ATT, tethering and download limits - Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III General

Hello all,
First of all I am new here and to hacking phones. Plenty of experience hacking everything else though. lol
I am a real estate agent. Finally, the ATT HTC Tilt is a device that will meet my needs! I do not want to pay for the tethering plan. The basic 20MB/$30 per month data plan may or may not be enough for me so I need some advice. For $10 more, I may just get the $40 unlimited PDA deal which does not include tethering.
1st - All I will need the device for is emails and checking the MLS websites. I can get an idea of my email amount but what is an average web page?
2nd - I know I can tether without paying them for it and I plan on doing so. I am not going to download huge files. I would just like to connect my laptop, cruise the Multiple Listing Service website and be able to show clients the data on a nice big laptop screen. Do you think that would send ATT any red flags?
3rd - If I use some of the hacks/ROMs here to get rid of the ATT garbage (as I have read this is a smart thing to do) will it effect my ability to tether?
Occasionally I may have to download a a 5 or 10 MB PDF form. Normally, I would already have that on my laptop ahead of time though.
Thanks for your opinions and guidance. I know some of these questions have been addressed but I just wanted to confirm this for my situation since I will be leaving Verizon for ATT and buying a new phone and cannot afford to screw up. lol
By the way, this website rocks!!! A true treasure!

1. Average website is about 2KB to 100KB, depending on the number of images. Things like flash animations, videos, sound, or very large images will make pages much bigger.
2. Make sure your bandwidth usage is not huge, and it will not set off any red flags, there is no way for them to know you are tethering besides guessing based on your bandwidth usage. With the $40 PDA plan, the "limit" is already pretty high, so you don't have much to worry about.
3. Won't affect you ability to tether, as long as the ROM you chose still has the internet sharing software still on it. The stock HTC ROM does have it, but some of the "light" ROMs may not. Many people actually seem to like the stock AT&T ROM, after tweaking it. Consider these tweaks instead of reflashing, as reflashing will void your warantee.

Jozer99 said:
3. Won't affect you ability to tether, as long as the ROM you chose still has the internet sharing software still on it. The stock HTC ROM does have it, but some of the "light" ROMs may not. Many people actually seem to like the stock AT&T ROM, after tweaking it. Consider these tweaks instead of reflashing, as reflashing will void your warantee.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jozer is totally correct, DO NOT FLASH it, just tweak it. The AT&T ROM is fine after you stop the bloatware install. To do that, when you first get the device and boot it up you will have to go thru the normal OS prompts (time, screen alignemnt, password, etc) then you will see a dialog that says that it will customer the device in 3 seconds. Reboot the device before the 3 seconds are up and none ofthe bloatware will be installed.
Then, just tweak away will all the cool cabs here on this site (of course, I mean the cabs for the Kaiser).

WOW...good stuff and made crystal clear too. Thanks so much guys. I would like to just tweak as you both recommend since I have enough headaches and don't want to get radical in the first few months of a new plan any way.lol
Does anyone recommend dealing with ATT directly or can I find a better deal online without customer service headaches if help is needed down the road? I have never bought from online, I always went directly to the store.
I have seen some good prices on the http://www.letstalk.com/product/browse.htm?pgId=100 website.

Related

wm6 grps doesn't work (tmobile)

