Three Mobile - Tether Blocking

dasyad · 25 Mar 2013 at 23:54

Stop torrenting on ayce plans, you're going to ruin it for "normal" people. If you want to tether then just buy the add on, otherwise why would you pay for a plan that explicitly doesn't allow tethering when it's a feature you require :confused:

Colbaker · 26 Mar 2013 at 00:27

Ultraman1966 said:
Well, I'm a bit slow but in normal cases you can only bit torrent on PCs and laptops, right?

Why are you trying to torrent with a mobile connection anyway? It's simply not got the capacity to do it.

Also, I've been told that networks can detect if you're tethering by the change in TTL... allegedly.

Torrent clients for mobile phones have been around for ages and shouldn't be an issue, I'm not using my mobile as a seed box or anything, just needed a Linux file when my Internet was down.

Colbaker · 26 Mar 2013 at 00:29

dasyad said:
Stop torrenting on ayce plans, you're going to ruin it for "normal" people. If you want to tether then just buy the add on, otherwise why would you pay for a plan that explicitly doesn't allow tethering when it's a feature you require

Torrenting is not the issue as it is no different from downloading a file. If you are then setting up your mobile as a seed box then I would agree that's wrong. Then Again you get AYCE why should you not be able to use it how you like, I can understand why they want extra for tethering though.

[TW]Fox · 26 Mar 2013 at 00:33

Colbaker said:
Then Again you get AYCE why should you not be able to use it how you like

Tragedy of the Commons.

Thats why.

dasyad · 26 Mar 2013 at 00:50

Colbaker said:
Torrenting is not the issue as it is no different from downloading a file. If you are then setting up your mobile as a seed box then I would agree that's wrong. Then Again you get AYCE why should you not be able to use it how you like, I can understand why they want extra for tethering though.

Although you're only downloading one reasonable sized file unfortunately many others have probably downloaded more than that hence why they block it. Essentially the problem we're seeing with data plans is that a minority of heavy users end up spoiling it for the rest of us.

Skully · 26 Mar 2013 at 06:54

It's unlimited, I can't understand how people can criticise heavy users for using their unlimited allowance.

Ultraman1966 · 26 Mar 2013 at 07:42

Skully said:
It's unlimited, I can't understand how people can criticise heavy users for using their unlimited allowance.

It's not really unlimited, each cell has only got a finite bandwidth. Have you ever noticed mobile congestion? That's probably caused by just normal users sipping for data... imagine what happens what happens when even a quarter of the users start downloading non stop.
I do blame the networks for basically lying but you got to use common sense, mobile networks simply aren't fit to replace a hard line yet.

[TW]Fox · 26 Mar 2013 at 09:16

Skully said:
It's unlimited, I can't understand how people can criticise heavy users for using their unlimited allowance.

My post above sums the problem up.

sonic_rm · 26 Mar 2013 at 09:27

I used to tether on the Ultimate internet 200 plan but was throttled during peak hours, just moved to one plan (£25/m - 1 Month Con) Been tethering without any issues, get better speeds than my home BB.

If you want to tether get a tethering bolt on or move to one plan, people who are abusing the AYCE as "Unlimited Tether" without bolt-ons will ruin it for everyone.

thep02 · 26 Mar 2013 at 10:20

Would I be correct in saying the tether bolt on is a fiver, so somewhat less than £1.25 a week and 3 will know what to expect in your cell, it's not gonna break the bank really is it, qtr pint of beer or a couple of twixes.

Ultraman1966 · 26 Mar 2013 at 18:47

thep02 said:
Would I be correct in saying the tether bolt on is a fiver, so somewhat less than £1.25 a week and 3 will know what to expect in your cell, it's not gonna break the bank really is it, qtr pint of beer or a couple of twixes.

Don't be silly, that's like way too much money! :rolleyes:

I'm thinking of returning to Three but I'm confused now, so you can only tether with the One plan or buying the tether addition? I don't use mobile data that much in general but when I do like it to be fast (giffgaff/O2 are pretty crap).

sonic_rm · 26 Mar 2013 at 18:59

thep02 said:
Would I be correct in saying the tether bolt on is a fiver, so somewhat less than £1.25 a week and 3 will know what to expect in your cell, it's not gonna break the bank really is it, qtr pint of beer or a couple of twixes.

The only problem is the tethering bolt on will only give 2gb of tethering usage.

Source

thep02 · 26 Mar 2013 at 19:03

With my n4 on hspa+ I've had 21 Mbps but average 8/12 I casually tether my n7 to my n4 to browse when I'm out of WiFi range, I've been tethering like this since I got the n7 with no problems.

I torrent n stream on my PC, a payg unregistered sim is totally not anonymous their is a massive spider gram of its use and location which fully identify the user.

lisa19210 · 17 Sep 2013 at 18:49

I'm not technically minded at all and I'm confused, I have an iPhone 4S on 3's ultimate Internet 500, all you can eat data and have recently bought an iPad mini wifi. Whilst working nights I wirelessly connected my iPad to my iPhone with no problem at all. My concern is, am I going to receive a bigger bill even though I have a cap in place so i don't go over my monthly contract, 3 have said I won't and were surprised I was able to 'tether' (unsure what that is) but I'm unsure what to think now after reading all these other replies... Thanks in advance

window · 18 Sep 2013 at 01:36

Stop being cheapskates and get yourselves broadband. Tethering problem solved

crackerman · 18 Sep 2013 at 10:21

window said:
Stop being cheapskates and get yourselves broadband. Tethering problem solved

My "broadband" is 512kbps, tethering is pretty much the only option for large downloads, I can just about watch youtube on the lowest setting without it buffering. But I can get over 10MB with three and it is a godsend. The towns and City's keep getting faster and faster speeds while where I live in rural Devon we haven't had an increase in a decade. Certainly looking forward to 4g.

Skilid · 18 Sep 2013 at 10:52

I'm pretty sure they detect whether you are tethering by checking what browser you are using, or checking the UA header for the browser. If they recognise it is a desktop browser, it stops you.

This is what I am inclined to think as when I let my girlfriend tether her iPhone through my phone it worked (iPhone web browser). Yet when I tried with my laptop it didn't.

I am now however on the one plan so there are no restrictions.

hartgeh3 · 11 Dec 2013 at 11:36

I have this issue when using Protube to watch videos and getting an error message saying I am tethering! God damn annoying when I hardly use much data!

TheVoice · 11 Dec 2013 at 11:54

Colbaker said:
Torrenting is not the issue as it is no different from downloading a file.

Right, that'll be why so many ISPs put specific traffic-shaping in place for torrents. Torrents are far more demanding on the network than a regular download is., and no-doubt part of the reason networks feel the need to charge the extra fee for tethering that everyone in this thread is trying to circumvent.

Sunbed · 11 Dec 2013 at 12:24

I bought a PAYG sim from Three a couple of weeks ago, tested tethering to my Chromebook and it worked! Does anyone know whether tethering will still work if I buy the unlimited PAYG add-on? Please note this isn't the same as the tethering add-on - that's another £5

I hardly use tethering at all so I feel it's not really worth the extra £5. The good thing about Giffgaff was they allowed a bit of tethering on their supposed "non-tethering plans" so long as you didn't take the **** with bandwidth.