Questions for those that received TETHERING notice from AT&T

[headcase]

It's logical to think that they are somewhat preferentially targeting the high data users since the cost-benefit ratio increases as they go after people that use less data (they have to pay people to actually do this, however it is done.) I have tethered via TetherMe very sparingly, probably only used it a handful of times in the last 6 months. My usage is between 200 MB and 300 MB every month. For someone like me, I'm not at all convinced it's worth their time to go back into my usage history and look for a few MB of transferred data via tethering once every couple of months.

Per your point, in my previous posts, I've also suggested that AT&T is auditing their highest data-consuming users first, then working down the chain. But in the end, I still suspect that AT&T will eventually get around to auditing all accounts for abuse, to enforce their policy of non-authorized tethering across their entire network.

 

[Sparky9292]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

so is PDAnet confirmed as a solution to this issue?...anyway, i'll switch to PDAnet if its a confirmed solution. been using MyWi all this time.

Seems, to me at least, that there is something else besides just data usage that is triggering these text/emails.

These posts are what happens when a thread gets this long, i.e., people don't read the thread, or even the recent posts.

It has been said, multiple times, that;

• No, PDAnet has NOT been confirmed as a solution.
• No one knows what ATT is using to identify tethering.

PdaNet still uses the iOS APN system. AT&T can track APN usage. So PdaNet and MyWi needs to code a an APN clone like the Android versions.

 

[TC25]

Reading comprehension not a strong suit huh? Where did I ever say conspiracy? Like everyone else, I'm trying to explore ideas to help unravel a mystery. Guess you've got it all figured out already.

Apple sending ATT a list of their developers so they do not receive the illegal tethering notice isn't a conspiracy theory? Right. And, no, I don't have it all figured out but I don't sit around and come up with 'explanations' like this this then post them as credible. Can you tell us when the world will end since Saturday at 6:00 Eastern was wrong?

 

[Geckotek]

Apple sending ATT a list of their developers so they do not receive the illegal tethering notice isn't a conspiracy theory? Right.

Doesn't sound like a conspiracy theory at all. In fact, it sounds perfectly plausible. A conspiracy theory implies some sort of over-active imagination of unlikely events. I don't think it's happening, but if it was it wouldn't exactly be a jaw-dropping discovery.

 

[ynotrhyme]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)



PdaNet still uses the iOS APN system. AT&T can track APN usage. So PdaNet and MyWi needs to code a an APN clone like the Android versions.

The Android PDAnet is more secure you mean against tethering detection?

 

[TheSlimOne]

I received 'The Letter' a few days ago and called them and acted stupid and blamed it on my kid that does stuff to my phone. The woman removed it and told me that any unauthorized tethering after the 27th of May would result and an instant change to my account to add tethering.

So you can get a scope of the amount of total usage. I have only gone over 2gigs twice in the last two years. Once was 2.2g about 1 year ago, I was tether as there was no internet connection in the BEQ in Key West. The other time was two months ago at about 2.8g. I have tethered, besides the one time a year ago, maybe three times just to show folks that it worked.

With this being said, I really don't think they are targeting the high bandwidth users.

Slim

 

[Smileyboy]

After listening to Today in iOS podcast, a listener called in and said he got a similar message from tmobile, to stop tethering or tmoblie would disable the port. He continued and they enabled the port to detect tethering and every time he tried to tether it would take him to the tmobile page to sign up for a tethering plan. He was using tetherme and mywi.

He got pdanet, enabled the privacy feature and got around tmobiles tethering sign up page and tethering worked great!!!! So maybe AT&T is using the same tactics to find people...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sparky9292]

The Android PDAnet is more secure you mean against tethering detection?

Basically yes. The android OS allows tethering app developers to avoid the APN routing system that legit tethering uses.

The iPhone iOS doesn't have that advantage, so PdaNet and MyWi basically did a small hack to "uncover" the APN feature and simply enables it.

We are basically waiting for a complete re-write of MyWi and Pdanet. I do predict that soon we will have undetectable tethering apps for the iphone within the year.

 

[ynotrhyme]

Is the data downloaded off newsgroups a really easy thing to detect compared with average user surfing data? Just wanna know just in case.

 

[TC25]

Is the data downloaded off newsgroups a really easy thing to detect compared with average user surfing data?

Yes.

 

[ynotrhyme]

Yes.

Is it possible that PDAnet with level 2 hide can disguise newsgroup usage the same as regular surfing data?

 

[TC25]

Is it possible that PDAnet with level 2 hide can disguise newsgroup usage the same as regular surfing data?

Yes, it's possible.

