What is "tethering"?

[Chris Blunt]

I've been connecting my laptop to the internet via mobile phones for
at least the last 10 years now, but I've noticed the use of the word
"tethering" being used recently to describe doing something like this.
I may be missing something here, but is this just a fashionable new
use of the word to describe what I've already been doing, or is there
something more to it?

To me, tethering is something you do to animals to stop them running
away.

Chris

[Andy Burns]

Post by Chris Blunt
I've been connecting my laptop to the internet via mobile phones for
at least the last 10 years now, but I've noticed the use of the word
"tethering" being used recently to describe doing something like this.
I may be missing something here, but is this just a fashionable new
use of the word to describe what I've already been doing

Yep, usually over USB, Bluetooth or WiFi (is infrared dead for
phones/laptops now?)

[DevilsPGD]

Post by Andy Burns
Yep, usually over USB, Bluetooth or WiFi (is infrared dead for
phones/laptops now?)

Infrared is finally dead, and hopefully buried for good.

[jasee]

Post by Andy Burns
Yep, usually over USB, Bluetooth or WiFi (is infrared dead for
phones/laptops now?)

Is this really right, I thought it refered to being forced to use only
particular applications with a phone

[Andy Burns]

Post by jasee

Post by Andy Burns
Yep, usually over USB, Bluetooth or WiFi (is infrared dead for
phones/laptops now?)

Is this really right, I thought it refered to being forced to use only
particular applications with a phone

No, that's just a locked-down phone (possibly limited to a walled-garden
too)

[Steve Terry]

Post by Andy Burns

Post by Chris Blunt
I've been connecting my laptop to the internet via mobile phones for
at least the last 10 years now, but I've noticed the use of the word
"tethering" being used recently to describe doing something like this.
I may be missing something here, but is this just a fashionable new
use of the word to describe what I've already been doing

Yep, usually over USB, Bluetooth or WiFi (is infrared dead for
phones/laptops now?)

Yep, but tethering also tends to imply using your phones low cost
internet access meant for Wap use, instead for broadband use on a PC.

Steve Terry

[Chris]

Post by Chris Blunt
I've been connecting my laptop to the internet via mobile phones for
at least the last 10 years now, but I've noticed the use of the word
"tethering" being used recently to describe doing something like this.
I may be missing something here, but is this just a fashionable new
use of the word to describe what I've already been doing, or is there
something more to it?

Some providers have started to charge an extra fee if you want to use
tethering, e.g. using your mobile to connect your computer to the internet.
I guess they were just desperately seeking for a word to name it, and thats
why it is called tethering now.
However, there already exist some workarounds for most devices that would
basically allow the provider to charge extra for that service.
For instance, if you were dump enough to buy an iphone, you will have to jail-
break it and install Cydia in order to use tethering for free.
Cydia is a good idea in any case, since you will get Flash as well (afaik).
Don't worry about possibly voiding the warranty - I heard of many cases of
people returning their jailbroken iphone but not of a single case where Apple
would have denied the warranty.
Cheers,
Chris

[Peter]

Post by Chris
However, there already exist some workarounds for most devices that would
basically allow the provider to charge extra for that service.
For instance, if you were dump enough to buy an iphone, you will have to jail-
break it and install Cydia in order to use tethering for free.
Cydia is a good idea in any case, since you will get Flash as well (afaik).
Don't worry about possibly voiding the warranty - I heard of many cases of
people returning their jailbroken iphone but not of a single case where Apple
would have denied the warranty.

Apple and their antics aside, is there ANY evidence that any network
has ever been *detecting* tethering?

They try to stop it in their small print but that's not the
question...

[Gyp]

Post by Peter
Apple and their antics aside, is there ANY evidence that any network
has ever been *detecting* tethering?
They try to stop it in their small print but that's not the
question...

I think you'll see more of this over the next few months, mainly because
a very small percentage of users are swallowing up a large proportion of
the available bandwidth. i.e. a few people are using their PCs tethered
and are streaming/downloading/torrenting, whilst the majority are just
getting occasional e-mails etc.

To maintain a decent level of service to the vast majority, the networks
have the choice of increasing capacity (expensive) or reducing extreme
usage (not as expensive).

[Andy Burns]

Post by Gyp
I think you'll see more of this over the next few months, mainly because
a very small percentage of users are swallowing up a large proportion of
the available bandwidth.

The move (that some networks have already made, others are just mumbling
about) from "unlimited data" contracts to contracts with 500MB or 1GB of
inclusive data, where the user pays extra if they need more should sort
that out ...

[Chris Blunt]

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:21:04 +0100, Andy Burns

Post by Andy Burns

Post by Gyp
I think you'll see more of this over the next few months, mainly because
a very small percentage of users are swallowing up a large proportion of
the available bandwidth.

The move (that some networks have already made, others are just mumbling
about) from "unlimited data" contracts to contracts with 500MB or 1GB of
inclusive data, where the user pays extra if they need more should sort
that out ...

