It’s my goddamn motherfucking mobile data and MY PHONE. I should be able to use it however I want. My wifi went down because the greedy, cunt-faced shitbags at Comcast stole taxpayer subsidies to enrich themselves instead of actually providing the service we’re paying for. I tried to switch to a mobile hotspot and my phone refuses to open one. Everyone responsible for this shit should be fed to alligators locked away in a fucking gulag. We have no rights and live in a corporate plutocracy.
Idk, but here in the Philippines we don’t have any law that prevents telcos from doing the same, yet literally every telco allows mobile hotspot usage without restrictions or extra charges. Same for almost every other things American telcos do to fuck up their customers. America probably needs more telco company competition.
In the meantime, you can try TetherFi and see if it works for you.
The “pay for mobile hotspot” is more of a carrier thing than an Android thing. iPhone users suffer as well.
On Android you can at least use apps like SecureTether. It’s a bit clunky, but it works on my Pixel 6a.
What I don’t appreciate is Google completely turning off the ability to create a hotspot WiFi network even if your mobile data is off. In college we would connect multiple laptops to a phone hotspot and play LAN games.
Meh, it’s not as bad as some people will have you believe, in the same way I don’t believe the US is probably as bad as all the news coming out makes it look.
Not really, most people in the UK used to tip at a sit down place anyway providing the service wasn’t naff. There’s no “acceptable percentage” like the US though and restaurants still have to pay at least minimum wage so tips are an actual bonus not just shoring up underpaid staff. I noticed a lot of takeaways charge a delivery fee post Covid since people don’t have cash anymore so the drivers were probably not getting the tips they used to. Never seen it for fast food and the like yet though.
Don’t you just go into your normal android settings, go to connections, mobile internet hotspot, toggle it on? When are you ever prompted to pay for anything? Why do you need a separate app??
In the US, the service provider can control if that feature is available. If you try to enable it it will ping the service provider to see if you paid for that ability. This is done because the data usage goes way up when you start using hotspot.
I can vouch for Visible. AT&T was too expensive. Mint (T-Mobile) didn’t have signal at my office. Red Pocket cut my service off for using too much unlimited data. Visible is cheap and unlimited. The signal is excellent too. I don’t need anything more.
I didn’t know they still locked this feature behind a payment, it’s scummy they can also tell you how much data you can use this way too. I remember there being a program that tunneled the stats a certain way to bypass it but you had to use usb or Bluetooth PAN. I think it was called easy tether.
I know with Verizon in the USA, they recently changed their plans to remove the hotspot as a feature from their lowest tier so they can sell it back to you as a feature, or get you to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
Yeah, but carriers can see that it’s hotspot traffic for 2 reasons: packet time to live is different on computers and android (and AOSP) snitches you out. So they throttle it or send you to a captive portal.
I used ATT for ~ 5 years and then switched to Verizon for ~ 2 years, now I’m on straight talk which is a reseller for Verizon and ATT. Never had an issue using unlocked or rooted hotspots.
TTL on Android is 64 by default. Anyone can change their TTL on a PC to 64 which is why I am not willing to believe carriers use TTL as a metric for determining who is on PC or mobile. At least not without seeing evidence to support this. That would be incredibly stupid of them to do.
They use everything available to them. Browser fingerprinting with metadata, packet TTL, all of it. And AOSP snitches you out also, I think theres a magisk module or something that can fix that.
I just don’t see why they wouls use any of that as it all can be faked. I’m going to set fake user agents on my mobile browser and change my devices TTL to 128 (windows default) and see if I can supply any other fake metadata just to see what happens. Can you supply any documentation showing that carriers use any of that data to prevent using a hotspot? What do you mean by “aosp snitches you out”, I’ve used official and custom roms for at least a decade and used hotspots weekly across all of them and I’ve never had any kind of issue.
This is one reason why I will never pay for a phone I cannot root if a rootable option exists.
Strangers on the internet constantly tell me I am a fool to root “'cause security”, and I just shake my head.
If I pay $700 for a phone, I own it. If I’m paying for X gigabytes of cellular data, I will not be told I cannot use it “for that”.
I almost never see advertisements, am blocking tracking and malware at the device level, and impriving sound output quality. I use kernels that are patched up way better than the device default, and have superior battery life, and cpy over-clocking.
