"Tethering" - can they tell ?

50Twuncle

If someone was to "tether" their laptop to their mobile phone for occassional internet use / emails - can the phone company tell ?

jm2926

Three can, I got a web page telling me tethering wasn't included in my plan.

Switched to Orange who don't seem to care so far.

Notmyrealname

Yes very simply. The web browser you're using at the moment gives the ID of its version which includes the OS every time you request a page.

Also there will be one more network "hop" from your phone to the computer.

The reality is that unless you're taking the mickey then nothing will come of it. You would most likely receive a "we know what you're doing and it isn't allowed" letter first before any financial penalty. I've tethered before when my home broadband has gone down and even did for a full month when I moved house whilst waiting for Talktalk to release the line so I could get a decent ISP.

Plushchris

I used O2 a fair bit last year while traveling for work and never had any problems with them.

50Twuncle

Anyone had any problems tethering using Tmobile ?

Fifer

21Twinkle wrote: »

Anyone had any problems tethering using Tmobile ?

I tether my tablet to my phone fairly frequently on T-Mobile (generally when staying away from home) without issues. In fact, we often have two devices tethered (a tablet and a netbook) and have never had an issue. My intention (if challenged) was to act dumb and ask why T-Mobile provided me with an Android update which included a WiFi hotspot utility if they didn't intend me to use it, but it has never happened.

InsideInsurance

I doubt you will have a "problem" but you may incur additional charges. Vodafone don't include tethered data in their allowances so if you do tether you just find an extra bit added to next months bill.

There are ways for the telecoms company to tell but, at least for jail broken iPhones, there are apps available to mask the fact it is tethered data

Lifeforms

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I doubt you will have a "problem" but you may incur additional charges. Vodafone don't include tethered data in their allowances so if you do tether you just find an extra bit added to next months bill.

There are ways for the telecoms company to tell but, at least for jail broken iPhones, there are apps available to mask the fact it is tethered data

See, here's where vodafone outsourced customer services don't know what they're doing. I searched out an answer for this, and eventually after being told I would be charged £5 each time I tethered my iPad, I went to the forums, and finally got someone who knew what they were doing.

I believe the answer was if your contract started after june or july last year, then tethering is fine to do. But older contracts aren't so good on the data allowance, so prolly might need a data boost. they charge upto £15 for 2 gb, and less for less under that.

As long as you have a current price plan that was taken out after June 2011 you will be able to use your phone for tethering out of your monthly data bundle. If you want to use more than 250MB then Vodafone do have additional data bundles that you can purchase and these can be used on your phone or for tethering.

That was the answer, confirmed by a vodafone rep. (and is contract, not payg)

InsideInsurance

Inevitably these things do change over time. My contract is from Jul 2010 so well before your jun 11 change

Andy_L

Plushchris wrote: »

I used O2 a fair bit last year while traveling for work and never had any problems with them.

The current range of O2 phone packages permit tethering

CaptainHaddock_2

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Yes very simply. The web browser you're using at the moment gives the ID of its version which includes the OS every time you request a page.

True. This particular tell-tale sign can easily be circumvented though, as you can set your browser to mimic another browser through "user agent" settings (see here). Of course there are other ways they can detect tethering and not all your traffic will come from the browser, so...