Verizon Tethered Modem vs. Tetherberry
- granted i'm generalizing my statements to issue the vast concern i have...
but my references are:
1) personal friends who've tried it and got burned,
2) taking escalation calls dealing with large amounts of data usage. they'd actually task me with follow ups due to my experience with the systems and the device functionality, so any escalations that came into the call center would be sent to me for review if they're not handled instantly with some sort of compromise.
3) read numerous threads on here about it, along with the ones you mentioned...
other than that i'm sure some people are getting away with it. but my point is that what you are doing is breaching customer agreement. i don't work at VZW anymore, so i don't really care what you do. i won't have to deal with it. but i've seen/heard too many sob stories about people who get whats coming. that is all i was trying to avoid.04-21-09 06:53 PMLike 0 - patches152Bannedthey can terminate, AND charge you for the usage as pay per use tethering usage. there is a difference in the usage inside MARS (vzw data usage record software). so if you get flagged, they'll prolly go back a few months and check your sh*t and stick it to you for trying to get it from them for free. if you're only using small amounts of data idk, but everyone who i've experienced is using it as their primary internet connection, lots of data, but not always 5GB...or more. and you're correct, no legal action. just breach of customer agreement, rights to terminate with ETF, etc. i just am trying to prevent UNEDUCATED users from just jumping into it and not knowing. maybe they will go read more about how it all works and make a legitimately educated decision.04-21-09 06:58 PMLike 0
- "1) personal friends who've tried it and got burned"
Sorry but I'm gonna go out on a limb and call...BS again!
At first you claimed people were getting caught according to posts found here but now you say you're just "generalizing" and now it's actually personal friends who you're referring to, which we have no way of confirming.
I think you never really read too much into the Tetherberry thread so you had an half-assed understanding of the app because maybe you read about the two guys that actually got billed but which turned out to have NOTHING to do with Tetherberry. You were called on your BS'ing earlier in this thread then probably went back and read a little more into the Tetherberry thread and found out you were wrong and changed you're statement to another lie and referred to your "friends".
When you have to lie to make a point you have no point to make.04-21-09 08:10 PMLike 0 - Im siding with patches on this one. You need proof? One your fellow crackberry members got caught and was looking for help on here about a month ago.
forums.crackberry.com/f71/omg-help-190239/
So....I think we can stop with calling people out on BS now.
Post count is too low for urls, so add the complimentary beginning to the above partial link04-21-09 08:58 PMLike 0 - Wow he comes in here to warn people what COULD happen with those programs as a FORMER verizon employee. Yes, it is against the TOS and you guys try to eat him alive. Ill thank you for the warning if they won't. Get off his back for warning people that what you are doing is illeagle. And I hope you end up gettin a huge bill including a ETF with it.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com04-21-09 09:22 PMLike 0 - Im siding with patches on this one. You need proof? One your fellow crackberry members got caught and was looking for help on here about a month ago.
forums.crackberry.com/f71/omg-help-190239/
So....I think we can stop with calling people out on BS now.
Post count is too low for urls, so add the complimentary beginning to the above partial link
Come on, we are talking about tethering for excluded use, not as a primary broadband link for an entire month!
Originally Posted by beavercountyemtWow he comes in here to warn people what COULD happen with those programs as a FORMER verizon employee. Yes, it is against the TOS and you guys try to eat him alive. Ill thank you for the warning if they won't. Get off his back for warning people that what you are doing is illeagle. And I hope you end up gettin a huge bill including a ETF with it.Last edited by Ultrafied; 04-21-09 at 10:13 PM.
04-21-09 10:07 PMLike 0 - Wow he comes in here to warn people what COULD happen with those programs as a FORMER verizon employee. Yes, it is against the TOS and you guys try to eat him alive. Ill thank you for the warning if they won't. Get off his back for warning people that what you are doing is illeagle. And I hope you end up gettin a huge bill including a ETF with it.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
"Oh and yes I do know what tetherberry is and how it works and in fact was a early beta tester for it so dont try and run that smack on me either"
Yer choosin' the wrong side, pardner. Don't worry. I'm not gonna "smack" ya. Don't need to. Yer smackin' yerself just fine.Last edited by crashberry; 04-21-09 at 11:49 PM.