All of a suddden today my internet won't work (tzones 5.99 plan). I have the 2.19 cingular rom and it has been working great till today. I did many soft-resets and wanted to hear other suggestions before I do a hard-reset or possibly a downgrade to aku3.3..
any suggestions?
commit dat
hiimcliff said:
commit dat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, wtf is that? I am running pdaviet3, if that is what you're asking.
have you set up tzones to work with your wm6?
yea it has been working for over a month on wm6 now. I had a issue last week and a softrestart fixed it. The problem was with spb insight which I uninstalled now. Softrestarts don't do anything now.. not sure what happened.
wierd.. ok.. and its working again. That was odd, I hope it stays functional now.
frayes said:
wierd.. ok.. and its working again. That was odd, I hope it stays functional now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get it to work? Im having the same problem.
tzones no longer works check www.howardforums.com tmobile section for details. they blocked all ports and only allow limited wap access, u need to change to the 19.99 blackberry plan inorder to use the inet on ur mda.. ****ty i know.
It seems full access is back on for the moment with TMobile. There are several dozen threads in many forums about access being turned on and off as apparently TMobile works on the network.
The only official statement I have seen TMobile make is that 3rd party apps are going to be disabled soon.
My guess is they are preparing their system for the new highspeed band and using the current one to test various methods of restricting access. This may possibly mean adding more payment tiers or levels of speed. Just a guess on my part but in my opinion a welcome feature. To be able to pick and choose several features (push email, msging, speed, or data caps) tailored to individual usage would be ideal.
Tmobile seems to be frustrating a lot of people by turning on and off access to their system without any public notice. Seems like they should just make a statement on their intent.
Posts on Howard forums and here confirm TMobile is tightning up internet access. Recent "internal memo leak" indicates they were attempting to stop access for 3rd party apps. Also attemping to stop people on tzones sbility to recive anything but wap material.
Just be aware the "free ride is coming to a end soon".
As a bonus they also appear to be messing up the paying customers and aggravating them too.
Please save the messing with a loyal customer talk or for xxx speed and price I'm leaving for the Tmobile csr's because no one here cares if you lost your free or discounted access.
i posted the info here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=295792
if u look in forums its titled
""Say Goodbye To Using Tzones Or Blackberry Internet On Mda/dash/sda""

Data usage

Apologies if this is not the right place to ask but....
I am considering getting an HTC Diamond Touch and I am on O2. Their "unlimited" data plan has a fair usage policy of 200Mb per month. Is this enough? I intend using push email, my personal IMAP email (with regular polling) and some web browsing, perhaps the odd bit of YouTube etc etc.
Also, if I am connected to my WiFi router at home and browsing the web, I assume that O2 dont know anything about that and it does not form part of the 200Mb.
Thanks
The Jones said:
Apologies if this is not the right place to ask but....
I am considering getting an HTC Diamond Touch and I am on O2. Their "unlimited" data plan has a fair usage policy of 200Mb per month. Is this enough? I intend using push email, my personal IMAP email (with regular polling) and some web browsing, perhaps the odd bit of YouTube etc etc.
Also, if I am connected to my WiFi router at home and browsing the web, I assume that O2 dont know anything about that and it does not form part of the 200Mb.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Each person has different requirements, however in my opinion, its no where near enough.
Will O2 care if you go over though?...
For everything you mentioned, except YouTube, I think 200Mb/month would be enough. But of course, it depends on HOW much YouTube you are planning to 'use'.
I don't have any numbers on how much data I use though, since my operator (Tele2Comviq, Sweden) allows up to 5Gb before they limit the transfer speed to 30kb/s.
Thanks for the responses, but not sure if it clears things up for me! I do wonder what O2 will do if I start to go over, might be worth a try!
As for the WiFi access, is my assumption correct?
The Jones said:
Thanks for the responses, but not sure if it clears things up for me! I do wonder what O2 will do if I start to go over, might be worth a try!
As for the WiFi access, is my assumption correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct!
Thanks again. I think I will take the risk and try it. I will try and remember to post back here with my results (if O2 have not already cut me off)
If you go over the fair usage limit, they are liable to start charging you £7.50Mb
chriswren said:
If you go over the fair usage limit, they are liable to start charging you £7.50Mb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't go barmy ouch
I don't know specifically about O2, but pretty much everyone, unless you're paying an extra premium for a "more unlimited than unlimited" internet access, block or exclude in the T&Cs streaming media like youtube. Check the small print.
You will definitely need more than that - but speak to them first if you are re-negotiating your contract. I was with them and they gave me a free data bundle which was much more than 200mb when I threatened to go to T-Mobile but then I did anyway as I could do without the hassle.
I do know though that with any 'fair usage' you can not simply be charged straight away, you should be given warning that you are approaching your limit. Having just checked my O2 conditions (which could be out of date) they will contact you to discuss your plan and if you continue to go over they have the right to request you stop or they can charge you. I've yet to hear of any of my friends being charged and I know they go over.