 

[kaifs]

just sit tight

in '99 less than 2thousand users have DSL service in Wisconsin (Ameritech, later SBC, now at&t). TOS for those lucky few with 768/128 speeds clearly states networking is PROHIBITED. Linksys (way before Cisco) is a small consumer networking manufacturer. Their flagship 4-port router suddenly becomes out of the question for soon to be 5-state Ameritech DSL territory. Fortunately for Linksys, they had 'volunteers' whom broke/resurrected/wrote scripts and etc for their equipment. They send free routers to these selected people and they did free work... At any rate, I was doing BEFSR81 in that manner back then. So, to bypass Ameritech 1PC only requirement, we determined that they used network scan, and basically were able to pick out customers with routers via MAC addresses. two weeks later, there was 'unofficial' firmware update that allowed end user to clone their NIC MAC into a router - thus Ameritech saw a NIC connected, meanwhile Windows 98 and W2K machines were networking without a fear of detection and using that broadband.
Firmware NEVER appeared on official Linksys download page , however, anonymous FTP server was hosting it and customer were 'directed' to look into it by Linksys support.

Point is, sit tight and this will be bypassed very soon, just as PDAnet already doing. Only stupid ones will be caught right now and forced off of their unlimited data plans, smart ones will come on top...

 

[ynotrhyme]

in '99 less than 2thousand users have DSL service in Wisconsin (Ameritech, later SBC, now at&t). TOS for those lucky few with 768/128 speeds clearly states networking is PROHIBITED. Linksys (way before Cisco) is a small consumer networking manufacturer. Their flagship 4-port router suddenly becomes out of the question for soon to be 5-state Ameritech DSL territory. Fortunately for Linksys, they had 'volunteers' whom broke/resurrected/wrote scripts and etc for their equipment. They send free routers to these selected people and they did free work... At any rate, I was doing BEFSR81 in that manner back then. So, to bypass Ameritech 1PC only requirement, we determined that they used network scan, and basically were able to pick out customers with routers via MAC addresses. two weeks later, there was 'unofficial' firmware update that allowed end user to clone their NIC MAC into a router - thus Ameritech saw a NIC connected, meanwhile Windows 98 and W2K machines were networking without a fear of detection and using that broadband.
Firmware NEVER appeared on official Linksys download page , however, anonymous FTP server was hosting it and customer were 'directed' to look into it by Linksys support.

Point is, sit tight and this will be bypassed very soon, just as PDAnet already doing. Only stupid ones will be caught right now and forced off of their unlimited data plans, smart ones will come on top...

Ill ask you, being that your sharp on this topic, do you think PDAnet with the new hide feature is looking good in regards to disguising our tethering to at$t?

 

[NJRonbo]

Not to take away from a question I would love to hear
an answer on as well...

What is PDANET? Is it an iPhone app like MyWi?

If it could hide a tethered connection from AT&T that
would be fantastic.

 

[NJRonbo]

Okay...

Excuse my initial ingnorance.

Figured out what PDANET is and downloaded it from Cydia.

I would pay the regisration fee for it, but I'd like to know
how effective the program is at hiding tethering from AT&T
over using MYWI.

 

[ynotrhyme]

Not to take away from a question I would love to hear
an answer on as well...

What is PDANET? Is it an iPhone app like MyWi?

If it could hide a tethered connection from AT&T that
would be fantastic.

Yes, its an alternative to mywi and tetherme, it does the exact same thing but it implemented a hide feature which is "supposed" to hide tethering to att... but noone is really sure as of yet.

 

[Sparky9292]

in '99 less than 2thousand users have DSL service in Wisconsin (Ameritech, later SBC, now at&t). TOS for those lucky few with 768/128 speeds clearly states networking is PROHIBITED. Linksys (way before Cisco) is a small consumer networking manufacturer. Their flagship 4-port router suddenly becomes out of the question for soon to be 5-state Ameritech DSL territory. Fortunately for Linksys, they had 'volunteers' whom broke/resurrected/wrote scripts and etc for their equipment. They send free routers to these selected people and they did free work... At any rate, I was doing BEFSR81 in that manner back then. So, to bypass Ameritech 1PC only requirement, we determined that they used network scan, and basically were able to pick out customers with routers via MAC addresses. two weeks later, there was 'unofficial' firmware update that allowed end user to clone their NIC MAC into a router - thus Ameritech saw a NIC connected, meanwhile Windows 98 and W2K machines were networking without a fear of detection and using that broadband.
Firmware NEVER appeared on official Linksys download page , however, anonymous FTP server was hosting it and customer were 'directed' to look into it by Linksys support.

Point is, sit tight and this will be bypassed very soon, just as PDAnet already doing. Only stupid ones will be caught right now and forced off of their unlimited data plans, smart ones will come on top...

