How will "they" know if I tether with a rooted Nexus One

[[email protected]]

Just read Tmobile is going to charge for tethering & wi-fi hot spot. How will they know? Isn't data, data? I don't want to be charged for something I might use 5 times a year.

Sent from my Nexus One CM6 using XDA App

 

[Lightning N1]

I don't know if they can tell, I have used the hotspot feature with my Nexus quite often and AT&T has never tried to charge me.

 

[diversificationied]

They wont.

 

[Zephyron]

Just read Tmobile is going to charge for tethering & wi-fi hot spot. How will they know? Isn't data, data? I don't want to be charged for something I might use 5 times a year.

Sent from my Nexus One CM6 using XDA App

Where did you read this from? No source, it didnt happen.

 

[going_home]

Starts 11/3/2010

Where did you read this from? No source, it didnt happen.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/10/26/t-mobile-to-debut-tethering-plan-on-november-3rd-14-99/

 

[greenstuffs]

the only way they could know if you are tethering is if you are using the carrier's native ROM, i don't think they would ever find out when running a custom rom.

 

[Jack_R1]

If you don't bother searching - at least do read the same thread on the same 1st page of the forum, instead of opening another one.
Einstein was right about infinite things...

 

[St.Jimmy!]

Packages being sent contain HTTP requests, which may contain info on the device that's being used, among other stuff I don't really know about.

If those packages contain specific info on the device, they probably can tell even if you're using a custom ROM, just by putting some effort into it.

Anyways, if by some mean they'd manage to analyze it in a way where they can tell whether you're tethering or not, we'll also find a way to trick them by parsing those packages on the fly.

So, ultimately, I don't know whether they can tell or not if you're tethering, but if they can don't worry, someone will take care of it.

 

[diversificationied]

Packages being sent contain HTTP requests, which may contain info on the device that's being used, among other stuff I don't really know about.

If those packages contain specific info on the device, they probably can tell even if you're using a custom ROM, just by putting some effort into it.

Anyways, if by some mean they'd manage to analyze it in a way where they can tell whether you're tethering or not, we'll also find a way to trick them by parsing those packages on the fly.

So, ultimately, I don't know whether they can tell or not if you're tethering, but if they can don't worry, someone will take care of it.

Companies cannot legally spy into your network traffic in that manner here in the US.

 

[dowmace]

Companies cannot legally spy into your network traffic in that manner here in the US.

This is true, deep packet inspection is against the law as it infringes what little privacy we are still allowed thanks to homeland security

 

[OrganizedFellow]

Packages being sent contain HTTP requests, which may contain info on the device that's being used, among other stuff I don't really know about.

Not picking on you, but I'm sure you mean packets

 

[zEar]

Here in France, SFR set up atransparemt proxy that checks the user-agent sent by your browser.
You can trick it by setting a mobile user-agent on your PC.

Sent from my nexus desire

 

[Jack_R1]

Here in France, SFR set up atransparemt proxy that checks the user-agent sent by your browser.
You can trick it by setting a mobile user-agent on your PC.

Sent from my nexus desire

That's screwed. You can set any UA when using a custom ROM, so you'd be charged for tethering when you set it to Desktop?
In that case, someone might have a good reason to sue them...

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the info.

Sent from my Nexus One CM6 using XDA App

 

[zEar]

That's screwed. You can set any UA when using a custom ROM, so you'd be charged for tethering when you set it to Desktop?
In that case, someone might have a good reason to sue them...

First, you're right. But I forgot to mention that they won't charge you, it simply doesn't work. So if you changed the UA the way you suggest, you would see a blank page and quickly fix that

Second, I noticed after answering that I didn't read the question well (sh*t happens ) and didn't get the point about root. So to be more clear about the original question :
- "They" shouldn't be able to know if you're rooted or not, but there may be ways for them to detect that you are tethering.

 

[rester555]

Tethering and T-mobile...

If you run speedtest.net on a computer that's tethered to the N1, it shows on speedtest.net's server that you are on T-mobile USA's IP. Somehow T-mobile would have to acquire when the tether option was turned on and off at the same time the 3g service is on. They would have to submit that into the header files that get sent to their services. That would be a stretch, but it would be doable in future software updates. Say Gingerbread....

 

[Jack_R1]

Actually, yesterday I've found something interesting about one of our local carriers.
It has 2 APNs: one for "dumbphones" and one for smartphones.
The first one allows Nexus to use internet and market, but tethering doesn't work. The DNS requests are blocked - I still didn't figure out how they block them. DNS servers get the ping, but the requests aren't resolved. Yet it looks like they're resolved, if sent from the phone.
The second one allows full internet access for the phone - and tethering also works.

So they don't detect tethering (and don't charge for it), but looks like they can block it with some restrictions that still allow the phone browser to work, when using "dumbphone" APN.

 

[ohgood]

Actually, yesterday I've found something interesting about one of our local carriers.
It has 2 APNs: one for "dumbphones" and one for smartphones.
The first one allows Nexus to use internet and market, but tethering doesn't work. The DNS requests are blocked - I still didn't figure out how they block them. DNS servers get the ping, but the requests aren't resolved. Yet it looks like they're resolved, if sent from the phone.
The second one allows full internet access for the phone - and tethering also works.

So they don't detect tethering (and don't charge for it), but looks like they can block it with some restrictions that still allow the phone browser to work, when using "dumbphone" APN.

so all the other data, non browser based - how do they decide if/when to block which data ? i'm assuming this will only work on a non-rooted phone, or they are breaking the law and doing deep inspection.

if they =are= doing deep packet inspection, they can and will be held liable for eavesdropping, child porn, online harrassement (if you ever harrass someone), and a whole host of other things.

the ISP (tmo) not knowing what you're doing is a benefit to them. ignorance is bliss, and knowledge means responsibility the way the gov't views it.

lol, that last statement, the gov't and responsibility could be a joke i guess.

 

[Jack_R1]

I believe they just have all traffic going through proxy which allows only very few selected packet types through, and blocks the rest for "dumbphone" APN. They don't check/block anything beyond DNS requests, and if you want to connect to a site while tethering "dumbphone" connection by IP - I believe you'll get there (didn't have a chance to test, but pinging IPs works without problems).

And of course, my Nexus with Enomther's ROM was used for experiments and showed exactly the same behavior.

The thing is - if I understand it correctly, it's not a planned behavior. They wanted to shut off all the network but the sites they give access to from their own WAP portal (considered "internal" internet), but in fact for some reason Nexus isn't completely blocked by it. PC is, though, when connected through Nexus.

And again, they don't have something that detects tethering - once a smartphone APN is used, the traffic is the same for Nexus and for tethered devices.

 

[ex87]

Some technical info...

Hello!

There is a way to detect if You are using tethering. Basically - tethering is routing - adding one more point in communications. So - if You just use Your phone, packets are addressed from/to Your phone. But if You are tethering - packets are addressed to device behind phone (using phone as gateway, basically router with NAT).

So - they may check:

• ARP tables
• TTLs
• OS specific packets/DNS requests/used IP's (Why would Your phone check for MS updates? )
• other things...