New to the Dream, questions! (and yes i searched for these first!)

what up yall! My ATT tilt died a few weeks ago (flex cable went bad, decided it was time to move on) so i got a G1 from my buddy that had a broken digitizer and LCD. ordered the parts online and got it put back together today. few questions though.... it seems that about the bottom 1/4 inch of my touch screen dosent respond....its brand new and the rest of it works fin...just the small strip that seems to not work. any ideas? also t mobile are assholes...i cant get them to unlock it but i will work on that one...im quite sure that answer is on here. Also...do i really need to get a data package or can i choose to keep my phone from constantly connecting and updating my gmail and other apps? thats the reason i continue to get HTC is because i think data plans are silly when everywhere in america has WiFI....i think thats all for now...and ive been a member on here for quite sometime but this android mess is totally different. lol. thank yall!
That 1/4" at the bottoms sounds like a bad digitizer. =/ *Most* likely not software. But you can check by flashing a new ROM and if its a software problem, the new ROM will override whatever was causing it not to work before.
You can get it unlocked for $20 from one of many unlocking websites, just google it. You can't get it free anywhere other than T-Mobile sorry to say.
You don't *need* a data package, I don't have one. There are applications that can disable your data connection except for when you need it (i.e. MMS). Or its a built-in widget with the Hero ROMs.
Unless you have a rooted ROM, you will be required to use your data to even use your phone for the first time as it requires you to sign in to your Google account, but doesn't give you the option to use WiFi. But honestly, I think this phone is crippled without a data connection even if you don't use it all the time, I'm currently waiting for my current plan to end to sign another 2-year contract with data. But its up to you, its certainly still usable with enough WiFi connection points.
darn....its not very fun to take apart...plus i have to wait even longer...im currently using an old school , non color green screen nokia probably digitizer and not some random flex cable along the lines? maybe the black one? i guess there wouldnt be any way to check without replacing. and im not real addicted to any apps or anything, just mainly want it as phone/organizer. im a studennt and have wi fi at the house and at school, and every bar i go to has wi fi so i think im covered =) just making sure i could regulate it so it dosent pull and jack my bill up. if i were to flash a new rom, wouldnt that unlock it....and can you still downgrade it to rc29 when you dont have a t mobile sim card....or rather is there any other way besides adp or should i just go ahead and learn how to use it...seems a bit intimidating to anything ive done on a WMo phone.
you can use apndroid to block data from being used accidentally
flashing a rom will not unlock the phone.
Yes you can downgrade to RC29 without a tmo card
mmmk. so rooting and flashing a HTC rom wouldnt do it? if im correct i either have to go through t-mobile or i have to pay like 20 bucks so i can use it with ATT?
ztch10 said:
mmmk. so rooting and flashing a HTC rom wouldnt do it? if im correct i either have to go through t-mobile or i have to pay like 20 bucks so i can use it with ATT?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct.
h.nocturna said:
Unless you have a rooted ROM, you will be required to use your data to even use your phone for the first time as it requires you to sign in to your Google account, but doesn't give you the option to use WiFi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried it myself, but this thread tells you how to get around that.
note how that thread tells you to obtain root...
B-man007 said:
note how that thread tells you to obtain root...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant get around not having a Data connection. Rooting is obviously not optional.
Chahk said:
I meant get around not having a Data connection. Rooting is obviously not optional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah ok i figured he already found that or would.
sorry
You can root without data. Just activate wifi at RC29 when trying to sign in
Chahk said:
I meant get around not having a Data connection. Rooting is obviously not optional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooted ROMs usually have an option to just skip signing into Google don't they? I know they have that for Hero for sure, but I was pretty sure they implemented that to all the cupcake/Donut ROMs too no?
Basically, you'll only need to use that with RC29. And if you do need to sign in and don't wanna use the work around, I would just go ahead and use the data, its only a few KB of info I think (I've never actually measured it, but I very small amounts on my bill even if I do use it to sign in, also using ATT btw).
h.nocturna said:
Rooted ROMs usually have an option to just skip signing into Google don't they? I know they have that for Hero for sure, but I was pretty sure they implemented that to all the cupcake/Donut ROMs too no?
