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

[JCo352]

I just want other's to know the cable companies cannot tell what you doing behind your router, if they did try to tell they be illegally doing so.

I use to run a router behind a hub cause I use to pay for 2 ip's from COX.cable. They sent the lead tech to my house when I had issues cause noone else knew how or what I was doing. They tried to tell me I was illegally using there system so I got a lawyer involved and boom haven't heard another word since. You pay for the service into your house. as long as your not hacking your modem to break speed limits there is nothing they can do.

Same is true for Verizon trying to look into your d/ls. Yes if you bring the hardware to them and they see it rooted and wifi tether in there they can note it and then monitor your d/l's thats about the most they can do legally.

Yes they can turn you off and try to make you pay the ETF, but you can fight it. Then they will just ban you from service and not charge a penny.
In order for them to charge and get away with it they would have had to send you warning before hand, so they have legal paperwork for what they are accusing you of.

So dont be scared of them, as for using an employee account thats different because you signed to give them permission to monitor.

So wait , are you saying that if you have internet from COX and you want to install a second PC they are making you buy one more IP and they are not allowing you to install a router ? If this is for real , this is the most mind bubbling thing I ever heard . Man , these companies know how to squeeze money from you .
Last thing I heard similar to this was the fact that I'm charged minutes when I answer my phone even if I wasn't the one placing the call . I had contracts with Vodafone , Orange and T-Mobile Europe and never heard of something like this .

What is "mind bubbling"?

 

[smokiedabong]

So I'm buying a 12 Mbps connection and I can hook one PC to that connection , but if I want to share that connection to a second PC , COX is not allowing this , I have to buy a second IP . What if some visiting friends want to connect their laptops to my network , am I allowed to share the connection ? Or I didn't understand this right ?
Even so , still remains the fact that I'm being charged minutes when I answer my phone even if I didn't placed the call , now this is truly mind bubbling .

 

[Johnly]

Hi folks. I learned something this past weekend I thought I'd share quickly. This is in regard to rooting and in regard to tethering.

I have a family member who works for VZW. He lets me use his employee account (he gets 5 lines, everything is 50% off), but as a result, I have to be more careful than the average person with what I do, what I say in text messages, etc., since upon my family member's hiring by VZW, they did an AOL on his account (Assumption of Liability) where essentially his account can be subjected to investigation by Verizon at any time (since they own the account due to the AOL). Anyway, this family member of mine is currently a Retail Sales Rep. He works for the direct/corporate side in a retail store in the NW region.

Friday mornings they have store meetings every week, and when he came home Friday he asked me how my day was. I said how my school's internet was out, but I was able to use my Wired Tethering app (through Koush's 5.0.6.2 Cyanogen ROM) to give internet to my desktop to get some school work done. He said "you really shouldn't do that anymore, we had a meeting about it, in fact, you could have your contract canceled as a result and have to pay an ETF and not be allowed to have service with Verizon anymore."

Obviously I asked what he learned to substantiate such a claim. He told me that in Friday morning's meeting, two things came up. First, his store manager gave an explanation to the team about what "Rooting" is, and that if a customer comes in with any Droid phone for troubleshooting/technical support, they are to ask to see the phone and to check the "About Phone section" to determine if a phone is rooted. If it is, the sales/customer support rep is to notate in the customer's account that they have made modifications to their phone which voids the warranty, and they are to refuse to help the customer with any tech. support and are to tell the customer to call in to customer care for further information (and customer care is supposed to let the customer know their contract has been canceled and that they owe an ETF and that VZW is dropping their service).

In addition, the store manager also covered tethering. Tethering is going to be cracked down on by Verizon, especially on Android phones, and apparently they have ways of checking if someone is tethering or not. Anyone caught breaking the rules will have their contract canceled, and they will subsequently be charged an ETF (early termination fee) and will have their service then suspended.

I know that most people know Verizon doesn't like tethering, and I know some have said if you don't go above 5GB/month you can't be caught, etc., but I choose to not follow that logic only because I'm on an employee account and I'm held to a different standard than most Verizon customers. You guys can do whatever you want, but I thought this was a fair warning to people who are rooted and who do tether - be careful what you do, Verizon certainly knows what's going on and they are now training their retail staff to watch for signs of these two activities. This isn't meant to be some fear-based message to get people to stop tethering. I wish I could tether, but I'm too afraid of being caught.

So, if you're rooted, make sure to flash to stock before going into a retail store for help with your phone; and if you're tethering, you should really watch how much data you use, and try not to tether unless you really are prepared for the consequences.

My family member who works for VZW said tethering was brought up since they were going over the Incredible and the fact that customers who want a Droid and who want to tether are to be sold an Incredible since it "officially" supports tethering (and it's going to cost an extra $30/month). I'm thinking of picking up an Incredible and paying the extra $15/month (I get half off) for the tethering just so I can do it when I need to (which is pretty often).

Your post is long, so I skipped it lol. I have been tethering for awhile problem free, carry on chap:icon_evil:

 

[billygalbreath]

one other thing I meant to mention....

