tethering like a maniac I could see this as being feasible. I only tested out the feature for 30 minutes and later checked my data log. It showed a 10MB use for those 30 minutes compared to the usual .5 to 4MB data flow using just the iPhone. So I would assume if you're just sucking bandwidth then it would be quite apparent to AT&T about what is going on.
 
There is no way AT&T can figure out whether you're tethering or not, unless you're torrenting and downloading huge files all the time. If you're just casually browsing, it's no different than doing this from your phone's browser.
 
fehhkk said:
There is no way AT&T can figure out whether you're tethering or not, unless you're torrenting and downloading huge files all the time. If you're just casually browsing, it's no different than doing this from your phone's browser.
Click to expand...

There are several ways they can figure it out. Some attributes are changed when the phone goes from having the data streamed to it to the phone being used as a modem and sending all the data to the computer in question. Another way is looking at the amounts. Most people will use their computer more than their phone browser because it's faster, has a physical keyboard, and is easier on the eyes. More use means more data streamed to the computer.
 
DEdwards2204 said:
There are several ways they can figure it out. Some attributes are changed when the phone goes from having the data streamed to it to the phone being used as a modem and sending all the data to the computer in question. Another way is looking at the amounts. Most people will use their computer more than their phone browser because it's faster, has a physical keyboard, and is easier on the eyes. More use means more data streamed to the computer.
Click to expand...

Not just this, but at&t is not stupid. If you went from using only 200mb-230mb every bill cycle, then jumped to 2gb 4gb they will bill you. Ive seen it happen.
 
Hopefully tethering still works tomorrow because I will be uploading a ton of pictures
 
My usage has been just regular web browsing for the last few nights, definately not dowloading large files or torrenting. I would Not say it's been excessive. I only used a little more than 300MB total including all usage from my phone. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has been charged by ATT for this because I haven't heard of anyone yet? Does anyone know what that unbilled data message actually means? Thanks for all the relies BTW!
 
i have over 500 unbilled data charges as well

had the tether app and used it for like 2 seconds and then restored my phone however

i want to say that the unbilled data charges are sms and data from plan that hasnt been charged yet
 
I tether with PDAnet all the time, usually just browsing, I barely even reach a gig for the monso unless you're doing some off the wall tethering, there is really no problem
 
i've had netshare forever now and no, they've never billed me anything extra. as long as you're not going insane on your computer you'll be fine.

also, the iphone has a soft-cap at 5GB. So even if you creeped up to 3-4 GB they'll send you a warning before they'll bill you anything extra
 
rocwiff said:
Hello I usually don't post here often, but I just noticed something strange when I logged onto my AT&T account today. It says I have over 500 unbilled data records. I can't seem to find any info on what this means. My next billing cycle just started today and I don't recall seeing this on there yesterday. Does anyone know if this is related to tethering with the recent hacks that came out? Has anyone with an iPhone on AT&T been billed for tethering with this hack before? I'm a little worried about my next bill so if anyone out there knows what this means then please post it. Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

At&t can't define what the packets are and therefore can't tell wether it's phone or PC activity (not that there would be a difference if just browsing). They can only base activity on the amount of data transfered, and even then.... it's an "unlimited" data plan.
 
DEdwards2204 said:
There are several ways they can figure it out. Some attributes are changed when the phone goes from having the data streamed to it to the phone being used as a modem and sending all the data to the computer in question. Another way is looking at the amounts. Most people will use their computer more than their phone browser because it's faster, has a physical keyboard, and is easier on the eyes. More use means more data streamed to the computer.
Click to expand...

Other than looking at the average data consumption, how would you distinguish a connection through PDANet, or you browsing with mobile Safari? There is no way, other than by looking at the average data consumption.
 
fehhkk said:
Other than looking at the average data consumption, how would you distinguish a connection through PDANet, or you browsing with mobile Safari? There is no way, other than by looking at the average data consumption.
Click to expand...

At&t can't.... it's all packets to them. He just pulled that one out of his rear end. As you said, they can only base it on data consumption.
 
slpdLoad said:
Packet analysis, people. The amount of data used isn't the important part.
Click to expand...

Yea, but I doubt At&t has invested in that type of technology. Way Way expensive. It would be cheaper for them to invest in more throughput.
 
slpdLoad said:
Packet analysis, people. The amount of data used isn't the important part.
Click to expand...

Packet analysis takes quite a bit of resources. They're not gonna waste their time doing packet traces unless they suspect something from the user. (I work on systems engineering for cellular networks).
 
fehhkk said:
Packet analysis takes quite a bit of resources. They're not gonna waste their time doing packet traces unless they suspect something from the user. (I work on systems engineering for cellular networks).
Click to expand...

couldn't they juts look at the time to live? the TTLs sent from a computer tethering through the iphone is going to be one less than the TTL sent from the phone itself. When I'm tethering, the USB interface on the iphone has the ip 192.168.20.1 and my computer has 192.168.20.2, because those are unroutable addresses, my phone has to be acting as a router and therefore decrementing the TTL. Although, because the IP becomes routable the phone might be doing something weird with NAT and keep it at the same TTL value.. any thoughts?
 
superxero3 said:
couldn't they juts look at the time to live? the TTLs sent from a computer tethering through the iphone is going to be one less than the TTL sent from the phone itself. When I'm tethering, the USB interface on the iphone has the ip 192.168.20.1 and my computer has 192.168.20.2, because those are unroutable addresses, my phone has to be acting as a router and therefore decrementing the TTL. Although, because the IP becomes routable the phone might be doing something weird with NAT and keep it at the same TTL value.. any thoughts?
Click to expand...

AT&T cant see into your private network (the 192 network between your computer and the phone) they simply see the packets originating with the IP of your iPhone on their network. The internet resides on such a dynamic network that trying to keep track of TTL is useless. An issue with a single link anywhere between you and AT&T's POP could add or subtract to the "normal" TTL.
 
I'm sure Apple worked out something so that there is an obvious difference in the connection so that the carrier can bill accordingly.

So for those using PDANET, AT&T probably can't tell.

But for those enabling the new Apple supported tethering, I'd be very afraid. All it would take is for the OS to change MAC addresses base on the connection type (standard data vs tethering.)

It's not hard guys....to assume they can't tell is not only naive, it's just plain foolish.
 
No but I have been tethered by a guy named Bill who works for AT&T.

:cool:

Packet analysis is not very useful if you are using a vpn.
 
superxero3 said:
couldn't they juts look at the time to live? the TTLs sent from a computer tethering through the iphone is going to be one less than the TTL sent from the phone itself. When I'm tethering, the USB interface on the iphone has the ip 192.168.20.1 and my computer has 192.168.20.2, because those are unroutable addresses, my phone has to be acting as a router and therefore decrementing the TTL. Although, because the IP becomes routable the phone might be doing something weird with NAT and keep it at the same TTL value.. any thoughts?
Click to expand...

That is what I meant in my last post. I just used plain English for the TC to understand better.
 
Could it be that since the iPhone does really have tethering yet that our accounts arnt even set up to detect things like this. Just like our accounts are not set up to enable MMS?

Idk, just throwing it out there lol:p
 
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