Tethering - Here's why I wouldn't do it...

[aminaked]

If you completely encrypt the packet headers how will verizon know where to route them? A proxy is needed, right?

 

[JFDroid]

Hard to argue with you. One thing I have learned with dealing with Verrizon and AT&T over the past 15 years is that there is very poor communication between departments and what goes onin one office is usually not known in another.

Unless you can completely encrypt the header of each packet, and hide the brwoser identification, you wil be visible. Enough said.

In regard to the packets, that sounds about right. I'm not a pro with networks and system administration, but based on the little that I know, it sounds feasible.

The other part about departmental fragmentation of information - very true! I have seen some stuff come straight from my family member rep's mouth in front of his store manager that the manager did not even know. Sure enough, the manager hopped on his/her blackberry, contacted their boss and was able to confirm what my family member rep stated.

Another big thing with VZW is e-mail. Even though reps (especially sales reps) are supposed to be selling all day, every day, they have to check corporate e-mail. My family member checks his at home (because he makes way too much money in commission to be checking his e-mail at work and giving up potential contract/phone sales and thus losing out on big commission dollars). But the cool thing is, he gets to clock additional time on his time report for checking e-mail at home. He has to confirm it with his manager each week, but his manager OK's it and he's good to go. He gets paid an extra 2 hours per week (on average) just for checking his e-mail at home on his own personal time. He actually spends 2 hours opening, reading, and replying to e-mails, so it's not like he's not doing work and getting paid for free extra hours - but he doesn't have time to check his e-mail at the store for 2 hours per week. But he's the only rep in his store that I know of that does that (I know many of them personally). Add that in with the fact that he's already scheduled 45 hours per week, and he works an extra 45-60 minutes EVERY SINGLE shift, and he always hits 50 hours per week for his paychecks. Then you pile on bi-weekly meetings he has (1.5 hours each) and you're at 53-55 hours per week. All hours from 40-50 are 1.5x pay, and all hours 50+ are 2x pay.

The point is, these sales reps are so overworked that they don't have time during the course of a typical day to check their e-mail, and since most pertinent information is sent from corporate via e-mail, a lot of information can get overlooked if the reps aren't willing to check e-mail at home. Reps, unlike managers who are mandated to have corporate e-mail on their company-provided smartphones, aren't allowed to receive any e-mail (except a basic gmail account if you're using a Droid) on their smartphones. It's a management-only perk. So reps run around all day without being able to see their corporate email on their phone, and they are so busy selling to hit their quota (and beyond) that they really don't have time.

 

[Romple]

So I was bored and this thread is precious so I went to the VZW customer agreement.

I don't care about who says it's legal or not. Just quoting it cause a lot of people apparently have never read it. This is technically what we all agree to when we sign up.

If you cancel a line of Service, or if we cancel it for good cause, during its contract term, you'll have to pay an early termination fee. If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device after November 14, 2009, your early termination fee will be $350 minus $10 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. (For a complete list of advanced devices, check verizonwireless.com/advanceddevices.) Otherwise, your early termination fee will be $175 minus $5 for each full month of your contract term that you complete. Cancellations will become effective on the last day of that month's billing cycle, and you are responsible for all charges incurred until then. Also, if you bought your wireless device from an authorized agent or third–party vendor, you should check if they charge a separate termination fee.

What Are Verizon Wireless' Rights to Limit or End Service or End this Agreement?
We can, without notice, limit, suspend or end your Service or any agreement with you for any good cause, including, but not limited to: ............ or (ii) if you, any user of your device or any account manager on your account: ......... (d) modify your device from its manufacturer's specifications; or (e) use your Service in a way that negatively affects our network or other customers. We can also temporarily limit your Service for any operational or governmental reason.

Unlimited Smartphone and BlackBerry Plans and Features
These Wireless Email plans and features cannot be used: (1) for access to the Internet, intranets or other data networks except as the device’s native applications and capabilities permit, unless you subscribe to Mobile Broadband Connect; or (2) for any applications that tether your device to laptops or personal computers other than for use of the Wireless Sync or the BlackBerry solution, unless you subscribe to Mobile Broadband Connect.

We may monitor you compliance, or the compliance of other subscribers, with these terms and conditions, but we will not monitor the content of your communications except as otherwise expressly permitted or required by law. [See verizonwireless.com/privacy.]

 

[cisco0910]

I tried reading every post. Got to page 11 of 14 but couldn't take it anymore. I feel a lot smarter now and even more confused. To many conflicting opinions

 

[aminaked]

We may monitor you compliance, or the compliance of other subscribers, with these terms and conditions, but we will not monitor the content of your communications except as otherwise expressly permitted or required by law. [See verizonwireless.com/privacy.]

Yes, and if you go visit the full privacy policy you'll eventually find an acronym called CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) which is described as follows:

This information relates to the type, technical arrangement, quantity, destination, location, and amount of use

 

[christim]

Thats funny and your right if they do catch you will have to pay a fee.But it only like 30.00

And I'm guessing that your also an employee and what you say is fact? My fiancée has seen $700 plus tethering charges. They charge a rate per MB you tether.

