Is the end of "free" tethering near??
 

Alot of Blackberrys have seen the demise of thier free tethering this month, forcing many of them to change from unlimited phone plans in order to add PAM to thier account or purchasing tetherberry. Either way, Sprint has put a HUGE dent in the population that was surfing for free.

Is the light at the end of our highway blinking? tell me it's not so....

Could the end of tethering for WINDOWS MOBILE be near???

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

how were the blackberrys getting free tethering? were they free right out of the box or did you have to put a 3rd party app on there like wmwifirouter?

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

We don't use PAM function anyways.

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

Reg-edit hacks I assume. I dont know much about thier software, there are quite a few around our office that worked after installing a .cab? (forgive me if that is not that the BB term)

Isn't tethering still an optional plan that can be added to a windows mobile phone by Sprint? doesnt mean they call it PAM for windows.

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

thats sounds like it apply to at&t more than sprint

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

Eight Blackberries here in our office on Sprint that it applied to.

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

▲?

and I was wondering the same thing. if that everything plan is so great, why don't they let you put PAM on it?

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

I have Sprint Everything as my plan as well.... though after talking to our Sprint rep it does NOT mean everything....

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

I was using the tethering on my treo 700 wx with no hacks

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

Is this a BB question? If so why is it posted here?

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

www.tetherberry.com $50 fix for Blackberries :)

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

NO... asking if it's possible that our windows mobile devices will be cut off soon as well. Sprint rep stated that all of the mobile devices are being looked at and if unregulated tethering is going on it will be fixed.

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

Seems to be the only "fix" for them at this point. My question was whether or not our windows devices will soon meet the same fate.

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

WOW! I am scared and worry.

Will it happen to WM phone ???

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

most people tether for free with blackberries on sprint with a sprint-made program called smartview. i assume that it's these people that got denied. (which sucks for my wife because that's how she tethers... i'll have to test it when i get home)

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

Let us know if your BB still works with the tetherberry software.

I am keeping my finger cross on WM phone!

Wirelessly posted (Sprint TP2: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 8.12; MSIEMobile6.0) Sprint T7380)

this will not affect us. we do not use pam as someone stated earlier. sprint actually included pam with their plans

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

What is PAM and how are WM different then BB plan?

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

Fear Uncertainty Doubt

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

pam = phone as modem that is a plan or an add on. with ics and wmwifirouter and the registry tweaks we do on winmo devices, that is basically enabling stealth teathering.

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

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

The BB can tether right out the box through the USB and BB Desktop Manager if you know what to connect and hook up through about 7 steps. I bought tetherberry for my dad's Curve on Sprint for $49, that works easier with less hassle and shouldn't be shut down by Sprint. If Sprint does the same for the WM phones we would all have to go to PDA Net or use the Wifi app. Sprint wants us all to pay 50 per month for PAM for all devices that have that capabilities.

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

So pda net is a decent option although not free(one time purchase). I understand that it disguises your browsing somehow to look like the phone is doing the surfing. Anybody know, is that right? And further, does anyone know how that works?

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

I see. In a sense, Sprint got other better fish to fry.

pam is only 15bucks last i checked....

and quit complaining.. were all stealing already anyways..

tethering is not included in unlimited data, never has been..

if it ends, its ends...

and sprint may launch roms like they did with tp1 that block it
but im sure we can always undo it just like we always do..

and why even ask a question like this anyways... do we call the shots at sprint? no

we cant possibly know the answer OP.. but my guess is BB cant flash roms to get around things, WM can...

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

The problem is it's not an option on the 'everything' plan.

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

Just wanted to point out that we have unlimited data from the device. Sprint can't determine what is from the device and what isn't just based on analysis of the port and transport protocol(TCP/UDP) because our devices can use any port they want. Think about it - Mobile AIM by AOL connects to the oscar servers(the protocol that AIM uses) on TCP 5160. Our gmail uses TCP 995 and TCP 465 and TCP 587 (see here for Google's instructions). It isn't just unlimited data from the browser.

So with that, as far as I know the WMWifiRouter style apps and PDAnet style apps don't report that they're ICS traffic(like ICS does by default - it dials the modem differently). The ICS or PAM (dial #777 from your PC) ways both connect differently and report to Sprint that they're PAM connections. The WMWifiRouter(and HTC Router) and PDAnet apps actually use the phone's normal data connection just like Mobile AIM or the e-mail client, etc - and as such their data is hidden (because our phones can use any TCP/UDP port) in the traffic of what's on our phone. Sprint could PROBABLY do mac address scanning in the packets, since when using NAT the original machine's MAC is preserved(I think) - but I'd bet there's a way to do MAC cloning on our phones which would negate Sprint's ability to use that as a definitive test.

TL;DR - Our phones rock and can do all sorts of cool data stuff. Sprint can't(I'm fairly positive) detect the data if you use WMWifiRouter, HTC Wifi Router, PDAnet, etc.

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

You are correct. Sprint cannot tell that you are connected to a PC with those apps. They were developed specifically to disguise the connection. If Sprint, or other carriers, come out with some way of detecting the connection then someone will just make a better app.

Have faith my friends.

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

How can you all be so sure that Sprint doesnt know?

Have you all actually gone into sniffing the packets when you tether?

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

LOL! :) Tor.

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

Us Blackberry users used either smartview, which never worked for me on the Tour, worked on my Curve. Alot were using a dial up connection and #777 via bluetooth.
Looks like it might be time to buy PdaNet again.