I have unlimited cellular data on my phone but not if I use it as a hotspot.

Comments

• LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Thank you for putting this into words. Verizon does the same thing to me, I’ve been on the same plan for four or five years, and I haven’t been able to articulate it the way you did. Thank you for explaining what’s happening.

  source
• Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Around about 2009 or so I had a mobile plan with Virgin that did that same trick (I think this was plugging your phone in to a computer as a modem as opposed to wireless hotspot but same thing anyway) and it was limited to 5 MEGABYTES after which they wanted 15pence per KILOBYTE I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I never ran afoul of it because I checked this out first when buying the plan and made sure never to use that function but it just seemed literally unreal. I’ve been shocked at how much things cost before but that seemed more like a mistake or something, I just can’t imagine they ever actually made anyone pay for that, the negative press would be too bad. It was not unheard of at the time for people to have excess charges on limited plans waived because it was a shock and they were unaware or unprepared for those charges accruing so the idea that someone might have checked emails read a news article checked Facebook and possibly a web video having not read the fine print and ended up with tens if not over a hundred GBP of charges just doesn’t seem feasible. Really fucking crazy.

  source

  • HauntedCupcake@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    So that works out to £150 per Megabyte?! Holy fuck that’s a scam. With average webpage size being ~2MB that’s £300 a page

    source
• woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Oops

  Image

  source

  • PatFussy@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Were you downloading more ram or was that all BaNano faucet

    source

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Downloading games from Steam and binging through a few TV shows because I had a free trial of Apple TV+.

      I don’t play online games, so I don’t care for low ping and the speed is usually fine.

      source
  • spiderman@ani.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Image

    Oops!

    source

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You also have a ventilation pad for your phone to keep it cool while it’s serving that data traffic?

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• CrayonRosary@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Get EasyTether for your phone ($10) and you can USB tether to any PC that has the companion app installed (free).

  Even a Raspberry Pi works. I have a Pi configured to broadcast as a WiFi AP, so I just plug in my phone via USB and I have instant WiFi for all of my devices. Takes a fair amount of configuration to do that, but there are tutorials online. Much easier just plugging your phone into a laptop for internet on just that laptop.

  Or maybe a laptop can act as a WiFi AP, too. I do know Windows can share internet out a free Ethernet port very easily.

  I use a VPN so my wireless provider doesn’t see Windows update or Stream downloads, etc.

  source
• loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Get a custom ROM and a VPN.

  source

  • LodeMike@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Can custom ROMs hide hotspotting?

    source

    • Fondots@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I don’t know the current state of things, it’s probably more than 10 years since I’ve bothered with rooting and custom rooms and such.

      But back then I remember my phone company tried to make me pay extra for tethering and there were a few tricks using root to get around it. I think there were a few apps out there that would work on the stock room that needed root, and I think it just worked out of the box with a custom ROM.

      IIRC, at that time, my carrier had disabled the tethering options in the phone settings, and to tether you had to use their pre-installed app. My memory may be fuzzy on that though.

      source
    • loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes of course, it’s a software thing.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • Zikeji@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes and no. A custom kernel with a patch usually referred to as a “ttl fix” can, but a good amount of ROMs have that in their kernel by default.

      source
    • CrayonRosary@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Probably, but all you really need is an app called EasyTether. I wrote a big comment about it on this post.

      source
• Praetorian@sopuli.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Try plugging your phone on via the USB instead of a WiFi hotspot. It may not detect it as a hotspot.

  source

  • justinthegeek@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Doesn’t matter, it still gets flagged as hotspot traffic.

    source

    • cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I wonder if a VPN would make any difference? I have tasker set up to kick on wireguard any time I leave my wifi network. They’d only see my WG port.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• Fake4000@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Basically they don’t want you to turn your phone into a mobile router.

  source

  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Well then don’t offer unlimited data. Is it unlimited or not?

    source

    • gregorum@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Definitely not the way they structure it currently

      source
    • ramble81@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Unlimited data, not unlimited speed. It didn’t say they’d cut you off, only that you’d be throttled.