Tell your fiancee to prove it then you will be a winner...I'm not a employee and i'm not even going to explain how I know the charges..Where's the fiancee proof?

Wait...we need proof he has a fiancee?

 

[strobez395]

I brought my droid into the VZW store last week because it wouldn't power on after it dropped. When I got my new one the employee asked me if i knew about tethering and said how awesome it is and i should use it i said yupp its pretty awesome. I told him about these forums and some good programs to use to sync his droid to his mac. I got a discount on my screen protectors.

 

[aminaked]

I brought my droid into the VZW store last week because it wouldn't power on after it dropped. When I got my new one the employee asked me if i knew about tethering and said how awesome it is and i should use it i said yupp its pretty awesome. I told him about these forums and some good programs to use to sync his droid to his mac. I got a discount on my screen protectors.

OP said meeting about cracking down on tethering was Friday. When did you get your screen protectors?

Also, word is not disseminated to all stores at the same rate and not all store employees will follow all policies.

I believe the OP.

 

[strobez395]

Phone stopped turning on Saturday morning, i even made a post on these forums about it. I went Saturday night, got my replacement and had a nice conversation with the rep about all the things you can do with your droid...also about many illegal programs he should get for his mac..

 

[aminaked]

I went Saturday night

OP is a LIAR!!!!!!!!!

 

[Droids]

I believe the OP accurately reported what his or her family member stated later in the day about the store meeting. I believe the family member accurately reported to the OP what he or she heard at the meeting.

iDont believe anything a Verizon store manager or middle/upper management would would try to convey to lower level employees.

 

[aminaked]

iDont believe anything a Verizon store manager or middle/upper management would would try to convey to lower level employees.

Good point. We need to wait and see.

Although, didn't OP in a later post state that he had personal trusted relationship with the manager?

 

[VOLTIS5]

So lets say i only visit sites like facebook, youtube, check my email, check a site that streams shows (say anime and yes i'm a geek), ebay, yahoo and such, would Verizon know then if i was tethering? Would my data usage have a big spike every time i go to any of those site? I do check my data usage every now and then and the highest usage was about 70k/kb. And that was when i was on my laptop for a good 2-3hr surfing the web while on a road trip.

 

[Malithar]

Going to admit, read the first few pages than the last page, so the topic has probably changed to god knows what by now, but just throwing out my own experiences with tethering thus far.

About a month and a half ago, I relocated about two hours away from where I lived. Had lived in an area that was dead as far as work goes, spent nearly 4 months just trying to find ANYTHING at all to be able to keep money coming in. Moved to be closer to a larger city (Cincinnati) that had a lot more work available. Since then, I've secured two jobs, and getting ready to start a third that is only a few hours a week. Still trying to get back on my feet as far as money is concerned, but to get back OT, since moving, I've used my Droid 100% as my internet source. I understand the risks involved with tethering, but I guess in a sense, I look past them. I've used the tethering for just about anything you can imagine, job apps, games, torrents, PC gaming, etc. I've ran raids on WoW off of a friend's account, I tend to play some TDs in Warcraft III nearly nightly, torrent whatever I have a fancy for, stalk around on Youtube/Hulu, etc. Last month, I went from a usual data usage of 4-6 gigs to 14.6 gigs I believe it was.

I can't say for certain if anything will come of it, or if Verizon is going to hunt me down or anything, but its how I've used it as of late and I figured I'd share since it felt relevant. I do plan on getting regular internet though once things settle down and I'm not shooting most of my earnings to back debt.

Cheers to you all.

 

[husker_fan]

Prior to reading this thread I looked at the Verizon Website and noticed that for $30.00 a month you could have phone tethering added to your bill.

I went to the Verizon store and asked them to add it to my plan and they saw me holding my Moto Droid and said it was not available for that device at this time. He then said there are third party apps that have that capability, but they(Verizon) did not offer anything like that.

Wanting more info I called *611 when I got home and spoke with a rep in the tech service section. I asked him about tethering and he said it is not offered right now with the Moto Droid and may be in the future. He said it could be tomorrow or could be 6 months, who knows.

I then asked him about a thrid party app in the market allowing the tethering for my laptop. He said that would be fine. He said if I have the unlimited plan then its my choice what I use it for.

I asked him about whether or not I would get into trouble and he said he has never heard of anything like that before. He said it was obvious I wanted to pay for something and wanted to sell me something, but it just isnt something available right now.

I asked him several times if I would get into any kind of trouble or anythign else for using it on my laptop and he said no. He said the only thing he could think of is if somehow I set up a network with it on a bunch of computers and was using gigs and gigs of data and that may be an issue, but other wise normal internet usage, ie email, ebay would be fine.

So, I said fine, installed PDAnet.

I have seen lots of scare tactics about Verizon billing people for the free tethering or breaking of contract, but I wanna actually see this in writing before I believe that.