04-21-09 10:51 PMLike 0 -
- [QUOTE=Darthkuriboh;2343298]VZAccess Manager does have a Mac version. It will work.
QUOTE]
No there isnt. Not for our OS. You have to use the motorola Q drivers to do it. Theres a thread around here that gives you the step by step04-21-09 10:55 PMLike 0 - Yes and if you read his thread, he had over $3000 in charges, used it as his primary broadband connection at his dorm, road and everywhere he went. If you're going to use PDANet or Tetherberry as your primary broadband connection for your laptop or home computer, well, you probably deserve the bill. Also, if you read the thread, at no time did VzW tell his father (who the account belonged to) that all of the lines were cancelled (only flagged for billing).
Come on, we are talking about tethering for excluded use, not as a primary broadband link for an entire month!
I just dont understand the hostility.04-21-09 11:55 PMLike 0 - I read the entire thread and I'm not saying that if you tether illegally then you will ABSOLUTELY get caught. I'm just saying that it CAN happen, especially since alot of people don't pay too much attention to how much they use it. Sure maybe you do but alot of people don't. If someone is on the road alot and out of range of WiFi then they could easily go over their 5GB cap over the course of a month just doing everyday things.
I just dont understand the hostility.
I believe Verizon would have a hard time making you pay extra on a service they call "unlimited" without first warning you after your first excessive month.04-22-09 12:39 AMLike 0 - Violating a contract is not illegal... it is exactly that, violating a contact. You can't go to jail for it but you can be brought to civil court for it. Please don't call it illegal like a moron.
I believe Verizon would have a hard time making you pay extra on a service they call "unlimited" without first warning you after your first excessive month.
Jeez what the **** is it with some of you people on here?
I'm pretty sure illegal is the correct term in that:
a. in the event that I could not pay my potentially large bill I would go to jail
but more importantly, an argument that seems to be ever present on the forums, and as much as I dont like it myself:
b. YOU ARE STEALING FROM THE COMPANY. Sure you pay for your "unlimited plan" on your blackberry, however that is simply for blackberry throughput ONLY where the end receiver is the blackberry ONLY. I know it sounds ridiculous to some of you but its not like you can change VZW's TOS, so you just have to play ball with them.
Sigh...and I' m sure someone else will argue back to me, as they are hard-headed...04-22-09 07:37 AMLike 0 - Let's referred to it as unauthorized tethering, illegal is nice and scary but inappropriate. As I posted before if you abuse the plan by making it you primary way of accessing the web, you stand a chance of getting caught. If you use it as a supplementary way of checking your email and browsing, they won't even notice you.
As far as the kid that was hit with a $3000 bill? He started a thread with this scary story, posted two posts, and was never heard from again. So one of three things happened, his father killed him, Verizon sent a few guys out to execute him, or the whole thing is made up to validate someone's fear mongering. I would bet on the last.04-22-09 08:04 AMLike 0 - As far as unauthorized tethering is concerned, it only became unauthorized when the major carriers realized they could make a few extra bucks, and amended the TOS.
I do have a bit of a Robin Hood streak in me, which makes me sympathize with people that bite off a small piece off the rich giants table.
For every person that's using TetherBerry or PDAnet there are probably five that have no clue this kind of thing even exists and pay the tethering charges. Believe me, this is not going to dent VZW's bottom line, maybe a little ding.
What would you say if your cable company told you, you can only view their programing on a TV set 32" or smaller, otherwise you have to pay for a big screen plan. I know it's not an exact parallel but most will get my point.
If they offer a certain amount of data/month to you, and you buy it, the method of delivery should not be relevant. Most people that tether, even with a tethering plan, are breaking the TOS in some way, streaming is a good example of that. Anyway, the more people "rebel" against the TOS, the better chance of changes being made.04-22-09 08:23 AMLike 0 - A small point in the overall discussion here but IBM pays 23% of my total monthly bill including all extraneous services ... so the discount does apply ...