Basically, you'll only need to use that with RC29. And if you do need to sign in and don't wanna use the work around, I would just go ahead and use the data, its only a few KB of info I think (I've never actually measured it, but I very small amounts on my bill even if I do use it to sign in, also using ATT btw).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all ROM's based on adp (and most modded tmo) have the option to skip (at least im pretty sure)
He just wants to activate his phone without data, which would require him to get down to a root level rom (RC29)
after he logs in, he has the option to root or wait for the OTA update if he wants to stay stock
if he wants to try to use his data, he can try but it doesnt always work (it did for me at first, but not the next few times)
ok so update... believe it was a bad digitizer...sending it back monday for a replacement so a few more days without the new toy) I got it registered to my Gmail and everything, and im currently waiting on my unlock code, so that is squared away. now...new questions.....
1. can i not just uncheck the auto sync and all the other data options or do i have to run adp? to make sure it dosent stay connecting and updating my mail and apps?
2. what positives do i have with rooting/flashing? obviously most of you probably have gone that route, and i really enjoyed flashing with my Tilt and having the newest WinMo, but it was always at the cost of it either being buggy or somethings not working. i know this can be searched but i want the simple answer if yall dont mind
3. i also noticed that the only thing so far that dosent work, is the camera/camcorder. keep in mind i got this phone with a broken lcd/digi. so there may have been other problems but i couldnt tell untill the screen was replaced. could it be i put it back together and missed a cable/contact for the camera, or could it just be software related?
...for now i think thats all the problems i have stumbled across... Thanks you all you are making this very easy for a Android Newbie!
ztch10 said:
ok so update... believe it was a bad digitizer...sending it back monday for a replacement so a few more days without the new toy) I got it registered to my Gmail and everything, and im currently waiting on my unlock code, so that is squared away. now...new questions.....
1. can i not just uncheck the auto sync and all the other data options or do i have to run adp? to make sure it dosent stay connecting and updating my mail and apps?
2. what positives do i have with rooting/flashing? obviously most of you probably have gone that route, and i really enjoyed flashing with my Tilt and having the newest WinMo, but it was always at the cost of it either being buggy or somethings not working. i know this can be searched but i want the simple answer if yall dont mind
3. i also noticed that the only thing so far that dosent work, is the camera/camcorder. keep in mind i got this phone with a broken lcd/digi. so there may have been other problems but i couldnt tell untill the screen was replaced. could it be i put it back together and missed a cable/contact for the camera, or could it just be software related?
...for now i think thats all the problems i have stumbled across... Thanks you all you are making this very easy for a Android Newbie!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. That would stop just contacts, calendar, and gmail not all of the other apps that come with the phone
2. Rooting is definitely worth it, loving my hero rom
3. If your on RC29 there is no camcorder, but if not then it's definitely a hardware issue, when I was on stock everything worked fine
Just FYI: the unlock code is phone specific, so if your getting a replacement, the unlock code wont work on that one if the code you got was for the other.
1) If you want to disable data, download and run APNDroid. You can turn off autosync if you want but data will still be used.
2) Rooting has lots of advantages. Themes, faster updates (i.e youll get the latest android before its released OTA) more modifications, use of certain apps such as Ad-Free, etc. cooked android roms are more stable than winmo cooked roms, and you have the option between stable/experimental
3) if it was stock, its probably a hardware error
so could i potenitally not have any apps and not have a data pull problem? or it seems as though just rooting and flashing to hero (would you all go hero, or newer 1.6 stock rom, or custom 1.6?) and ill be taking it back apart to send the bad digitzer back, so ill check the ol camera out. still is stock T-mobile 1.5....no rc29 or anything....yet...
if you still have 1.5, you can use the 1 click root
im using hero right now, but i switch between hero and cyan using the switchrom script
the g1 on stock android will still use data even if you have everything disabled. the only way to completely disable it is by changing the apns, or by disabling mobile data on a hero rom
what was wrong with the camera? give a little more detail so we know if it really is a hardware or software problem
Quiccest way to get unlock code..just tellem you are goin to the uk or sum and you are in need of unlocking since u will be on there network for a while.. Usually that works!

