Can Orange Detect Tethering?
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From: Phil on 25 Apr 2010 21:34 My wife has an Orange contract, it comes with 500MB of internet usage every month. Strictly speaking tethering is against Orange's T&C's, but can they actually detect it? We are going on holiday for a week soon (UK) and it would be good if we could hook the phone up to the laptop for a bit of surfing. I don't however want to be in a situation where they can find out and start charging per MB even though she gets a 500MB allowance. Any idea if they can detect tethering?
From: T i m on 26 Apr 2010 03:44 On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:34:00 +0100, Phil <philusenet(a)gmail.com> wrote: >My wife has an Orange contract, it comes with 500MB of internet usage >every month. Strictly speaking tethering is against Orange's T&C's, but >can they actually detect it? We are going on holiday for a week soon >(UK) and it would be good if we could hook the phone up to the laptop >for a bit of surfing. I don't however want to be in a situation where >they can find out and start charging per MB even though she gets a 500MB >allowance. > >Any idea if they can detect tethering? I'm still interested in the answer to a similar question but for Vodafone. If it's generally in the T&C's that it's not allowed then I guess we already have an answer but as you say, we also have an allowance to 'browse the Internet on the phone' , I can't see (morally anyway) that doing the same 'through' the phone would be any different from their providing the bandwidth pov? Taking the SIM out of the phone and putting it in a dongle could considered a step too far though (technically no different and probably equally against the T&Cs etc but at least the other way you are just using the phone but with a bigger screen). ;-) Cheers, T i m
From: alexd on 26 Apr 2010 15:31 On 26/04/10 08:44, T i m wrote: > On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:34:00 +0100, Phil<philusenet(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> Any idea if they can detect tethering? > > I'm still interested in the answer to a similar question but for > Vodafone. Yes, any network operator can have a go at passively fingerprinting what OS you're using by looking at, say, User Agent strings from browsers, email clients, etc - if your IMEI says you've got a Nokia N95, you're not likely to be using IE8 on it or downloading Sophos updates, are you? They may also be able to look at TCP and IP headers for clues. The question is, do they? If you don't find yourself kicked off sharpish, then as Peter mentioned, it's probably something that only gets looked into if you go over your allowance. The means to drop a connection if you've got the wrong user agent certainly exists even on low end firewalls so no doubt the networks have the ability at their fingertips. If they started doing this, you could [for web browsing at least] use a user agent switcher plugin to pretend to be a mobile browser. > I can't see (morally anyway) that doing the same 'through' the phone > would be any different from their providing the bandwidth pov? Nope, me either, but the networks desperately don't want to be mere providers of bandwidth. They're using a working assumption that handset users won't use as much data as tetherers. Every week a new handset comes out that further jeopardises this assumption. If they were just honest about it and charged for data rather than for a time period, they'd avoid this kind of bullshit. -- <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) (UnSoEsNpEaTm(a)ale.cx) 20:12:26 up 17 days, 9:42, 0 users, load average: 0.08, 0.16, 0.15 It is better to have been wasted and then sober than to never have been wasted at all
From: Gordon Henderson on 26 Apr 2010 16:15 In article <lkrbt5l1doa8km4c90e30o55rol6l0se2k(a)4ax.com>, Peter <occassionally-confused(a)nospam.co.uk> wrote: > >alexd <troffasky(a)hotmail.com> wrote > >>The means to drop a connection if you've got the wrong user agent >>certainly exists even on low end firewalls so no doubt the networks have >>the ability at their fingertips. If they started doing this, you could >>[for web browsing at least] use a user agent switcher plugin to pretend >>to be a mobile browser. > >What if one is not using a browser? Several other options: > >- downloading POP email >- sending SMTP email (not necessarily port 25) >- running a VPN (I think even my E51 supports VPNs) >- running via a compressing proxy (e.g. Onspeed) > >I don't think any of the above show up the browser (or any other) >identity string. What I find bonkers about the networks whinges is that I can do all of the above *on my phone* ... I've had the same SIM in several phones now - last was a Nokia E90, current Nokia N900 - which runs Linux and Firefox amongst a whole load of other stuff - tethering? Nah :) >I suspect they are managing a complex picture, with a lot of their >profits coming from roaming usage, and on that they are being squeezed >by the EU. Look at the underhand way they have dealt with the >E50/month max data billing directive. They are all cynical bastards, >living for the day and for the day's bonuses. Tend to agree here... Gordon
From: T i m on 27 Apr 2010 16:26
On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:23:01 +0100, Peter <occassionally-confused(a)nospam.co.uk> wrote: <snip> > >and read away. No concrete information but it sounds like the network >won't be looking unless you run a high data usage to start with. Thanks for that, I'll tell him to use it as required (I suspect infrequently so it should be ok). Cheers, T i m |