Easytether and PDANet disable https sites.... you can't log in to them.... PDANet seems to do that from the get go, Easytether disables https sites something like a month in I guess.

You then have to buy the license to unlock that feature....

or there are a couple of work arounds

1. Pay for it...... bwahahahahahahahahahah yeah, ok....
2. Goto a proxy site like ninjaproxy.com, which is an http site that allows you to then visit https sites.

This is an OK workaround. not a big fan of the advertisements, the look of the sites you then frequent.... but will work in a pinch

3. uninstall EasyTether from both your droid, and your computer then reinstall and viola' all features unlocked for another 30 days....

Option 4: Install Pl3x Rom and use the built in USB tethering for free...

 

[jimmyco2008]

Yeah I doubt Verizon can penalize you in any way for tethering, they can't tell, nor can they prove we tether, so they have no grounds to charge an ETF and ban us from their network. Heck, we could probably sue.

Of course even if Verizon kicked me off their network, it's far from being the end of the world..Oh no I don't have to pay $200/month for my phone lines?

Just my two cents.

 

[mikehal38]

They can tell if you tether actually. We are using their network so of course they know how we use it. It just doesn't benefit them right now to go after us for it. That will change when 4g becomes wide spread though. More and more people will be using it for a main Internet source then and they will be hogging up the bandwidth.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[joeybarclay]

IMO as long as you are not downloading a 50 gb torrent while streaming from netflix and playing some halo reach online you should be ok. I tethered all day one day doing activities like watching youtube videos and watching tv on hulu and im fine.

 

[czerdrill]

Yeah I doubt Verizon can penalize you in any way for tethering, they can't tell, nor can they prove we tether, so they have no grounds to charge an ETF and ban us from their network. Heck, we could probably sue.

Of course even if Verizon kicked me off their network, it's far from being the end of the world..Oh no I don't have to pay $200/month for my phone lines?

Just my two cents.

just curious but where do beliefs like this start...of course verizon can tell if you're tethering or if you're not. it's kind of amazing that people think a telecom company is simply unable to tell how you're using their network haha...

they can definitely tell, the question is do they care? so far it doesn't seem like they do, as there's no horror stories about $10,000 bills for tether-ers. that doesn't mean it won't happen.

but please stop spreading the false information that they can't tell that you're tethering. if they wanted to they can...do they want to? who knows.

 

[czerdrill]

IMO as long as you are not downloading a 50 gb torrent while streaming from netflix and playing some halo reach online you should be ok. I tethered all day one day doing activities like watching youtube videos and watching tv on hulu and im fine.

and that does seem to be the case. it doesn't appear that they care (yet). who knows if they ever will, but downloading torrents all day and replacing your ISP may not be the smartest thing you can do if they do decide one day to start cracking down haha

 

[amam865]

Bluetooth Tethering

I was reading about people that say as long as you don't use a ton of data etc it shouldn't be a problem. I don't really see a problem with using a lot of data though (within reason), especially since 2.2 and Flash has came out, even before I knew about tethering I was using 10gb or so a month from watching flash videos all the time online (shows that I have missed on tv) and even playing Flash games. So if Verizon was to start charging people or cutting service for people using a crazy amount of data (Be it tethering or just regular usage) then I think there should be some kind of boycott, I mean, the biggest thing that Droid holds over iPhone's head is their ability to have Flash player and obviously, Flash uses crazy amounts of data. I'm just saying... and when I tether I just connect my computer to my Droid X via blue tooth, I don't use any tethering software at all, what does that show up as to Verizon I wonder?

 

[xmguy]

Ok after reading that message. My view is and has always been. for rooting. YES. It DOES Void your warranty if VZW finds out. They can block you from getting any warranty service or exchanges. They CANNOT just cancel you and make you pay the ETF. I agree flash to stock if you are getting a warranty replacement.

For Tethering.

I say don't do on a tethered connection what you wouldn't or couldn't do on your phone to start with. As others stated. Don't use P2P, Hulu, loads of YouTube. ETC. E-mail, Facebook. SMALL watching of YouTube should be ok. Me personally. It would be IN CASE OF EMERGENCY if I were to tether. They COULD cancel your service and force the ETF on this one how ever if they found out some how. So I keep to my statement. Keep it to a minimum and ONLY do things on a tethered connection that you'd do on the phone.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[xmguy]

It's just like how Bright House cable cant tell (easily) which PC on my network gets the most use, as far as they know, it's all going to and from my router.

If you really believe that you could be in for a rude awakening. They can access your router at any time and they can see exactly what each device is doing.

I don't think they can see each PC (for what you are discussing) on a router. They no doubt can see the router (that shows up as a PC) and traffic coming and leaving the internet connection.

Same goes for tethering. I'd say VZW knows more that we think.

 

[qcman29]

As money hungry as Verizon is, I can't see them cancelling. They are just trying to frighten people in to adding another $20 a month to make you're phone a wi-fi hotspot. They just don't know when to quit.

 

[Stelv]

If Verizon tried to slap an ETF on me because of tether/root, and cancel my contract...they would loose me (and my money) as a customer for life.