Great post.

I remember when @Home (before Comcast bought them) forbid using a router as well. They required you to buy another "line" if you wanted to have more than one computer use the internet connection in your house. (I also remember the good ole days when @Home allowed unlimited up and down, before they capped the upload speeds)

The benefit was that the additional line had it's own dedicated IP address (not a fake 10.x.x.x or 192.x.x.x one), so it was nice for hosting servers.

One Linksys routers got under $150, the cat was out of the bag and everyone split their internet connection like crazy.

Here are the two most relevant posts on this issue:

http://osxdaily.com/2011/05/09/how-att-detects-unofficial-tethering/

... and specifically why Android AT&T users aren't getting caught...

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...unauthorized-android-tethering-and-may-never/

The problem is that there was this extremely easy hack that the MyWi/PdaNet/TetherMe developers saw in the iOS system, and they all built their apps around this. The problem was that part of the iOS system was coded by Apple to use an alternate APN network. What's really creepy is that AT&T knew that we were tethering the entire time instead of simply blocking it.

Unlike Apple, Google decided to code the Droid tethering system to use the same routing as any other app (like YouTube, Maps, email, etc). Thus AT&T is really screwed there.

I've heard mixed reports about PdaNet's stealth mode. I think we have to wait a few billing cycles to verify this. If PdaNet's stealth mode usage doesn't show on the AT&T bill for a couple months, then I'll start using it.

But I'd rather keep my unlimited plan for now.

 

[NJRonbo]

I've heard mixed reports about PdaNet's stealth mode. I think we have to wait a few billing cycles to verify this

I just switched from MyWi to PDANET.

I think I can continue to use it for free
as I don't use it to go to any secure sites.

That's the good news.

Hope this indeed hides my tethering activity.

Figured since noboby seems to know for sure,
this is a better experiment with PDANET than
with MyWi.

 

[kaifs]

APN is how you are being tracked via tethering services - this is not a secret and a confirmed fact. PDAnet is the only one I know of for IOS which makes an attempt to hide the usage. How effective? I still average over 6gigs a month and have not seen any notices yet.
read http://iphonecream.com/2011/05/how-att-recognizes-unauthorized-tethering-from-jailbroken-iphones/ for a better explanation there are plenty other articles on google if you use: 'APN MyWI PDANET tetherme at&t'

 

[m3coolpix]

Joining the thread....

I've been lurking this thread since it started....and haven't tethered a single byte since it did....

I've never gotten any notice from AT&T about tethering. Unlimited data plan since the original iPhone, now have an iP4, and always using TetherMe. All my tethering was done with iOS version 4.1 on the iP4, and used a couple of different DIY methods on the 3Gs (didn't do it on the 3G or 2G).

My monthly data usage always hovers ~2-3gig a month, once or twice since Aug '07 it's hit above 8gig, but that was using Slacker while driving.

My tethering has never been big amounts of data, it's only checking email while on the road, and a few forum reads, never any torrent usage or movies or whatever. Straight up serious on that.

Just bought PDAnet (since it's on sale). About the only reason I didn't buy it back then was cause it was $29, and TetherMe was much less ($4?).

Anyways, just wanted to put another data point out there.

 

[TC25]

Point is, sit tight and this will be bypassed very soon, just as PDAnet already doing. Only stupid ones will be caught right now and forced off of their unlimited data plans, smart ones will come on top...

Could you explain how this will help people who tethered before the advent of PDAnet stealth mode and are currently getting the notification from ATT?

 

[kaifs]

Could you explain how this will help people who tethered before the advent of PDAnet stealth mode and are currently getting the notification from ATT?

it is clear that NOONE will be auto-forced-switched from unlimited plan until after/on the 27th. So, Call customer service and tell em you will NOT tether anymore. Wait until decent APN editor appears in cydia. Download and install, use in stealth mode. Is there any other solutions for now other than let go of your $30mo plan and get screwed in a long run?

 

[dmk1974]

I got the email as well. I don't want to lose my unlimited plan, but was thinking...maybe it's worth paying for the $45 tether plan. My iPhone costs me $30/mo for data and my iPad 3G is another $15 for only 250mb. If I cancel the iPad service and then succumb to the 4GB/$45 plan, it's the same cost. Checking my iPhone usage, with heavy tethering, I'm usually only between 1.1 and 1.8 gb monthly usage.

Of course, getting undetectable mywi working again would be preference #1

I didn't notice any replies to my post above. What do you guys think?

 

[Sparky9292]

I didn't notice any replies to my post above. What do you guys think?

Well, if you are always under the 4GB limit... dump the 3G ipad $15 and the $30 unlimited... yeah that makes sense....

I don't seen anything wrong with that.