Tmobile blocking tether now. Anyone else?

I'm running chromatic and as of 3 this morning tmobile is blocking my tether. Has this happened to anyone else yet? They want to upsell me to add tethering for 15 more a month and it still has the 5gb cap (Total BS) The built in wired tether and pdanet both aren't working, don't know about wifi tether yet but I'm assuming its blocked too. I found some posts by some g2 users this has happened to. Any one else? I'm glad im paying $30 for "unlimited" data. Aholes.
Thanks!
Sent from my Chromatic Dream using XDA App
Wireless tether aka wifi tether for rooted phones from code.google.com should still work. I've seen other reports of such blocks with market programs.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
They popped me last night. G1 rooted running wifi tether for root users and pdanet. This sucks REALLY bad.
im using tether now to be on xda and facebook. im in new mexico and the only message ive gotten from tmoblie was there were slowing my download speeds for hitting my cap with unlimited data plan lol.
I have a rooted G1, and I usually use wifi-tether or Barnacle. Tried PDANet as well.
I've received 8 text-messages from Tmobile regarding my tethering being blocked. Odd thing was, I was streaming pandora-radio on the phone during a long car drive (~5 hours) while these things beeped away at me. I had tethered earlier for a few minutes to check my gmail.
Later when I tried to tether to check my email, any http requests direct me to an upsell message. However, Remote-desktop still works, FTP still works, and most everything except plain webpages work. Tmobile is asking $15/mo for 200MB of data, with $0.10/MB overage charges ontop of your 10GB "unlimited" plan.
I'm unsure of how they detect tethering. It seems to be based off of bandwidth usage, as there's no way for them to discern whether this is phone traffic or laptop traffic. The other thing that could be a possible giveaway is the number of connections that are open. I'd imagine the laptop has a few things open for windows update, msn messenger and who knows what, whereas the phone has Browser and Lattitude.
Regardless, this is balls.
user agent string
If they are blocking web browser traffic, but not other TCP/IP services like FTP or remote desktop, there's a chance they are fingerprinting non-phone web requests by looking at the user agent string. An interesting test would be whether or not you're able to still make HTTPS-only requests with the web browser on your desktop or laptop. It would take some evil hackery for them to be able to retrieve the user agent string from an HTTPS request.
See 14.43 of the HTTP 1.1 spec for a description of the user agent string.
Got around it by setting up an openvpn on cyanogen 6.1.0. Even if im not using tethering, im still gonna use openvpn for my data traffic, as they are probably using deep packet inspection, which means we no longer have any privacy on tmobiles network.
Im thinking about changing the default port to 443 so as far as they are concerned, im just browsing ssl sites on my phone (port 443 is the default ssl port for web browsing and openvpn uses ssl for encryption).
If you use this method, just be sure to reset you dns to to googles (8.8.8.8) otherwise they can still tell whether or not your tethering based on my experience.
Im seriously considering switching to sprint as i would actually be willing to pay for their tethering, i get 4g in my area and i have a lot of respect for sprint for not capping their 4g.
Maybe if tmobile offered more bandwidth or other features for their 15 bucks a month I would actually be willing to pay for it, but i AM NOT paying for data that I allready paid for. Data is data to them, my cap isnt changing, why should i pay more to pipe my data to my computer.
Correct me if I'm wrong but tethering for $15 essentially removes the 5gb throttled cap. Its the same as Sprint and their $10 fee. The 200mb plan is just a lower tier.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
JustinTArthur said:
An interesting test would be whether or not you're able to still make HTTPS-only requests with the web browser on your desktop or laptop. It would take some evil hackery for them to be able to retrieve the user agent string from an HTTPS request.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Https to mail.google.com works just fine!
funkeee said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but tethering for $15 essentially removes the 5gb throttled cap. Its the same as Sprint and their $10 fee. The 200mb plan is just a lower tier.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
