yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] zmore:
Yeah, there's multiple methods they can use to determine if you're tethered:

1) TTL off-by-a-LOT: Default TTL in Android, Linux, and MacOSX is 64; In Windoze, it's 128 (so, easy tell there).

2) TTL off-by-one: Even if you're tethering another android device (TTL 64), the device your tethered to decrements it to 63 as it's routed through to the next hop, which is a tipoff to AT&T. You *could* manually set your client TTL to 65 such that it's pre-incremented and/or hack your tethered host not to decrement when tethered, but, meh.

3) Packet inspection: This isn't 100% reliable, but is just another tool they can use. i.e. you can set your Android UA to "desktop mode" and it'll report the same UserAgent as on your desktop browser, so, that's not much help. However, there are other desktop-only apps, ports, and patterns that emerge when tethered (such as pings to Windoze Update, etc...)

4) Traffic volume & combined patterns: When you're tethered both your phone and other tethered devices are communicating at the same time, so it's easy to see that both the volume and frequency of packets goes up, and that there's some duplication. example: suddenly there's twice the number of NTP time queries (to different hosts)...

Encrypted VPN tunnels can hide everything but the volume of data... :)

Paying more for tethered data is ridiculous IMO. It's like how ISPs a decade ago tried to charge you more based on the number of computers in your house.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mathewrice:
Nothing is ever truly gone...

First things first,

Please quote us the message you received from AT&T. A paraphrase or interpretation of what AT&T said to you leaves too much to speculation, even though most of us are pretty sure of what message you received, ambiguity is a result of not providing specifics, and that's what is becoming apparent here.

The notion that you can "never" get back on AT&T's unlimited data plan once switched (as some have pointed out), is an assumption and an illusion. Only under certain circumstances would that possibly be true, e.g. if you switched to the Mobile Share Plan.

A little over a year ago, articles like this: How to Get Back on AT&T’s Unlimited Data Plan started surfacing, which outline methods to re-obtain unlimited data, even though AT&T no longer offers it.

Regardless though, if you exceed 3GB of data a month, you get throttled, if you exceed some other unknown cap, you get notices about tethering, those are all red flags (as others have pointed out), so its your prerogative to decide how to deal with AT&T's annoyance. The worst that can happen is AT&T disconnects your service and charges you an early termination fee as outlined in the terms of service that you agreed to by continuing to use the service even after notice of change (like their deceleration of no longer offering unlimited data plans), although, that is an unlikely scenario.

To wrap this up though, your question has been asked hundreds, if not thousands of times between XDA and the internet as a whole, its really not a big deal, you likely knew this would inevitably happen...

I hope I have helped in some way (especially with my link reference).
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] axel4401:
Thanks, I know this has been asked a lot. It's always nice to start a conversation again.

Will post an exact letter later tonight - Currently at work.

Specifically though, when I talked to AT&T they said that this is my "Final" warning, even though this is my first. If I am caught tethering again, they will auto-switch me to the 5GB plan with no option to EVER get back on the Unlimited data plan - regardless of my consent.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mathewrice:
That's simply scare tactics buddy.

Like I wrote earlier, the idea of not being able to get back on an unlimited data plan is an illusion.

The fact of the matter is that AT&T, at will, can add-on the Unlimited Data plan to any account, it is their discretion that is the challenge.

A good example is how Verizon forces user to switch to a tiered data plan if they want to buy a 4G LTE Smartphone at the subsidized price.

The truth there is the same, Verizon controls what they offer to customers, but as long as even one customer still has an unlimited data plan, the feature is never purged from the system and therefore could be added to any account at any time for any phone.

In AT&T's case, unlimited data will likely never disappear as long as they permit 1st generation iPhone's to be activated and registered to customer accounts.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Death&co:
I'm curious as to how "heavy" you use tethering. For example are you just browsing websites and checking email or you streaming movies, youtube etc?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] axel4401:
Browsing, email,
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Justinfedor:
Att sends a warning for a reason. If you don't listen to the warning and keep it up then they have every right to change the plan. You are not abiding by att rules. Have fun with a diff carrier.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
Just my opinion. If you don't pay for tethering, don't tether. If you do tether without paying and get caught, don't cry about.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] rquinn19:
Tons of threads like this from back when the first LTE devices rolled out. They have been known to change peoples plan accordingly and no it doesn't matter how much data you use. The people getting the tethering letters seemed to be random as many people using their phones for an absurd amount of downloading videos and such while tethering never got letters but other who say they just check email and such did.