      (Yes it’s an asshole move but there is a difference)

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Unlimited data for your phone, not your computer.

      source
• IamAnonymous@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s to stop people from abusing unlimited data on their cellphone for all their WiFi devices at home. I know a person who did not have WiFi at home and only used their cellphone data. You are using more than a typical cellphone user and also you are cutting them an opportunity to sell you a WiFi plan for your home. It’s annoying, but as I understand it, this is the reason.

  source

  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The concept of abusing unlimited data makes no sense.

    source

    • IamAnonymous@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s unlimited data for your phone and not for all the devices you can connect to. I agree with you sentiment. Just trying to point what the companies have in their ToS. I will be glad to hotspot to all my devices from my phone and not pay for WiFi.

      source
    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      “all you can eat”

      source
    • whoreticulture@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This might not apply everywhere, but I live in a rural area and actually most of my Internet used is through cell networks. When there are a lot of people in the area for some reason, I’m much more likely to lose service completely for web and calls.

      I don’t think that a reliable network is the reason why communications companies are limiting people’s data, I think they’re doing it for profit, but it could be a rationale to do so.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You are using more than a typical cell phone user

    But it still costs the ISP effectively nothing to send those 1s and 0s. This is like complaining about someone having a bunch of fans on because they’re using more air than the average person.

    source

    • IamAnonymous@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I never implied that. Ask the ISP why they have separate hotspot / tablet / watch plans.

      source
• ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  TTLMaster was what I used to fix this a few years ago

  source
• AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion, but I kind of get this one. Unlimited data on your phone is constrained a bit because it’s your phone. If you make your phone a hotspot and the whole family is using it to watch videos and stuff (and not paying for their own data plan), that’s a pretty big difference to the infrastructure needs.

  source

  • nogooduser@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah. You have unlimited data but they don’t want you to actually use that.

    They take the risk that you’re not going to use more than they want you to from your phone but it is very likely that you’ll use it from your computer or if you connect multiple devices to your phone.

    I find the idea to be reasonable because they can’t actually supply everyone with unlimited data but they really shouldn’t be calling it unlimited if there are any limits.

    source

    • AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, it’s unlimited for you on your phone, and they have estimates and ranges for what that amounts to for people that they use to determine pricing. But if not it’s not just you and your phone, but multiple people with multiple uses, those estimates aren’t sufficient.

      source
• phoneymouse@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Visible has an unlimited hotspot

  source
• assembly@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I remember when I had the original iPhone with jailbreak I was able to use it as a hotspot without the carrier restrictions. Guessing it’s the same way now that it is handled in the OS and phone makers have carrier agreements to separate the traffic so people don’t use as much of their service as they pay for.

  source
• Shimitar@feddit.it ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  At home i have a FWA over 5G (mobile) with 1Tb/month of traffic cap. That can be raised by 200Gb if needed. Cost 24€/month.

  On mobile I have 150Gb capped 3G/4G/5G (whatever works) for 7.99€/month.

  Not bad deals in comparison with what I read here.

  source
• rowinxavier@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Root your phone and you can manage which APN is used by tethering. If you can’t do this consider trying a connecting to a VPN before enabling tethering, the connection will on some devices remain active on the normal APN because changing would disconnect the VPN and keeping connected is higher priority than updating the APN. Also USB tethering and WIFI tethering may behave differently.

  In the end this is a good argument for better regulation. When you buy a car they don’t get to extract more money from you because you drive out of state or use it for business. The fact that telecommunications companies have so much power and access to basically monitor what you are doing and bill accordingly is insane. You should pay for a service with a simple and clear contract and all this crap should be made illegal.

  source
• lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’ve been using SecureTether play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.panjava… to get around it. Requires a bit of setup but works without issues after.