last time I was working the tmobile call-center for T3DS (spring 2010), the cap was 10GB. Although, that was nearly a year ago now. Samson had a lil' checkbox for "throttled" that was enabled at 10GB. perhaps a year and a half ago, maybe two now, they had disabled tethering previousy system-wide. Although back then I had a Motorola Krzr with no data, so I really had no clue what was affected.
The $15 thing is to enable tethering. two days ago it was offering me something around 40-50 dollars for "unlimited" (atop the $30 i pay for unlimited data), and $15 for 200MB (atop of the $30 i play for unlimited data). Of course, you must have a data-plan already in place. Looking at it again today, the page is different. It presents me with a mini terms of service, a button to add this package to my plan to enable tethering. No mention or word of cost.
And, visiting my.tmobile.com like it suggests... there's nothing on the official Tmobile website that I can find for the tethering package.
So, being the typical t-mo customer that I am, I called up the 1-800 number to whine and complain. I mostly want these annoying text-messages to stop. The rep said he could add on the tethering package for me, but I declined. He also offered to hand this over to his buisness group to see if these messages are being sent out in error.
TLDR: If I have to pay $85/mo minimum for smartphone with tethering abilities, i'd rather just give Verizon a call.
starnostar said:
Got around it by setting up an openvpn on cyanogen 6.1.0. Even if im not using tethering, im still gonna use openvpn for my data traffic, as they are probably using deep packet inspection, which means we no longer have any privacy on tmobiles network.
Im thinking about changing the default port to 443 so as far as they are concerned, im just browsing ssl sites on my phone (port 443 is the default ssl port for web browsing and openvpn uses ssl for encryption).
If you use this method, just be sure to reset you dns to to googles (8.8.8.8) otherwise they can still tell whether or not your tethering based on my experience.
Im seriously considering switching to sprint as i would actually be willing to pay for their tethering, i get 4g in my area and i have a lot of respect for sprint for not capping their 4g.
Maybe if tmobile offered more bandwidth or other features for their 15 bucks a month I would actually be willing to pay for it, but i AM NOT paying for data that I allready paid for. Data is data to them, my cap isnt changing, why should i pay more to pipe my data to my computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never successfully set up openvpn before, could you assist with this? Or is there a guide you recommend for beginners?
work around
was cut off last night.
tried the "user agent switcher" plugin for firefox to see if they are blocking browsers rather than the tethering itself.
With limited testing, i found several agents that work. iphone 3.0 to name one... Now to figure a way to keep the web looking nice using these agents.
I just received my first text warning and was cut off immediately....the 5gig throttle was already a huge kick to my nuts...now they want me to pay to tether and still be under the same cap?! I hit 5gigs WITHOUT tether...I really don't know how tmo expects to keep any smartphone customers like this...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
The solution to this is very easy;
EVERYBODY needs to call up tmobile and tell them that you were NOT tethering, but changed the USER AGENT ON YOUR PHONE in order to make websites actually work since douchebag websites read that the user agent is for MOBILE and send you to their crippled mobile websites.
dhkr123 said:
The solution to this is very easy;
EVERYBODY needs to call up tmobile and tell them that you were NOT tethering, but changed the USER AGENT ON YOUR PHONE in order to make websites actually work since douchebag websites read that the user agent is for MOBILE and send you to their crippled mobile websites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... You can call them all you like. Previously working for a tmobile call-center, I can assure you little will be done. If I received the call, I would be opening up samson and checking your usage history. The billing system logs just about every bit of data transfered, although I cant remember if it lists URL's anymore. I would suggest telling them that you were tethering, decline on the upsell offer of the tethering package because you feel your "unlimited data" package actually means unlimited, then you can also tell them that it is interfering with the phones operation by itself even when you arnt tethering, and request some sort of further troubleshooting/ticket creation.