Look around in the Skyrocket or Vivid forums.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] djkinetic:
This used to happen alot to me when I was still on an unlimited iPhone data plan and used it to tether my iPad from my iPhone, and later on when I switched to an Atrix tethered from it to my laptop or tablet, I would get texts and emails about it, and unfortunately I did end up having to switch over to a capped data plan, other users have been switched automatically, and yes they can tell if you're tethering by the # of hops it takes for data to reach its destination, as far as I recall theres no reliable way to hid this from them. My advice stop tethering or move to a shared data plan with a high enough cap that you wont get those notifications.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] bigb252:
This was the text message:

AT&T Free Msg: Did you know tethering your Smartphone to a computer requires a tethering plan? Pls call 866-975-0004 for details or visit att.com/dataplans.

The email was really long, but this message was at the end if it:

If we don't hear from you, we'll plan to automatically enroll you into one of the above individual Smartphone DataPro 5GB plans in an upcoming bill cycle.*The specific plan selected for you will depend on your current smartphone data plan; if you are currently subscribed to another Enterprise data plan, you will automatically be enrolled in the DataPro Enterprise 5GB for Smartphone Plan so that you can continue to access corporate email and applications. Your new individual Smartphone DataPro 5GB Plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan.*If you discontinue tethering by the end of this month, no changes to your current plan will be required.*
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
I'm guessing you were tethering without paying?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Justinfedor:
Att cannot add unlimited back on to accounts that simple. It has to go through a case and if the case team sees you were tethering you will not get it back. If u wanna keep your unlim then stop tethering. If you wanna tether then get a plan. Simple as that.

---------- Post added at 06:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:44 PM ----------

Oh and another thing going back to the quack who said att will break the terms and conditions, thats total bs because you are on a unlim data plan not a tethering plan so if you are breaking the rules att has every right to put you on a tethering plan. Unlim data is exactly what the name says. Unlim data does not mean unlim data and tethering. You guys might wanna do your homework befor you go running your mouths about something you have no clue about
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] nakedninja42:
What bugs me about all this is the fact that I was forced to get unlimited data 7 years ago and I was able to tether no problem then. As soon as they made it as a "add-on" its wrong for me to use the data the way I see fit. I started tethering with ATT almost 10 years ago when it was Cingular or ATT or back to Cingular or back to ATT, who knows which. But nevertheless, I shouldn't be told how to use my "unlimited" data that gets throttled if I use it to much.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrhaley30705:
It's in your current contract, if you are under contract. What? You didn't read it the last time you upgraded? Uh oh!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] nakedninja42:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ23kosLFec
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] MorphiusFaydal:
This method does not work anymore. Any new original iPhone activations have to select from a current data plan.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] goojman:
I was tethering for the past 2 yrs & got the dreaded "FINAL WARNING" from At&t. I basically told them I wasn't tethering & wut proof did they have? I must of went thru 5 different supervisors & didn't get anywhere!! I am on the grandfathered unlimited plan & did not want to lose it so I reluctantly had to stop.. :(.. It's pretty much useless trying to argue with those robots!! They couldn't give me any proof at the end of the day.. The scary thing is wut if they really made a mistake I'd be screwed!! And as anyone who has At&t knows that they often screw up on overcharging on their monthly bills.. Hate to say it but unless you wanna lose your unlimited plan your best bet is to stop or wut I did & get a WiFi extension router which best suited my situation.. I only paid $70 & now I don't have to deal with those ass jockeys!! :cool:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] dLo GSR:
they absolutely have proof, but they choose not to show it to you. i don't believe they have to, either.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] smartnphone:
The first gen iPhone unlimited data process doesn't work anymore. I believe it stopped working around Jan of 2012.

