AT&T Cracking Down on MyWi Tethering?

[sirlance0505]

I got to say my experience was the opposite. I had always used usb to my laptop and never received the warning. Then one day the wife and I were out and needed the iPad2(wifi only) so I said what the hell lets give it a shot. So we tethered up for about 15 minutes or so. Well about 5 days later I get the warning text and email. Called and gave the usual play dumb excuse. Haven't tethered since then and haven't received anymore warnings.

[dadoria2]

Hold the phones.....people reporting that the USB tether may be what got them caught...this is an interesting development that I've not seen discussed here. I halted my tethering after receiving the first round of text, emails, letters because I didn't want to lose my unlimited. On the other hand, someone else I know continued for the next 6 months even knowing my warnings that they bay get caught, but they never received anything, until just recently. They have been using data of at least 2GB each billing period, with some months upwards of 30GB, and had never received anything. Well just recently, they switched to using the USB tether (this is all on MyWi by the way) due to battery conservation issues (WiFi sharing was using too much battery, and draining the battery, even while the device was plugged to a charger). They just received their text, emails, and letters. Can there be something with the USB tether which would be detectable in a way that the WiFi hotspot wouldn't?

It all may just be coincidental timing, but now seeing someone else here say the same thing, made me think further about the situation. Any other ideas anyone?

I personally think its the USB tether. I didn't get caught until I used that function along with tetherme. I've also heard a few other people in different forums mention that as soon as they switched to USB tether they got caught. They also switched to USB for battery drains issues.

[slickvic621]

I got to say my experience was the opposite. I had always used usb to my laptop and never received the warning. Then one day the wife and I were out and needed the iPad2(wifi only) so I said what the hell lets give it a shot. So we tethered up for about 15 minutes or so. Well about 5 days later I get the warning text and email. Called and gave the usual play dumb excuse. Haven't tethered since then and haven't received anymore warnings.

Did you use Bluetooth tethering or WiFi? If Bluetooth, that may make sense, since they are built onto the OS, and MyWi may just be piggy-backing off the built in protocol, possibly making it detectable. The WiFi hotspot was built by the MyWi devs prior to iOS inclusion, I believe, thus built without going through possibly detectable channels. I do realize that the same occurred when tethering was first built for the jailbreak community without Apples built in protocol, but it seems like devs have just piggy-backed off this since Apples inclusion, and used the built in protocols going forward, since what's the point in rebuilding something that's already built in. None of this may be correct, but if it were the case, it may make sense, and the pieces may be falling into place.

I realize that there are far more numerous ways of detecting tethering, but if the above is true, it would be the easiest and most cost effective way for AT&T to detect it, through the use of these built in protocols, that are directed through specific channels at AT&T.

I know this thread is dying, but I would love to hear some of the more intellectuals input on these thoughts. Tell me how stupid I am...

Thanks for listening.

[dadoria2]

I'll have to say you might be onto something with your logic. Prior to ios 4.3 including support for native tethering with AT&T, mywi used the iPhones wifi fiction as an adhoc connection with other devices. That was mywi 4.0 I believe. After the update to 4.3 mywi adopted infrastructure mode and used the iPhones native protocols. You can see the update log on the mywi page in Cydia. After that update is when I received my first warning text. A friend of mine still uses mywi 4.0 on iOS 4.1. He's not tech savvy so I used to do his updates until he moved. But he still hasn't received a single warning with mywi and he uses his phone as his only source of home Internet

Did you use Bluetooth tethering or WiFi? If Bluetooth, that may make sense, since they are built onto the OS, and MyWi may just be piggy-backing off the built in protocol, possibly making it detectable. The WiFi hotspot was built by the MyWi devs prior to iOS inclusion, I believe, thus built without going through possibly detectable channels. I do realize that the same occurred when tethering was first built for the jailbreak community without Apples built in protocol, but it seems like devs have just piggy-backed off this since Apples inclusion, and used the built in protocols going forward, since what's the point in rebuilding something that's already built in. None of this may be correct, but if it were the case, it may make sense, and the pieces may be falling into place.

I realize that there are far more numerous ways of detecting tethering, but if the above is true, it would be the easiest and most cost effective way for AT&T to detect it, through the use of these built in protocols, that are directed through specific channels at AT&T.

I know this thread is dying, but I would love to hear some of the more intellectuals input on these thoughts. Tell me how stupid I am...

Thanks for listening.

I'll have to say you might be onto something with your logic. Prior to ios 4.3 including support for native tethering with AT&T, mywi used the iPhones wifi function as an adhoc connection with other devices. That was mywi 4.0 I believe. After the update to 4.3 mywi adopted infrastructure mode and used the iPhones native protocols. You can see the update log on the mywi page in Cydia. After that update is when I received my first warning text. A friend of mine still uses mywi 4.0 on iOS 4.1. He's not tech savvy so I used to do his updates until he moved. But he still hasn't received a single warning with mywi and he uses his phone as his only source of home Internet

[sirlance0505]

Wifi only. Never used Bluetooth. When using USB I have my TTL changed and use safari browser with the user agent switched to iPhone 4.1. Funny how I never received a notice till I tethered the iPad.

[amyking]

great

[hadzo]

Can more people confirm this theory... I am sitting on two warnings and have started a tread somewhere here when first received a warning so I don't want to gamble now... Thanks!