Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

people pay for tethering?

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

People who abuse tethering should be turned off by Sprint. I use it if my internet is down, or if I am on a road trip somewhere, but I don't use it a lot because I know Sprint doesn't approve and I don't want to be the guy who ruins it for everyone.

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

Ya shouldnt be talking at all if you "abuse" the system at all lol.

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

Exactly! When we (WinMo users) tether, Sprint thinks whatever we're doing is on the phone's browser.
This thread is silly. :mrgreen:

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint MP6950SP)

Ruin what exactly? Last time I checked, we're already paying to use unlimited data....

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

That's not true at all. The HTTP protocol uses TCP port 80 or 8008/8080 as in accordance with official IANA port reservations. It can use other ports, but only when the server is configured to use an unofficial alternate. HTTPS is TCP 443 officially.

As such, traffic can be reliably classified and usage monitored by a carrier. It is extremely easy to do so. Other applications use other TCP/UDP ports, as there are 65536 ports for either protocol.

Basically what I am saying is that Sprint could easily determine if a user is tethering if they wanted. The reason people can get away with it is that Sprint has better fish to fry, so to speak. They only pay attention to tethering when bandwidth for a user spikes and gets flagged for possible abuse of service. After that, the account's usage can pulled up and monitored for unusual port usage, number of connections, and possibly even packet inspection to determine the program that is using the connection; as most communications are sent in cleartext.

So no, they don't just think it is the phone's browser when you tether.

And yes, I do that kind of stuff for a living :) No, not for Sprint. But I do know their type of firewall system, as they are oficcially a reseller of the product; Nokia IP security devices running Check Point. Yep, Nokia makes (or should I say made, they just sold that division to Check Point this year) the most badass firewalls in the world. Great people to deal with.

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

Mutiny You're absolutely correct, but you change those settings on your computer and browser in order to avoid detection. I know I do it, and as soon as searching is working , I'll find the thread to prove it. :)

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

Unlimited data through the phones browser, not phone as modem (PAM). These are completely different and I believe is explained in your contract. I doubt claiming ignorance will stop Sprint from billing you.

Re: Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

Well put Kid. The ability to tether is NOT included with the Sprint Everything plan and every Sprint rep I have spoken with has told me that tethering is not permitted as per our contract.

The point of my question was to ask if the tethering we currently use could be blocked in the same manner as the blackberries have been.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint MP6950SP)

I know well that PAM is different from device usage, I was just saying because I for one feels thats its highway robbery that we already pay for unlimited data on our phones, but Dan & Co. wants us to pay extra money to tether from the same unlimited data that we already pay for