To the main point, the "unlimited" data plan is $30 a month for data to the BB only ... it is $45 a month for that plan plus tethering (or as they call it, business use), so an extra $15 a month for the tether from Verizon ... a small price to pay for the service as opposed to running the risk (by not having a connection monitor installed on your laptop that logs your activity and stopping usage when you get near the limit) of being caught violating the terms of your signed contract ... if they catch you, you pay ... or they cut you off ... very simple ...04-22-09 09:46 AMLike 0 - A small point in the overall discussion here but IBM pays 23% of my total monthly bill including all extraneous services ... so the discount does apply ...
To the main point, the "unlimited" data plan is $30 a month for data to the BB only ... it is $45 a month for that plan plus tethering (or as they call it, business use), so an extra $15 a month for the tether from Verizon ... a small price to pay for the service as opposed to running the risk (by not having a connection monitor installed on your laptop that logs your activity and stopping usage when you get near the limit) of being caught violating the terms of your signed contract ... if they catch you, you pay ... or they cut you off ... very simple ...
Notice, no scary stories, no calling people criminals, no wielding the morality sledgehammer at people. Just facts.
The only correction I can make is that the usage you see on My Verizon is your actual usage, since PDAnet and TBerry run trough a proxy server.
Tethering without a plan, has it's risks, you are violating you TOS in most cases. Most people drive over the speed limit, most never get a ticket, some do.04-22-09 10:08 AMLike 0 - Here is for all you BS people. That use Tetherberry.
Hi. I got my first Berry over Christmas time. I first wanted a Storm but then decided it was garbage and got a Curve. Then for Christmas I was given a new laptop by my parents. It has a wifi card and all the toys and I thought it would be perfect for schoolwork. Well at school there is good connection through the college but outside of school wifi is mostly crap. So I called Verizon and they told me they could sell me a card for my laptop for like $60 per month or I could just use my Berry for $30 per month. Well I cant afford either since I am working my way through college and my parents pay for my cell phone but they cant afford much either. I know it was a sacrifice for them to get me the laptop. I tried to find another way to use my laptop from home. We can only get dialup where I am staying. A freind told me about a new application that I could get for a one time charge that would allow me to hook my laptop to my Berry. I scraped together the money and bought tetherberry. It worked okay but was very slow. It was better than nothing.
This morning I got out of class and went to check my messages on my phone. There were none. So I went to call my girlfriend and I got a recording telling me I was being connected to Verizon for a billing problem. WTF??? My parents are never late on anything!!! I got through to this lady at Verizon and by the time she answered I was pissed and really worried at the same time. She told me my service was suspended until payment was made on the account. Okay maybe dad forgot to pay something. When she told me the bill was $3890 I almost swallowed the phone thinking someone had hacked my service. She then told me that it was all data charges and that because I was tethering my phone without a plan there normal $250 limit on data charges did not apply. WTF??? I surfed and did email and worked myspace and listened to music online. My freind who told me about tetherberry said it was bull**** and said there were people here who knew how to do it right. So I ask you this. HOW DO I FIX THIS? MY DAD WILL KILL ME!!! She said a letter was already sent to the bill address so if I cant fix it I am in deep ****.
How do you guys do it and how do I get out of these charges and get my phone back???04-22-09 10:21 AMLike 0 - A small point in the overall discussion here but IBM pays 23% of my total monthly bill including all extraneous services ... so the discount does apply ...
To the main point, the "unlimited" data plan is $30 a month for data to the BB only ... it is $45 a month for that plan plus tethering (or as they call it, business use), so an extra $15 a month for the tether from Verizon ... a small price to pay for the service as opposed to running the risk (by not having a connection monitor installed on your laptop that logs your activity and stopping usage when you get near the limit) of being caught violating the terms of your signed contract ... if they catch you, you pay ... or they cut you off ... very simple ...04-22-09 10:25 AMLike 0 -
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