Edit: sorry, I didn't read far enough to see someone already pretty much said what I said.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] wiz4769:
And to you guys thinking you can leave because they change you, you are wrong...read the fine print. They can change anything they want on their end. They have this right and you agreed to it So if your contract is not up, you are paying or staying...I totally get if you are really being rooked by the carrier you should leave, but this is a case of getting caught red handed and then *****ing about it. They have it set up to know if you are tethering plain and simple, you will set off an alarm if you happen to be using one of the many systems\locations that monitor this. Im sure before long all the locations will monitor for it.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lgkahn:
that doesnt not hold up in court.. saying you can change anything you want and you cannot get out of a contract never holds up.. so if they change things on you .. you can legally leave.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] dLo GSR:
do you know the terms of your contract? have you read it?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ddiehl:
Supposedly Clockwork Tether hides tether usage.. I say supposedly because I've been lightly using it on my laptop to tether, and haven't received any threats..

http://androidandme.com/2012/01/applications/clockworkmod-tether-provides-android-users-free-usb-tethering/
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lgkahn:
Ya half of that agreement would never hold up in court. I have s 3gig plan and if I use a few hundred meg of my monthly allotment either tethering or using a vpn to remote desktop onto work or even home since I have a firewall and a mail server ay home and they tried to charge me or hassle me I would walk. Good luck trying to get a termination fee out of me.

And how are any of those

Activities any worse on the network than streaming videos. I connect to my vulkano to watch stuff on mytivo. And almost everyone watches YouTube videos. Basically you should be able to use what bandwidth you pay for however you want as long as you don't go over. The rest is just greed on the carriers trying to gouge you and I don't think they'd want the courts to actually consider said issue because they'd most likely loose and it have far reaching repercussions. Basically they'd never let it get to court.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Euphoria64:
Tether woes

I use to tether on my iPhone constantly with a paid jailbroken app. From what I read and experienced there were apparently no worries, using that method, of getting caught. Now that I switched to the GS3 I find out I have to make sure I don't continue to tether if they do find out, which seems somewhat likely that they will. I understand that I am violating the terms and all, so I don't have a problem stopping. I just find it odd that I have 'unlimited' yet I was under the impression they throttle the **** out of your connection once you go over the soft cap. I've never actually gone over of fear of being severely gimped in speed. Almost seems pointless to have unlimited if they're going to throttle you, other than avoiding possible overage fees.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] qwahchees:
Genius quote. Made me giggle, lol.

But yeah, that's how I work with my Carrier. I'm with Fido (Canada!), and they were BSing about minutes and stuff. So I told them, I quit. Paid termination and everything, and they offered a unlimited data plan later, and refunded me my termination fee. In Canada at least, it seems that the carriers get scared, especially if you have big ones.

:)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] bobloadmire:
There is already precident in courts that carriers cannont change terms of the contract on you without consent, even if it is in the contract. This doesn't just apply to carriers either.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Erazo1986:
very well said +1

Galaxy S3 Paranoid ROM.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] stuey25:
i have unlimited plan and i have tethered and used wifi ap\mobile hotspot on my captivate, infuse, sgs2, and now sgs3.. ive had a few att tether threats in the past with my infuse when i was on Sammy based roms and using tether and wifi ap.Ever since i got my sgs2 ive only ran aosp roms and ive only used wifi ap and ive never received another threat in about a year now. I usually would use it for my laptop a couple times a week and my xbox EVERY NIGHT and hit almost 15 gigs a month several times..this is only on hspa and NO lte since im in a non lte area. Suprisingly in my area late at night i can play call of duty with no net glitches....If att ever screws me out of my unlimited i wont be to pissed cause i feel i have abused my tether priveleges and ill man up and get wifi at my house, but until then it feels awesome to of stuck them in the a$$ just like theyve done me with absurd late fees and overcharges that i always have had to call them about, they dont give a crap to contact you about bettering your plan or anything like that.. anyways just my 2 cent
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] JohnM109R:
Here on fido plan with a 6gig data plan we are able to tether without no problems we pay for the data so there is no diff

Sent from my Transformer TF101
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Erazo1986:
With all the other major carriers going to unlimited plans I wonder how long at&t with keep up with their limited plans.

