A question about tethering

-BA- · 9 Dec 2011 at 11:55

I have heard that mobile providers can detect tethering but am curious to know whether that is because people are using their mobile as a modem for a computer or whether they can detect it regardless. The reason I ask is that I have started to use my iPod Touch more to listen to music to on the train as it has much better sound quality than my HTC HD2. Quite a few of my mates have iPhones too so I have started using iMessage more and have been tethering my iPod Touch to my HD2 that is on Virgin Mobile.

Now with my iPod Touch being a mobile size device rather than a computer, I would expect the data transfer to be similar to a mobile rather than a computer (i.e. I am not streaming 1080p on Youtube, etc). So my question is: If I continue to use my iPod Touch tethered to my HD2 for surfing, downloading the odd app/track and using iMessage (on the very odd occasion FaceTime), are Virgin Mobile likely to be able to identify tethering usage?

Robbo · 9 Dec 2011 at 12:20

No, mobile operators can identify if you're tethering or not, but they don't bother (at least for now).

Don't worry about it.

SeeKified · 9 Dec 2011 at 12:22

They bother in the US, but I've never had any issues in the UK. That said, I've got free tethering on my contract.

-BA- · 9 Dec 2011 at 16:58

Thanks for that guys. I wonder how they are able to tell the traffic between a mobile on their network and what is effectively a mobile device merely accessing through it.

chiggz · 9 Dec 2011 at 23:47

Well.. when you browse a website your browser sends vital info such as cookies, browser info, etc. Networks can snoop the data, and if they see you browsing with Firefox v11 they can take a pretty guess its not via a mobile...