You mean being honest about describing a product, and selling
customers just what they need so that those who need more pay a bit
more. You'd never get a job with a mobile carrier with ideas like that
;-)

[tim....]

Post by Peter
Apple and their antics aside, is there ANY evidence that any network
has ever been *detecting* tethering?
They try to stop it in their small print but that's not the
question...

I think you'll see more of this over the next few months, mainly because a
very small percentage of users are swallowing up a large proportion of the
available bandwidth. i.e. a few people are using their PCs tethered and
are streaming/downloading/torrenting, whilst the majority are just getting
occasional e-mails etc.

I can't see why.

Most mobile broadband contracts come with a pathetic "fair usage" total
download limit which is completely useless for streaming/torrents. If you
use your mobile for this you go over your download limit in about 30 minutes
so there is no need to "catch" people using a PC to do this, IMHO.

tim

[Chris]

Post by Peter

Post by Chris
However, there already exist some workarounds for most devices that would
basically allow the provider to charge extra for that service.
For instance, if you were dump enough to buy an iphone, you will have to jail-
break it and install Cydia in order to use tethering for free.
Cydia is a good idea in any case, since you will get Flash as well (afaik).
Don't worry about possibly voiding the warranty - I heard of many cases of
people returning their jailbroken iphone but not of a single case where Apple
would have denied the warranty.

Apple and their antics aside, is there ANY evidence that any network
has ever been *detecting* tethering?
They try to stop it in their small print but that's not the
question...

This is not really possible since modern mobile phones are very hard to distinguish
from real computer or netbooks, as they address the same services and protocols.
E.g., you can find Skype and other messenger clients on smartphones as well, and
people are accessing the full internet through their phones, not only wap pages.
Therefore, some mobile operators try to prevent tethering by removing this capability
from the mobile phone software or charging extra for that. However, there are several
possibilities to enable tethering for free if the operator has done so.
Regards,
Chris

[Rupert Moss-Eccardt]

Post by Chris

Post by Peter

Post by Chris
However, there already exist some workarounds for most devices that would
basically allow the provider to charge extra for that service.
For instance, if you were dump enough to buy an iphone, you will have to jail-
break it and install Cydia in order to use tethering for free.
Cydia is a good idea in any case, since you will get Flash as well (afaik).
Don't worry about possibly voiding the warranty - I heard of many cases of
people returning their jailbroken iphone but not of a single case where Apple
would have denied the warranty.

Apple and their antics aside, is there ANY evidence that any network
has ever been *detecting* tethering?
They try to stop it in their small print but that's not the
question...

This is not really possible since modern mobile phones are very hard to distinguish
from real computer or netbooks, as they address the same services and protocols.
E.g., you can find Skype and other messenger clients on smartphones as well, and
people are accessing the full internet through their phones, not only wap pages.
Therefore, some mobile operators try to prevent tethering by removing this capability
from the mobile phone software or charging extra for that. However, there are several
possibilities to enable tethering for free if the operator has done so.
Regards,

Sometimes the access point is different for different SIMs. So I can use
the full broadband APN for Orange with my dongle, but not my HTC S740
which is annoying as my corporate VPN uses HTTPS which can't break out
of the orangeinternet but can from the consumerbroadband.

[Chris]

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt
Sometimes the access point is different for different SIMs. So I can use
the full broadband APN for Orange with my dongle, but not my HTC S740
which is annoying as my corporate VPN uses HTTPS which can't break out
of the orangeinternet but can from the consumerbroadband.

Can't you just add a new APN to your device's configuration?
If it's not possible with the genuine Orange firmware, you should maybe
install an open image.
xda-developers.com is a very helpful ressource for WiMo users.
Regards,
Chris

[Rupert Moss-Eccardt]

Post by Chris

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt
Sometimes the access point is different for different SIMs. So I can use
the full broadband APN for Orange with my dongle, but not my HTC S740
which is annoying as my corporate VPN uses HTTPS which can't break out
of the orangeinternet but can from the consumerbroadband.

Can't you just add a new APN to your device's configuration?
If it's not possible with the genuine Orange firmware, you should maybe
install an open image.
xda-developers.com is a very helpful ressource for WiMo users.

I can add the APN, but traffic doesn't flow as the APN knows my phone
isn't authorised.
That won't change even if I change the firmware. I can, of course, put
the SIM from the dongle in the phone and that works but voice calls then
don't work :-(

[Chris]

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt

Post by Chris

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt
Sometimes the access point is different for different SIMs. So I can use
the full broadband APN for Orange with my dongle, but not my HTC S740
which is annoying as my corporate VPN uses HTTPS which can't break out
of the orangeinternet but can from the consumerbroadband.

Can't you just add a new APN to your device's configuration?
If it's not possible with the genuine Orange firmware, you should maybe
install an open image.
xda-developers.com is a very helpful ressource for WiMo users.

