[Networking] tay53:
Complete tether block workaround

alexsouthmayd is halfway right. When I get to my ten post minimum, I'll post up a thread explaining this there too.

Sorry it took me so long to post this, thanks everyone for being patient.

This took me close to a year on and off to figure out and completely work around, but now I beat T-mobile's tether block and I'll show you how.

The system: T-mobile uses a combination of safeguards to figure out and block you from tethering.

Like many other people have posted, they do use a user agent string to sniff out the majority of people. It basically tells them if it's a mobile phone or a PC that is using your data.

The next safeguard they use (if you bought a T-mobile phone from the T-mobile store or bought a prepaid T-mobile phone from a retailer) is a hidden app called "tetheringmanager". I say hidden because it is installed in the system that you don't have access to right out of the box.

The final safeguard they use is a hidden APN. When you tether your phone (whether through the app built into your phone or a third party app like easy tether or foxfi), the data is routed through a separate "hidden" APN that also lets them know you are tethering.

Now that you know how their system works, we can start to dismantle and disable it.

First, get on your phone and google user agent string (I would post the link but I'm new and it wont let me post links yet)

This tells you your phone's user agent string. If you are running firefox on your browser, there is a plugin called user agent switcher, Internet explorer also has one though I don't know what it's called. Add that to your browser, then copy the user agent string from your phone into the new plugin you added for firefox or IE (WORD FOR WORD, NUMBER FOR NUMBER, SPACE FOR SPACE. USE COPY AND PASTE IF YOU CAN) Your PC will now look like your smart phone when you tether, careful though because T-mobile still monitors data usage and if they see more data than normal coming from a phone then you'll be redirected to the upsell page!!!

If this first step fixes your problem, great. If not, keep reading.

Now, we'll stop that annoying tethering manager app. FOR THIS PART YOU WILL NEED ROOT ACCESS TO YOUR PHONE. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ROOT ACCESS, GET IT AND THEN COME BACK HERE.

Now that you have root access, you need to go to the play store. Download two apps: System Tuner, and the free version of Titanium backup(titanium backup may not be needed. I didn't need it but I can only speak for myself, it's always good to have a backup of an app you're going to delete just in case your phone needs it for some reason.). Titanium backup will only be needed if you plan to make a backup copy of tethering manager in case you, for some reason, want it back. I deleted tethering manager straight off as soon as I found it and my phone works fine, but every phone is different so I recommend you make a backup just to be safe.

When you open system tuner, you'll probably get a request to give system tuner super user permissions. Allow it. Next, go to the button that says system. HERE'S PROBABLY THE HARDEST PART OF THE ENTIRE PROCESS, SCROLL THROUGH THIS LONG LIST OF APPS UNTIL YOU FIND THE ONE CALLED "Tetheringmanager". Once you find it, you have two options.

1) You can freeze it, which locks it down and renders it completely unusable, either by you or any other app that tries to open it.

2) Or you can completely uninstall it.

I uninstalled it and my phone works fine, but I would recommend freezing it until you know how your phone will behave. After you either freeze it or uninstall tetheringmanager, you've eliminated two of the three ways T-mobile can block you.

The final safeguard is the tethering APN. To remove this APN you'll need one more app from the play store.

VERY IMPORTANT READ THIS BEFORE DOWNLOADING!!!

*********The app I used to delete the tethering APN is APN manager pro. This is not a free app, it's not much but I MUST STRESS THAT THIS APP DOES NOT WORK FOR ICS

My phone is on gingerbread and it worked fine but many reviews at the bottom say that it does not work with ICS. There may be another app that does work with ICS, but I am not sure. I've heard ICS has additional ways to block tethering, but I can't say for sure.

I do know that APN backup and restore will not work for what you need either, it will delete all APN's and you cannot pick which ones get deleted and which get kept.

If you are on gingerbread, then APN manager pro should work for you: BEFORE YOU RUSH IN AND DELETE THE TETHERING APN, BACK UP ALL OF YOUR APN'S FIRST!!! This way, if something goes horribly wrong (murphy's law) you can always restore your APN's and no harm done. If you delete an APN without having a backup of it somewhere, you may not be able to get it back.

After the tethering APN is deleted you are all finished. CONGRATULATIONS! You have completely circumvented T-mobile's tether block. You should be free to tether to your hearts content without being redirected anymore.

I tested this the other night, when I first got blocked I was tethering to my PS3 to play online. They blocked me when I tried to run a download on my PS3 through tether. Before all this I couldn't even sign in, but I was able to sign in and sync my trophies without being cut off or blocked. I was using the paid version of easytether, but any tethering app should work now.

One last thing before you tether away, keep this in mind. Just because they can't block you anymore, doesn't mean they can't see it. After syncing my trophies and closing the tether, I got a message from T-mobile saying something along the lines of "to avoid future tethering interruptions, please add the tethering feature". I wasn't blocked or cut off, but they did let me know they saw it. If tethering isn't in your terms of service(TOS), I advise against tethering. If you breach your TOS, T-mobile can break their contract with you, I've heard they can send you a pro-rated bill for the data you used during tethering, or other not so nice things.

WITH THAT BEING SAID I CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES THAT RESULT FROM THIS GUIDE.

I don't advise you to breach your TOS, but the entire reason I was so determined to beat their system is because I think it's wrong and underhanded of T-mobile to charge people for a data plan and then force you to pay an additional fee just to use that data faster.

SORRY TO ALL THE ICS USERS THAT I WASN'T ABLE TO FIND A WORKAROUND FOR YOU, BUT HOPEFULLY THIS WILL HELP SOMEONE WITH ICS DISCOVER THE ADDITIONAL BLOCKS IN THEIR SYSTEM.

Also I did this workaround on my rooted Samsung Exhibit 2 4G