  I dont believe something like this is possible on iOS.

  source
• oakey66@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Every carrier has it’s problems but AT&T and Verizon are a nickel and diming rip off. They suck.

  source
• nehal3m@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The difference is one hop. I think that’s how ISP’s measure it anyway. I’ll bet spoofing that number would bypass the restriction.

  Or I’m hopelessly out of date.

  source

  • ptz@dubvee.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Something like that, yeah. I recall a while back that TTL spoofing was a way to get around that kind of detection. Haven’t had to deal with that lately, so no idea if it’s still valid / applicable.

    source
• aniki@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is why I love Google Fi. I go anywhere on earth, and I have coverage. Unlimited everything. Never worry about nothing, ever, and has carrier bonding for when you’re really out there.

  source

  • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    TMobile provides literally the same services, beat-for-beat at a lower price.

    source

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      People don’t think these things through. Google can’t possibly be cheaper than a wireless carrier because they don’t own any towers. Wireless carriers will make sure Google doesn’t sell cheaper than they can sell it themselves.

      Also, things like Metro PCS (before T-Mobile bought them) just have lower network priority. So “cheaper” just means crappy service. Good luck making a phone call at a sporting event or concert.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • aniki@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      tmobile doesn’t do free international data anywhere on earth. when I travel I have service before the airplane touches down.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • MrJukes@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Google Fi will throttle you after you hit a limit depending on your plan. I unknowingly hit mine after using my phone for a hotspot, watching a few hours of soccer and I think Windows downloaded a bunch of updates too. It was towards the beginning of the billing cycle so the rest of the month really sucked. Might want to double check your plan.

    source

    • aniki@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Its like 50g on the unlimited plan.

      source
  • bus_factor@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is the Unlimited Plus plan. Their Simply Unlimited plan throttles you after 5 GB of hotspot usage, but phone data is unlimited.

    source

    • aniki@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I never said I wasn’t on the unlimited everything plan.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• Uranium3006@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  the reason is wireless network carve outs from network neutrality and them wanting to abuse their monopoly status to upcharge you for every little thing

  source

  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Remember when they charged 10 cents a text for data that went through the cell tower in the same way a voice did?

    source

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Almost wish they still did but only if it meant more of us were using Signal.

      Who am I kidding though, we’d be using What’sZuck like our European & LatAm friends. “WhatsApp: At Least It’s Not WeChat”

      source
• NaturalViber@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I have been bypassing this with Pdanet app for over 10 years. I don’t think the app gets regular updates anymore, but it has worked for me on many different phones, and windows versions. Also different carriers.

  Doesn’t have to be usb either, I use the wifi direct setting it has and have used 100gb in a month. With minimal or no slowdown.

  source

  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Doesn’t look like there’s a Linux client unfortunately.

    source

    • NaturalViber@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Ah, thats a shame. Pdanet also has an app called foxfi, which can active unlimited hotspot on some phones/carriers, so uou wouldn’t need the client app.

      Image

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • gears@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      EasyTether+ might have a Linux client. It’s a similar app

      source
• viking@infosec.pub ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’ve read somewhere that USB tethering bypasses this very easily.

  source

  • ech@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Is easytether still a thing? That app saved my butt several times.

    source

    • viking@infosec.pub ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m not sure tbh, my ISP doesn’t throttle my speed or data when used as a hotspot, luckily, so I didn’t have to look into it for a long time.

      source
  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Does it? Interesting. I’ll have to try that. I wonder why?

    source

    • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      There used to be other ways to bypass it as well, like PDAnet, rooting, flashing custom OSes, etc.

      source
    • viking@infosec.pub ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      From what I heard is that a phone used as USB tether identifies as a modem on the computer, and then the traffic is somehow detected differently. I haven’t tested this personally though since my ISP doesn’t cap or throttle me when using hotpsots.

      source
  • mihnt@lemy.lol ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    [deleted]

    source

    • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Have you tried running a vpn to your phone while tethering?