Galaxy S3 Paranoid ROM.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] JohnM109R:
Its really not smart on these providers..... I mean data is data there is no freaken diff .... on the phone or where ever else .....

your paying for it like I am... so they should not be telling me how to use my data period.....
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jaltman:
I wish people who get notices would post how they are tethering. Native app? Foxfi? Pdanet? At least in the old days, native tethering used a different APN which is, of course a dead give away. I tether only when I absolutely have to, which is rare, but never ever use native and have never gotten the letter.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] thatbigmoose:
I tethered for a full month straight using the native function on my GS2. Mostly tethered to my tablet but I also did some stuff on my windows computer. Got a warning about getting throttled but never about tethering.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] tamanaco:
I only tether once in a while and never received a notice. I have been using my S3 with rooted LG1 and LH9 ROMs with tether enabled based on the MOD described in this post. I understand that if the MOD or App is only making the phone act as a gateway/router that the HOP and TTL counts are easy ways for AT&T to detect unauthorized tethering. But... I also wonder if there's a specific tether MOD or app (wishful thinking) that alters these counts and prevent AT&T from detecting tethering.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] icase81:
First off, AT&T is NOT changing the terms of the contract. The contract you signed say YOU CAN NOT TETHER. You are the one in breach of contract, allowing them to do whatever they want with your account after that. Its in writing, so make sure you read it.

Second, they can tell by the browser agents. If you're using Chrome or Firefox on your desktop, its a different agent string, and its completely unencrypted. They log everything, and do a search using some type of log indexer, and then hand out the letters to anyone seen using a desktop browser agent string. This is why using a tablet usually won't get you caught, but using a desktop or laptop will.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lgkahn:
Typical bull. Browser agent doesn't mean anything. I use a browser on my phone with a desktop agent setting ad do my whole family... never got one letter.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jjlean:
Actually he is right.

Sent from my SGS3 Stock Rooted & Odexed

I love this thing!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] thatbigmoose:
Actually he's wrong. So you're saying if I "request desktop version" on the browser they're going to tell me I'm tethering? false. Fact is only AT&T knows how they check for it.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] HAVOK83:
Whatever lie you tell them and you're tethering they WILL remove unlimited plan they did to my line and I was only tethering some times, gave them all the bs lies... I use pandora all day at work, I stream net flick, I don't know how to tether. good luck.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] icase81:
Its not JUST the browser version in the agent string, your OS version is included in the agent strings. How do you think those people with the signs in the signatures that say **** like 'You're using Chrome 22 on Windows 7!' do that? Your Android phone will NEVER say that its Windows 7. It might say "I'm a desktop browser, give me the desktop version." but it won't include the desktop OS in the string.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] zmore:
Sorry, but you're misinformed.

When your phone's browser app is in desktop mode the User-Agent HTTP header lies about the OS. In any case, packet inspection of web traffic is only one small part of the picture.

And here's some actual data that I just collected from whatsmyuseragent.com using my desktop Chome, and my phone's Chrome in mobile & desktop modes:

My actual desktop Chrome user agent is:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/22.0.1229.79 Safari/537.4

My phone's Chrome UA in normal mobile mode:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.1.1; SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 Build/JRO03R) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Mobile Safari/535.19

My phone's Chrome UA in desktop mode:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/537.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/22.0.1229.79 Safari/537.4
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] hallo13th:
Just pay for your tethering. What is it, a 20 buck add on. Ask yourself what tethering is worth to you? Tethering for free is not "cool" anymore...not sure it ever was but I have seen buddies brag and then get a letter and then complain and then pay 200 bucks for a new phone with another carrier and then it HAPPENED AGAIN. LOL now that's funny to me.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lgkahn:
And here is mine running dolphin on all our phones.. so if that us all they looked at they would think I was tethered. They must look at more like ttl

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.16
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jaltman:
No one is addressing the issue I tried to raise a few pages back. How are you tethering? Through what app? User agent is easily lied about. In previous phones I have owned the APN used in native tethering was different that the regular APN used without tethering. I have always been careful to check that the APN used is the regular APN.

I have occasionally tethered over the years always using a method that did not change the APN and never gotten a letter. I am also on the grandfathered unlimited plan.

Assuming native tethering uses a different APN having the system watch for the different login and matching to services allowed is a simple programatic matter than makes detection a no-brainer.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] joemommasfat:
I got the same text message from them after EXACTLY ZERO tethering, but a month of higher than normal data usage. They base these things off usage stats and no evidence of tethering. They are bluffing.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] G-Man.:
Getting tired of seeing these threads pop up - If ppl dont want to deal with the consequences of stealing services from AT&T - then dont do it.... Pretty simple solution. YOU signed the contract, YOU should go read the fine print. YOU are the one in violation of said contract - so SHUT UP already and stop whining about it..... If you wanna tether PAY FOR IT.