No; without a warrant it'd be illegal to disclose that info to a 3rd party requesting it, but if you read your TOS they certainly do not give up their right to log your traffic or do deep packet inspection. This is pretty common amongst ISP's.
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What can AT&T do if you get busted using MyWi??
- Thread starter GadgetAddict
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No; without a warrant it'd be illegal to disclose that info to a 3rd party requesting it, but if you read your TOS they certainly do not give up their right to log your traffic or do deep packet inspection. This is pretty common amongst ISP's.
One of the ways to tell if you are tethering would be if you are using your macbook to sync with say, mobileme sync. So they would have to filter out what you are using your line for then scan for that and report it.
The only reason you do not see comcast style throttling is because the damn 3G speeds is pathetic and right now, the upload for many is capped at <100kbps anyway on the iPhone 4 and other smartphones.
AT&T's 3G was never that good enough for anything else but surfing the web, looking at some youtube videos. When they have speeds that approach a home line internet connection like comcast, then you will see more policing.
Otherwise, they do not bother/care about you tethering illegally.
This is common with ISP's such as comcast who interfere with end users because of torrent upload/downloads. I can see why they would police comcast end users.
AT&T data usages are much much lower. Unless you exceed somewhere of 10GB a month every month, AT&T probably won't care. I don't work for AT&T so I can only use my past 2 year history to judge this for I have exceeded 5GB for many months back to back without one single gripe from AT&T.
People get overly carried away...like when they say the word "bomb" on the phone - so magically their line triggers a supercomputer to log it or some bs. Sure they may be something like this but most likely they tap your line to begin with.
In AT&T end user scenario, they don't bother. And yes, AT&T is super incompetent.
interesting. if that's the case...i highly doubt they care.
The number of us using it with mywi is pretty insignificant.
The number of us using it with mywi is pretty insignificant.
The number of jailbreakers is also insignificant. I wouldn't care and I urge everyone who pays for 3G to maximize their usage. You paid for the data rates and so you should use them to the fullest.
Don't get me wrong -- all the evidence we see now points to AT&T not caring about tethering users unless you absurdly go over the "typical" bandwidth usage of a smartphone user. I completely agree with you there.
HOWEVER, it's relatively easy for a carrier to implement detection of MyWi and similar tethering systems, and to think otherwise would be misguided.
HOWEVER, it's relatively easy for a carrier to implement detection of MyWi and similar tethering systems, and to think otherwise would be misguided.
I don't have much knowledge on data monitoring but from what I read on these posts one thing I get is that tethering a Wifi iPad with the iPhone could go totally unnoticed even if they tapped your line. Since obviously the iPad uses data in the exact same way as the iPhone.
I believe that if AT&T were a serious and non problematic company they would care very very much for illegal tethering. The number of jailbroken iPhones may be insignificant but prevention is always better than cure...
I believe that if AT&T were a serious and non problematic company they would care very very much for illegal tethering. The number of jailbroken iPhones may be insignificant but prevention is always better than cure...
You sure about that? How do they qualitatively distinguish MyWi from other quantitatively high uses such as watching streaming video, listening to radio, etc.?
You sure about that? How do they qualitatively distinguish MyWi from other quantitatively high uses such as watching streaming video, listening to radio, etc.?
I posted this on the previous page. The most straightforward way relies on the fact that MyWI essentially sets up a NAT, not unlike your home router. There's are many passive and active fingerprinting techniques, which I previously linked to, for detecting if a packet was sent from behind a NATted device.
Some ISP's use this already to detect whether or not you have a router installed.
There is no evidence whatsoever that AT&T is deploying any of these techniques to detect illicit tetherers though -- this information is not meant to be a panic flag.
Of course I can not prove it, but I have spoken to an ATT capacity planning engineer in the north east area. They are logging this data and have been since late 2008. I understand that this isn't evidence, but this thread has already mentioned how they could identify the traffic and that they have the rights to do it. Just about all modern enterprise class network devices have this ability built in, so the fact that they are using it shouldn't come as a surprise.
It's silly that some people on this thread are lashing out denying the ability or right of ATT to perform packet header analysis with little or no knowledge on how large scale networks are maintained or the laws binding them.
However this isn't anything to panic about. In fact, knowing the above, I still use MyWi myself. ATT is more concerned about the data caps, then a few people with hacked phones.
^^agreed. It would take a LOT of time and energy to pull a bunch of data together and come at someone for a lawsuit or whatever they would do. But thinking big picture...we pay $30 dollars a month for unlimited data. That's like nothing when thinking of a multibillion dollar company. I highly doubt they are worried about tracking a couple of us using a mywi tethering program to connect through a computer. I think this conversation is pretty much dead.
agree with you. Like I said earlier, it sure seems like AT&T is all hands on deck JUST to keep their current network working all while trying to expand to meet Apples needs for the iPhone.
I'd be really surprised if AT&T went after someone for that - it'd be really hard to pull off and the public outcry would be enough for them to back down. Honestly, I kinda feel bad for AT&T - they are in well over their heads.
true that. I will say that i am very impressed with AT&T though. I recently drove from DC to mid-Missouri. The ENTIRE drive i had service!! it was amazing. The amount of time, money and energy they are putting into their network is nothing short of amazing. They really are trying to make a better name for themselves it terms of network capacity. I've been with them for 6 year(back when it was cingular) and it is so much better now.
I guess I always forget that AT&T is a private/non-state-run company - I know, I know.. duh?! right? Well, I live in a nation where everything (even if it says it's not) that is a service is government sponsored or run.
To your point, When I had AT&T and Cingular- it really sucked!!
clearly he was refering to government run or sponsorship. not a publicly traded company! even i knew that.
clearly it is too late over here as you are right after reading his post again lol
I'm excited for JB the iphone 4 for mywi.
So, sort of like this, whats the deal with using tethering part of the settings on the phone, i heard that it works for people with grandfathered unlimited internet, cant we use that? Whats up with that? I havent touched it, because I'm only afraid of losing my unlimited grandfathering. haha.
So, sort of like this, whats the deal with using tethering part of the settings on the phone, i heard that it works for people with grandfathered unlimited internet, cant we use that? Whats up with that? I havent touched it, because I'm only afraid of losing my unlimited grandfathering. haha.
to use it on the factory settings you have to downgrade your data package to no more than 2gb per month data plan $25. Plus, you have to pay an additional $20 per month for the tethering service!!! a complete waste in my opinion! so basically you will pay $45/per month for 2gb of tetherable data.
Thats lame. I'll wait for mywfi. Do you leave Roaming Data turned on? I've never turned it on before... do we leave it on? I thought i remembered it always being on on my 3GS. Hmm.
no way!!! i'd never turn that on. Im not a theorist, but my luck if i'm in an area where roaming happens...i'd be boned for downloading a gb of data. no thanks.
Dang. I thinking about turning it on when i saw your post, because I have a lot appts during the week and they have 0 service there. Thats my only problem. Its a hospital, and their walls are made from kryponite. its ridiculous.