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Tether argument

DerekRod

DerekRod

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 18, 2012
820
0
NY
In one of my computer classes at university I got into an argument with professor,We were talking about APN's and how telcos differentiate data traffic.I told him TetherMe makes tether data go over the regular iPhone traffic APN making it untraceable he told me I was wrong.The question is am I wrong or is he?

Note:I have no need to tether illegally I have a mifi from verizon
 
While it can, AT&T and likely other carriers are still able to detect that it is tethering data.
 
Intell said:
While it can, AT&T and likely other carriers are still able to detect that it is tethering data.
Click to expand...

Oh goodie,How is it detected by its sheer size or do they see the programs that pulled the data ex.Firefox,twitter for mac etc?
 
No one knows exactly how they detect that it isn't iPhone based data. There are numerous theories, but nothing proven yet. All that's know is that AT&T can and does detect it and it cannot be hidden from them.
 
Thanks this makes me a sad panda,Now im gonna look like the hard headed fool Iam tomorrow thanks alot for explaining this to me
 
Well it depends on how you look at it. TetherMe DOES attempt to make tethering by using the "wrong" APN for tethered data. And this DOES make it significantly harder for AT&T to sniff out tethering. If you professor was insisting that it wasn't forging APNs, he's wrong.

That said though, it's not foolproof, and if AT&T is tipped off to the possibility you might be using a forged APN to tether (one big tell is high data use), then they are likely to look at more invasive techniques (which may or may not include deep packet inspection) to see what you're doing with your phone.
 
So it forges the apn uses DataApn instead of the (I believe) Tether.APN
 
Intell said:
While it can, AT&T and likely other carriers are still able to detect that it is tethering data.
Click to expand...

I agree.
It might use the same apn as regural iphone data traffic but its nowhere near untraceable.
If it was many users using tetherme, MyWi, Pdanet and many other tethering JB hacks wouldnt be getting notices from AT&T and getting their plan switched to ones with an official tethering package.
 
Applejuiced said:
I agree.
It might use the same apn as regural iphone data traffic but its nowhere near untraceable.
If it was many users using tetherme, MyWi, Pdanet and many other tethering JB hacks wouldnt be getting notices from AT&T and getting their plan switched to ones with an official tethering package.
Click to expand...

Yeah this is good to know but my argument was that it uses the apn for regular iPhone data traffic so Iam no longer upset seeing as im correct at least when it comes to what APN they use
 
Lesson learned here...don't dig in your heels in an argument with someone (especially an authority figure) unless you KNOW you're right.

Fast with an answer and wrong < admitting you don't really know
 
Well to be fair I wasn't wrong it spoofs the APN which was I said in my argument.Getting caught by other means was never debated by me in regards to my professor.
 
DerekRod said:
In one of my computer classes at university I got into an argument with professor,We were talking about APN's and how telcos differentiate data traffic.I told him TetherMe makes tether data go over the regular iPhone traffic APN making it untraceable he told me I was wrong.The question is am I wrong or is he?

Note:I have no need to tether illegally I have a mifi from verizon
Click to expand...

1st: Tethering isn't illegal. Even if your contract forbids it. It might be a breach of contract, but is not against the law

2nd: Your professor is right. For all intents and purposes, your cell phone carrier is the ISP for your phone. These systems are built from the ground up with the ability to differentiate between data/traffic going to customer #1 all the way to customer #100,000 (etc).

It is a relatively simple matter for them to look at what kind of traffic is being sent back and forth to your user equipment. For most providers, they simply have to purchase a license for the software that can automatically do this on their systems. Changing APN's won't do jack squat if they are doing any sort of packet inspection.
 
While I can't tell for sure, I suspect using a VPN would get around most deep packet inspection techniques. If you have access to an IPsec VPN, and tunnel with it, along with a modified APN, then theoretically it would be hard for AT&T to figure out much of anything. IPsec VPN tunnel support is built into the iPhone, so for all they know, the VPN is running on the phone itself. And as long as the packets are encrypted, AT&T can't tell what's going on in them.

All hypothetical of course.
 
What are you going to connect to with your VPN? A glorified proxy server so that you can browse the web?

No, they wouldn't be able to prove that you were tethering if you used iphone VPN/tethering, but how many people who aren't tethering use VPNs?
 
Tarzanman said:
1st: Tethering isn't illegal. Even if your contract forbids it. It might be a breach of contract, but is not against the law

2nd: Your professor is right. For all intents and purposes, your cell phone carrier is the ISP for your phone. These systems are built from the ground up with the ability to differentiate between data/traffic going to customer #1 all the way to customer #100,000 (etc).

It is a relatively simple matter for them to look at what kind of traffic is being sent back and forth to your user equipment. For most providers, they simply have to purchase a license for the software that can automatically do this on their systems. Changing APN's won't do jack squat if they are doing any sort of packet inspection.
Click to expand...

Again my argument had nothing to do with packet inspection,All my argument was is that tetherMe spoofs the APN thats all
 
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