I’d go insane if I had to deal with all those restrictions, invasion of privacy, and monetization of my life at my expense.
Out of interest, are there good resources on archiving those optimisations when rooting you would recommend? I’m low key interested in cracking android open when I’ll have to buy a new phone eventually but haven’t yet looked into the topic.
By optimizations, do you mean the malware blocking, audio improvements, and CPU tweaks?
Most work through Magisk. I flash a kernel from the pixel 6 XDA forum that uses a magisk module to help it work. That has optimizations and I can use a kernel manager to tweak it’s settings. And I use adaway which is a DNS level ad blocker. ViperFX4Android is a godlike audio transformer.
Still using xprivacylua to restrict apps’ ability to track, use camera and speaker, and get my contacts. I have a tool that stops phone charging at 90% so I don’t over-wear the battery.
I use NeoBackup to backup all my apps with data, plus some system data like WiFi hotspots, call history, Bluetooth pairings. When I factory reset or otherwise have to start over, I restore that to get everything back. On older phones, I use TWRP to flash and do nandroid backups, etc. I’m not sure why TWRP is still not available on Pixel 6.
With root, I can do all this, without it I can’t even backup the apps, and any ad block I can use makes it impossible to run a VPN to protect my privacy as they use VPN to block the sites.
If I can’t unlock the bootloader, then when the OS becomes too bloated to be useful, I have to toss my phone instead of stripping the bloat with a degoogled ROM. I get another 3 to 5 years out of it by replacing stock. That’s a boat-load of money, right there!
For example, I’m still using my Pixel 2XL as a viable device (minus Sim). That is about 6 years old now. It is on the 7/23 patch of android 13 right now. It might get 14.
My AdAway host lists block over 650,000 known malware and ad sites.
I’m pretty happy with my setup, and have confidence I’m at least partially protected from the crap out there.
Perhaps. I’d have to see how it blocks ads and malware. If I can get the features I want, I’d be happy to remain unrooted because I am taking risks if I lose the phone or it is outright stolen.
There are options now that allow you to remove phone bloat/ads/spyware without rooting and without breaking the security model of the device. GrapheneOS and CalyxOS have made rooting obsolete IMO.
You just need an OEM unlocked Pixel and a web browser that supports webUSB. You literally just click the buttons on the installation web page and it does everything for you in your web browser.
Rooting and custom rom get interchanged a bit. Rooting just means gaining access to root, graphene os is a custom rom and you don’t necessarily have access to root. Personally i’ve been running custom roms for years with no root but it’s my property and damn sure better be able to root it if I want to. Anyway, with either root or custom rom you can probably get around your carrier’s tethering restrictions which is what OP meant.
Nope, I’m running it now! You unlock the bootloader, flash the ROM, then lock it back up. As long as you don’t mind the lack of Android Auto, it is basically a completely flawless experience and I have loved almost every moment of it. Especially if you host your own services like nextcloud and jellyfin, everything works seamlessly!
Eh, I drive a clapped out 2009 Honda fit. Android auto has never been a thing for me lol. I’m gonna look into it some more now that I know the process isn’t a pain in the ass
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If I remember correctly, it used to be a thing here in Australia, but I’ve not heard of it for a decade or more.
AFAIK an unlocked phone can hotspot no matter what. My plan does not include mobile hotspot data and yet I use it all the time.
Not true for all phones. I have an unlocked s20+ that does not allow it. My phone is not the only either. Oneplus and google phones can though.
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Idk, but here in the Philippines we don’t have any law that prevents telcos from doing the same, yet literally every telco allows mobile hotspot usage without restrictions or extra charges. Same for almost every other things American telcos do to fuck up their customers. America probably needs more telco company competition.
In the meantime, you can try TetherFi and see if it works for you.
The “pay for mobile hotspot” is more of a carrier thing than an Android thing. iPhone users suffer as well.
On Android you can at least use apps like SecureTether. It’s a bit clunky, but it works on my Pixel 6a.
What I don’t appreciate is Google completely turning off the ability to create a hotspot WiFi network even if your mobile data is off. In college we would connect multiple laptops to a phone hotspot and play LAN games.