If you say you arnt tethering, but DID tether, we could usually see judging by how many connections were initiated over a period of time... There's only so much an android phone can do at once. Regardless, as a data/tech rep, the next step would be filing a network trouble-ticket and putting in your information for an "engineer" to review over. Theres little (if not nothing) for the follow-up/callback process. At this point I would be telling you an engineer/tech would review over it, and try to end the call by up-selling you a newer phone.
TLDR: Unless things have changed in the past year, You will only talk to customer-care rep's, and have no chance of getting your concerns to those who have any power over these decisions. However if you do call in, please be polite and patient with the rep. I've called in and informed them that these are being erroneously generated, and they've taken the time to make a ticket for me. (they were, I got 8 of the damned things while listening to pandora on my phone)
hauppage said:
Well... You can call them all you like. Previously working for a tmobile call-center, I can assure you little will be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for a single call, but if EVERYBODY called and complained about it, it WOULD be dealt with.
If I received the call, I would be opening up samson and checking your usage history. The billing system logs just about every bit of data transfered, although I cant remember if it lists URL's anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go ahead and check the usage history. A smartphone is capable of generating EXACTLY the same data use as a tethered computer.
I would suggest telling them that you were tethering, decline on the upsell offer of the tethering package because you feel your "unlimited data" package actually means unlimited, then you can also tell them that it is interfering with the phones operation by itself even when you arnt tethering, and request some sort of further troubleshooting/ticket creation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that is EXACTLY what you do NOT want to do, because as soon as you do that, all discussion is over.
If you say you arnt tethering, but DID tether, we could usually see judging by how many connections were initiated over a period of time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might have been the case in years gone by, but no longer.
There's only so much an android phone can do at once.
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Huh? The limiting factor here is the NETWORK, not the hardware. It is TRIVIAL to open up dozens of connections for lots of different services on lots of different servers. Just because it is beyond YOU does not mean that **I** can't do it.
Regardless, as a data/tech rep, the next step would be filing a network trouble-ticket and putting in your information for an "engineer" to review over. Theres little (if not nothing) for the follow-up/callback process. At this point I would be telling you an engineer/tech would review over it, and try to end the call by up-selling you a newer phone.
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And once that request has been filed, you don't think that statistics will be run on the nature of the various requests? 200 thousand complaints about this nonsense knocking out normal phone data traffic, you don't think that would be noticed?
TLDR: Unless things have changed in the past year, You will only talk to customer-care rep's, and have no chance of getting your concerns to those who have any power over these decisions. However if you do call in, please be polite and patient with the rep. I've called in and informed them that these are being erroneously generated, and they've taken the time to make a ticket for me. (they were, I got 8 of the damned things while listening to pandora on my phone)
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As I've said, numbers talk. I certainly don't advocate calling up and threatening anyone, but if the numbers are overwhelming, then corrective actions MUST be taken.
Please look at my post regarding T-mobile tethering
[/COLOR]I'm pretty sure I know what T-Mobile did.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26649587#post26649587