      …github.io/…/unrestricted-tethering/

      I experimented with it a little bit, but it didn’t go anywhere when I discovered my phone already proxies/NATs all my traffic.

      source
• popemichael@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Companies even do this if you have a 5g modem.

  There is a 2 hour window at the end of the month in which I am miserable.

  I’m at the tip of the US’s Wang and have zero access to wired internet, so I am stuck. 😞

  source

  • bonn2@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I was in the same situation, but luckily, Starlite became available. Not as good as a wire, and rather expensive, but damn is it a night and day difference.

    source
• mvilain@fedia.io ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I got hit by this AT&T usage cap for internet downloads. I went through 250GB of downloads in less than a month. Most of it was internet backups of a newly installed system. They don't offer a data tier without a cap in my area so I was stuck paying $10/10GB over that month. Next month I added a $30 unlimited data charge to my bill. That's OK as I'm consistently going over their cap again due to backups. Unless I buy much more expensive plan from a commercial provider and pay for Fibre installation, I'm stuck.

  source
• aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  yeah they are selling “wireless home internet” hard now, can’t have people using their phone hotspot for that.

  source
• bigMouthCommie@kolektiva.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  not to be a shill, but i have xfinity mobile, and they gave me unlimited tethering. there is service degradation at some point, but i haven't ever hit it or if i have i haven't noticed it.

  source
• scottmeme@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Using a phone purchased through them or unlocked? Locked phones will have proprietary bullshit to check if you are using a hotspot

  source
• criticon@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Do they actually slow it down? I have 8GB of data and many months I use a lot more than that and they send me some messages that they will slow it with some links to purchase more data but it never happens, or at least not in a noticeable way

  source
• pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  get calyx

  source
• irotsoma@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Laptops have large screens and windows software isn’t designed to be data efficient. Unlimited data doesn’t mean at full speed infinitely. They sell way more than they can support otherwise it would be impossible to support more than a few users at one time on a cell tower.

  source

  • stembolts@programming.dev ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “They sell more than they can support”

    At that point is where mine and your opinion diverge. In what sustainable business does one sell more of anything than they can maintain responsibility over?

    Of course, there are many examples, but why?

    Greed is why. Don’t sell something you cannot sustain, or you have misled your customer.

    I hope the user finds a way around this and burns all of the data they rightfully purchased. Plan says unlimited. Rename the plan if its a lie.

    source

    • SaltySalamander@fedia.io ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      At that point is where mine and your opinion diverge. In what sustainable business does one sell more of anything than they can maintain responsibility over?

      What they're talking about is the mobile provider overselling service. Because they know that for the vast majority of the time, everyone isn't going to be demanding huge amounts of bandwidth all at the same time. Cable/GPON fiber ISPs do the same thing.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • irotsoma@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Problem is that shared infrastructure shouldn’t be operated for profit. But American conservatives seem to think that’s the way to go. If infrastructure is shared, then there’s every incentive for a business to sell even if the infrastructure can’t handle it.

      That being said, it’s a required thing. This is why we have society in the first place. If every customer had to have their own cell infrastructure, it would be a mess and a waste. I mean you are sold unlimited bandwidth at let’s say 1Gbps on 5G. There are about 1 cell tower node for every 1000 people in the US across the country. If we build enough infrastructure for everyone to use it at full speed each tower node would then need to be able to handle 1,000Gbps. That’s just not possible with current technology. So should we build one tower node per person plus all of the cabling and routers to handle that much traffic? Does everyone really need to be able to download a gigabit of data every second of every day? What would you do with that data?

      What internet infrastructure is designed for is peaks of up to that speed for short bursts. Not sustained speeds. And then sharing that infrastructure. Just like if everyone were to turn on their water at the same time, no one would get more than a drip, but does that ever actually happen in real usage?

      The difference is that water infrastructure is owned collectively, so it is more equitably developed to make it available to all as equally as possible, rather than just to those who pay more for it.

      source
• Jackthelad@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  AT&T are like:

  youtu.be/DHgVRVeRNXM?feature=shared

  source