Typical Google shenanigans
*More of an American thing ftfy
I can’t hear you over my strict antimonopoly regulations
It was a thing in the UK for a bit as well, but they seem to have backed down in the last few years.
I used to have to pay extra for hotspot data until the last few years in the UK too.
You guys are really screwed importing all US shit f*ckury culture. and now you are even double screwed after brexit.
Meh, it’s not as bad as some people will have you believe, in the same way I don’t believe the US is probably as bad as all the news coming out makes it look.
How about tipping, I hear its making its way to becoming as common place as in the US.
Not really, most people in the UK used to tip at a sit down place anyway providing the service wasn’t naff. There’s no “acceptable percentage” like the US though and restaurants still have to pay at least minimum wage so tips are an actual bonus not just shoring up underpaid staff. I noticed a lot of takeaways charge a delivery fee post Covid since people don’t have cash anymore so the drivers were probably not getting the tips they used to. Never seen it for fast food and the like yet though.
Don’t you just go into your normal android settings, go to connections, mobile internet hotspot, toggle it on? When are you ever prompted to pay for anything? Why do you need a separate app??
In the US, the service provider can control if that feature is available. If you try to enable it it will ping the service provider to see if you paid for that ability. This is done because the data usage goes way up when you start using hotspot.
Companies have been making the tether feature on phones throttle the data rates forever so this is unsurprising
Should be illegal
Not one mention in this thread of Net Neutrality. How quick we are to forget.
I haven’t forgotten. Burn in hell Ajit Pai.
Because this isn’t a net neutrality issue?
Visible service has unlimited hotspot/tethering, however its throttled.
For a while I used it as my main internet connection by tethering it via USB to a router that spoofed the TTL packets, which bypassed the throttling.
I can vouch for Visible. AT&T was too expensive. Mint (T-Mobile) didn’t have signal at my office. Red Pocket cut my service off for using too much unlimited data. Visible is cheap and unlimited. The signal is excellent too. I don’t need anything more.
Infuriating that you pay for their service but there are so many*{§}©®™
Is there a /r/USdefaultism already on Lemmy…? 🤓
Before you post anything, make sure it applies globally or don’t say it all! Even if you’re asking questions. /s
I didn’t know they still locked this feature behind a payment, it’s scummy they can also tell you how much data you can use this way too. I remember there being a program that tunneled the stats a certain way to bypass it but you had to use usb or Bluetooth PAN. I think it was called easy tether.
I know with Verizon in the USA, they recently changed their plans to remove the hotspot as a feature from their lowest tier so they can sell it back to you as a feature, or get you to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
Not an issue here. Can open how many hotspots we want as much as the phone support.
If your phone is unlocked then this feature is free already.
Do you do it? How?
Just go to hotspot in your settings and enable it. If you have an unlocked device. If it’s locked you can root the device to get this functionality.
Yeah, but carriers can see that it’s hotspot traffic for 2 reasons: packet time to live is different on computers and android (and AOSP) snitches you out. So they throttle it or send you to a captive portal.
I’ve used root or unlocked devices for years and have never had an issue with throttling or a portal. I use a hotspot on my laptop weekly.
Well it’s different per carrier. Some carriers sell some GB limit for hotspot with their data plans.
I used ATT for ~ 5 years and then switched to Verizon for ~ 2 years, now I’m on straight talk which is a reseller for Verizon and ATT. Never had an issue using unlocked or rooted hotspots.
TTL on Android is 64 by default. Anyone can change their TTL on a PC to 64 which is why I am not willing to believe carriers use TTL as a metric for determining who is on PC or mobile. At least not without seeing evidence to support this. That would be incredibly stupid of them to do.
They use everything available to them. Browser fingerprinting with metadata, packet TTL, all of it. And AOSP snitches you out also, I think theres a magisk module or something that can fix that.
I just don’t see why they wouls use any of that as it all can be faked. I’m going to set fake user agents on my mobile browser and change my devices TTL to 128 (windows default) and see if I can supply any other fake metadata just to see what happens. Can you supply any documentation showing that carriers use any of that data to prevent using a hotspot? What do you mean by “aosp snitches you out”, I’ve used official and custom roms for at least a decade and used hotspots weekly across all of them and I’ve never had any kind of issue.