[Q] SGH-T599N Network Mods?

I've had the SGH-T599N since October, and, coming from the Samsung Admire with all its roms and mods and support, I've found having this phone to be, well, not as great.
My 2 main gripes with using internet on this phone, are that some sites I go to just don't quite work right with however MetroPCS/T-Mobile has their network setup, which I'll sort of elaborate on, and as of late, the, for lack of better phrasing, the peaking and subsequent slowdown of my internet speeds.
I'll start with the latter, since it's easier to explain, and because I tend to ramble, I'll state the question again before explaining:
1. Is there any way I can mod this phone to bypass automatic network speed capping?
I have MetroPCS's unlimited 4G plan, which ran at satisfactory speeds always at hundreds of KB/s until recently, which I assume is due to my speeds being capped out of over-usage. Considering I use USB tethering daily, this is not shocking. The thing is, I could get around that with my Samsung Admire thanks to this mod: http://androidforums.com/admire-all-things-root/563714-mod-data-governor-remover.html and by extension, this mod: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=888372
Considering that was a 2.3.4/Gingerbread OS phone, this is a 4.1.2 phone, and I've looked around both of these forum sites long enough to know not to do any phone modding without extensive research and to wait for the bugs to be sorted out by others, I dare not even get my hopes up about being able to do that with this phone unless there's a confirmed forum post saying I can. Before that, I also found ways around the limits of my 3G network area that's bogged down by the sheer number of users, as thanks to QPST, but falls under the same situation. I don't even want to try modifying the build.prop, much less those deeper settings on my own for risk of breaking/bricking the one and only phone I have and still need to have functioning fully for many more months. So far, I've only gotten around all this by turning my phone and maybe the mobile network on and off, because the slowdown lock takes a couple minutes of use to kick in.
2. Can I change the network settings of this phone in a productive/significant manner, via APN changing, QPST, ROMs, or other such mods?
I've done all of these before on my Admire without any permanent errors. I found that APN Manager Pro is too outdated for this OS, and have yet to try similar APN programs for risk of permanent network damage. I cannot currently recall any significant mention of using QPST on this phone, or even this OS, so I've not tried that. The only ROMs I know of are Unjustified Dev's, both of which break the video camera functionality, which I have to have working. The only thing I've even done to this phone is root it and put ClockWorkMod from this page http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2421743. I haven't even bothered with the odexed files, bloatware, and such yet because I mostly use this phone as just a camcorder, an internet modem, and of course, a phone.
I wonder about this because it may indirectly solve the first problem, but there's different issues as well...I'll just explain:
Now, I notice that some sites I try to use with this phone simply fail to work as properly as they would if I were using a Wi-Fi network, something that also happened with my Admire. Unfortunately I don't have many examples that I can share for one reason or another other than these following two, which luckily involve big name websites. However, they may or may not prove useless in the end, so I'll put them in spoiler tags to be easily skipped over to go on to the more important part.
When I tried to access Tumblr with my old phone's network, whether I'm on my phone or USB tethering to my laptop, it always refused to let me log in, meaning I had to go to a Wi-Fi network and log in from there first, and then, if I wanted to "ask a question" aka submit a message to any of the blogs/pages I'm following/subscribed to, they would always say that that function is not available "at this time", which basically means forever since it seems to involve some error on Metro's side that'll never be fixed. I know it's not some kind of script error on the browser end, because if I stop the page from loading at the right moment, the text input field would actually display and maybe even work, rather than be dummied out by some eternal error message that doesn't even come up if I were using any other network.
Also, on my current phone, when I try to upload a video to Youtube on an associate's account while tethering to my laptop, it refuses to upload, much less even recognizing that I'm trying to upload, as it stays at 0 percent. This is also circumvented by just using a different internet connection. This does not ever happen when I'm using my own account, however, and I've managed to circumvent by changing the browser's user agent or switching browser completely.
Now, I said that the above two examples may not even be relevant, because these may be issues only I can reproduce. For some sites, I manage to get around the issues with different web browsers and/or user agent or proxy settings, but I sometimes get Gateway Timeout messages and other such unavoidable errors on sites that imply server side problems, but don't come up when I use other internet connections. Because the issues vary from site to site, I'm only asking for a verified method I can test directly on the phone, on my own, to get around these problems.
That's should explain enough of, if not all of the issues I'm having network-wise. It might seem like rambling, but it's better for me to explain it all now than for someone that actually has the answer to come by only to be missing one crucial bit of info. In case it is just rambling, to reiterate:
I have the 4.1.2 OS phone SGH-T599N, the Samsung Galaxy Exhibit from MetroPCS, which has been rooted along with CWM, but no other modifications. I'm trying to modify the network settings, and need a confirmed method, not a guess, on how to go about it.
Have you tried using a different browser? Opera will usually do things that chrome/stock can't. There are also YouTube uploader apps out there.
I think that if there was a magic hack to circumvent metro throttling out there it would at least have a sticky.
DevilDogg said:
Have you tried using a different browser? Opera will usually do things that chrome/stock can't. There are also YouTube uploader apps out there.
I think that if there was a magic hack to circumvent metro throttling out there it would at least have a sticky.
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Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Stock, no matter what browser I use, it fails to load. It's a network problem, not a browser problem. I also don't quite see any such app allowing me to schedule video posting, when even the Youtube app doesn't have this account specific function. What I do see is bunch of Youtube player apps and downloader apps, but no uploaders. Even if there was one with the option, I'd still have to go back to my laptop for it anyway, because there's a lot of information and tags I have to add to the videos, most of which is automatically loaded from Youtube's settings when using a comp, none of which shows up on a mobile.
As for the hack, considering the one I linked worked for me, but not for others, a mod that works only for certain networks isn't really the kind of thing that should be stickied. If this thread turns into a discussion on that, I'll never get a legitimate answer.
Suppose I need to bump this thread, since it got moved, and is over taken by the other threads.

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