I can add the APN, but traffic doesn't flow as the APN knows my phone
isn't authorised.
That won't change even if I change the firmware. I can, of course, put
the SIM from the dongle in the phone and that works but voice calls then
don't work :-(

But then it's rather a limitation by your carrier.
Can't you get a data option that would allow you to use the other APN?
Another possibility is to build a VPN over https and tunnel all the traffic
through the tunnel. This can easily be done with ssh.
Since the traffic will be encrypted, the provider won't be able to see
what is really going on - however, you will get full internet access.
Regards,
Chris

[Rupert Moss-Eccardt]

Post by Chris

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt

Post by Chris

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt
Sometimes the access point is different for different SIMs. So I can use
the full broadband APN for Orange with my dongle, but not my HTC S740
which is annoying as my corporate VPN uses HTTPS which can't break out
of the orangeinternet but can from the consumerbroadband.

Can't you just add a new APN to your device's configuration?
If it's not possible with the genuine Orange firmware, you should maybe
install an open image.
xda-developers.com is a very helpful ressource for WiMo users.

I can add the APN, but traffic doesn't flow as the APN knows my phone
isn't authorised.
That won't change even if I change the firmware. I can, of course, put
the SIM from the dongle in the phone and that works but voice calls then
don't work :-(

But then it's rather a limitation by your carrier.
Can't you get a data option that would allow you to use the other APN?
Another possibility is to build a VPN over https and tunnel all the traffic
through the tunnel. This can easily be done with ssh.
Since the traffic will be encrypted, the provider won't be able to see
what is really going on - however, you will get full internet access.

But that is what is being blocked at the moment. If I use a old-style
VPN, the Nortel or Cisco ones for example, it works on the
orangeinternet APN. If I use SSTP it doesn't.
It's because the HTTPS proxy out of the walled garden is, I imagine, too
clever for me.

My current data bundle is a really good deal and is on a contract that
has no time to serve. I don't really want to supplant that and I think
also that Orange (under the FR 'simplification' mantra) won't allow
proper data bundles on voice contracts, but I could be wrong.

[Chris]

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt
But that is what is being blocked at the moment. If I use a old-style
VPN, the Nortel or Cisco ones for example, it works on the
orangeinternet APN. If I use SSTP it doesn't.
It's because the HTTPS proxy out of the walled garden is, I imagine, too
clever for me.

Have you really tried to build up a ssh connection to port 443?
That would require a ssh server running on that port of course.
Here in Germany, O2 used to offer a mobile only wap flat without data limit
that actually only allowed http and https connections.
However, clever people abused this offer to tunnel loads of data through
a https-vpn. This did eventually cause O2 to discontninue this offering.
Regards,
Chris

[Theo Markettos]

Post by Chris
Have you really tried to build up a ssh connection to port 443?
That would require a ssh server running on that port of course.
Here in Germany, O2 used to offer a mobile only wap flat without data limit
that actually only allowed http and https connections.
However, clever people abused this offer to tunnel loads of data through
a https-vpn. This did eventually cause O2 to discontninue this offering.

Yes, I've done that. One thing that can go wrong is the HTTPS socket gets
dropped after a period. One Greek mobile network had a 15 second timeout,
which could be avoided with SSH keepalives. But if the network forcibly
drops the connection whether there's traffic or not, you have to reconnect.
Will VPN software seamlessly reconnect every minute or so (for the limit
could be that) if necessary?

It gets worse if the network just blackholes packets after the timeout,
rather than sending a proper disconnect (I have no evidence of that
happening deliberately, but it happens frequently on flaky GPRS connections)

THeo

[Peter]

Post by Chris

Post by Rupert Moss-Eccardt
But that is what is being blocked at the moment. If I use a old-style
VPN, the Nortel or Cisco ones for example, it works on the
orangeinternet APN. If I use SSTP it doesn't.
It's because the HTTPS proxy out of the walled garden is, I imagine, too
clever for me.

Have you really tried to build up a ssh connection to port 443?
That would require a ssh server running on that port of course.
Here in Germany, O2 used to offer a mobile only wap flat without data limit
that actually only allowed http and https connections.
However, clever people abused this offer to tunnel loads of data through
a https-vpn. This did eventually cause O2 to discontninue this offering.
Regards,
Chris

I better be careful moving from my PPTP VPN to a SSH VPN, for
"improved compatibility" :)

Currently, Voda and T-M support PPTP, but few if any others do.

We would have to set up a VPN terminating router at the office, too.

[Dave {Reply Address In.Sig}]

Post by Chris
This is not really possible since modern mobile phones are very hard to
distinguish from real computer or netbooks, as they address the same
services and protocols. E.g., you can find Skype and other messenger
clients on smartphones as well, and people are accessing the full internet
through their phones, not only wap pages. Therefore, some mobile operators
try to prevent tethering by removing this capability from the mobile phone
software or charging extra for that. However, there are several
possibilities to enable tethering for free if the operator has done so.

I upgraded my phone firmware from the telco-supplied version to the generic
and tethering now works, along with instant messaging (there wasn't even an
icon for this originally), SIP over wifi and a few other features.

Next time I get a phone it'll be a generic unlocked one paid for up-front by
me and I'll go for a SIM-only deal from my network of choice.