This is one reason why I will never pay for a phone I cannot root if a rootable option exists.
Strangers on the internet constantly tell me I am a fool to root “'cause security”, and I just shake my head.
If I pay $700 for a phone, I own it. If I’m paying for X gigabytes of cellular data, I will not be told I cannot use it “for that”.
I almost never see advertisements, am blocking tracking and malware at the device level, and impriving sound output quality. I use kernels that are patched up way better than the device default, and have superior battery life, and cpy over-clocking.
I’d go insane if I had to deal with all those restrictions, invasion of privacy, and monetization of my life at my expense.
Out of interest, are there good resources on archiving those optimisations when rooting you would recommend? I’m low key interested in cracking android open when I’ll have to buy a new phone eventually but haven’t yet looked into the topic.
By optimizations, do you mean the malware blocking, audio improvements, and CPU tweaks?
Most work through Magisk. I flash a kernel from the pixel 6 XDA forum that uses a magisk module to help it work. That has optimizations and I can use a kernel manager to tweak it’s settings. And I use adaway which is a DNS level ad blocker. ViperFX4Android is a godlike audio transformer.
Still using xprivacylua to restrict apps’ ability to track, use camera and speaker, and get my contacts. I have a tool that stops phone charging at 90% so I don’t over-wear the battery.
I use NeoBackup to backup all my apps with data, plus some system data like WiFi hotspots, call history, Bluetooth pairings. When I factory reset or otherwise have to start over, I restore that to get everything back. On older phones, I use TWRP to flash and do nandroid backups, etc. I’m not sure why TWRP is still not available on Pixel 6.
With root, I can do all this, without it I can’t even backup the apps, and any ad block I can use makes it impossible to run a VPN to protect my privacy as they use VPN to block the sites.
If I can’t unlock the bootloader, then when the OS becomes too bloated to be useful, I have to toss my phone instead of stripping the bloat with a degoogled ROM. I get another 3 to 5 years out of it by replacing stock. That’s a boat-load of money, right there!
For example, I’m still using my Pixel 2XL as a viable device (minus Sim). That is about 6 years old now. It is on the 7/23 patch of android 13 right now. It might get 14.
My AdAway host lists block over 650,000 known malware and ad sites.
I’m pretty happy with my setup, and have confidence I’m at least partially protected from the crap out there.
yeah but for privacy like running grapheneos, rooting might not be a good idea. I absolutely agree that the option needs to be there though.
That depends on how well it blocks adware and malware at the system level, and how much control it has over individual permissions for each app.
I’ll take a closer look at Grapheme since I’m hearing a lot more positive reviews lately.
The options grow thinner every year. Not too many high spec devices can be rooted at all these days.
Perhaps. I’d have to see how it blocks ads and malware. If I can get the features I want, I’d be happy to remain unrooted because I am taking risks if I lose the phone or it is outright stolen.
There are options now that allow you to remove phone bloat/ads/spyware without rooting and without breaking the security model of the device. GrapheneOS and CalyxOS have made rooting obsolete IMO.
You don’t have to root to use graphene? I always thought you did and that was basically the only reason I haven’t switched. Thanks!
You just need an OEM unlocked Pixel and a web browser that supports webUSB. You literally just click the buttons on the installation web page and it does everything for you in your web browser.
https://grapheneos.org/install/web
You can even install GrapheneOS using another phone, no desktop computer needed.
Rooting and custom rom get interchanged a bit. Rooting just means gaining access to root, graphene os is a custom rom and you don’t necessarily have access to root. Personally i’ve been running custom roms for years with no root but it’s my property and damn sure better be able to root it if I want to. Anyway, with either root or custom rom you can probably get around your carrier’s tethering restrictions which is what OP meant.
Nope, I’m running it now! You unlock the bootloader, flash the ROM, then lock it back up. As long as you don’t mind the lack of Android Auto, it is basically a completely flawless experience and I have loved almost every moment of it. Especially if you host your own services like nextcloud and jellyfin, everything works seamlessly!
Eh, I drive a clapped out 2009 Honda fit. Android auto has never been a thing for me lol. I’m gonna look into it some more now that I know the process isn’t a pain in the ass