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Mobile hotspot - Am I missing something?
shmokes:
We just got my wife a new smartphone that comes with built-in mobile hotspot functionality. But AT&T charges $50/mo for this functionality. WTF? Am I missing something? As far as I can tell AT&T isn't DOING anything when I use my phone as a hotspot. My phone is handling all the routing and processing. I'm using capped data that I've already paid for. AT&T isn't providing any extra service whatsoever. Right?
I mean, I'd understand a douchey little nominal monthly fee, or an exorbitant/extortionate $30 one-time fee. But $50/mo and I don't get any extra data with that? I only pay $30/mo for the data package I'd be sharing with my iPad!
Samstag:
Just wait till they add the porn surcharge.
ark_ader:
Phone Wifi routing? Are you serious? You want to be careful doing that. Especially with blue tooth.
You could be opening a huge can of worms doing that. Anyone worth their salt of hacking knowledge can do horrible things with it. Leave you with so much grief, that your post count would exceed 50K.
Not because you are stupid or irresponsible, but we are all fallible, and prone to forgetfulness. With your luck some kid would probably war chalk you on the back at the mall. :lol
My Galaxy does that but I have to be really careful and quick when I enable it, but it doesn't cost me anything. My tablet doesn't have 3G and I rarely share my data allowance with it. I was without internet at home and I enabled it for 10 minutes maximum, but I change the password every time I turn it off.
But I am in the UK, and probably paid considerably more for my plan and phone than in the US. But I would NEVER enable the wifi router on the phone in public.
I would avoid wifi routing at all costs unless you live in the sticks, or if it was for like 5 minutes.
$50 is a bit steep, but I'm glad you have to fork out for it. I wish all carriers charged for that facility. I would buy a cable if it was for a laptop.
I work for a very large mobile carrier (tech support) and we had a guy who had such a facility on his phone recently (actually we get calls like this every week). He had a 500mb per month limit. We charged £1 per mb if you go over.
Somebody hacked his phone and downloaded some large files. His bill was £3K or so, and he had to pay it. We also had another guy who traveled to Egypt (a few years ago) and wanted to use the Satellite Data plan at £10 per MB and apparently his phone "locked up" and his bill was rather huge. If you use a special data plan we have to unlock your account, so you can accrue lots of charges, otherwise you phone would stop and that would suck if you were in Egypt and had to use a public phone....
I thought it very amusing especially with crappy phones of the day. Not so funny now with the more capable phones of today.
--- Quote from: Samstag on April 15, 2012, 02:39:37 pm ---Just wait till they add the porn surcharge.
--- End quote ---
Yeah that is another common complaint. One guy (a lorry driver) subscribed to a porn site, and we charge for using the access and then pay the adult site whatever it is. This dumb guy falls asleep and regardless if the phone is on or off keeps sending multimedia (porn) messages at £5 each text, like every minute until you text the site back with a stop command. The guy had a heart attack when he got our bill. :laugh2: "You play in the toilet...."
I like the excuses part of the call. Makes my day. :laugh2:
shmokes:
The phone supports WPA2 encryption (as does your Galaxy). There's far less reason to be concerned about my mobile hotspot than the stationary WiFi network I have at home (also encrypted with WPA2).
And why do you wish all carriers charged for the "facility"? What exactly are they charging you for. It's like selling you a chair and then charging you extra if you want to prop the chair under a door knob to hold the door closed. It's retarded.
ark_ader:
--- Quote from: shmokes on April 15, 2012, 05:37:08 pm ---The phone supports WPA2 encryption (as does your Galaxy). There's far less reason to be concerned about my mobile hotspot than the stationary WiFi network I have at home (also encrypted with WPA2).
And why do you wish all carriers charged for the "facility"? What exactly are they charging you for. It's like selling you a chair and then charging you extra if you want to prop the chair under a door knob to hold the door closed. It's retarded.
--- End quote ---
I was going to comment about WPA2 and you are kind of right, but the hackers of today can break that pretty quickly.
Watch this:
I would advise not to go to this guys site, unless you want to get root kitted. :lol
I used to have all the hacking tools for Wifi when I worked for Fujitsu. You had to keep up with the kiddies to do a proper risk assessment on the network. VPN is toast too.
Under 4 minutes is pretty good, I use a pretty good key on mine, but can be hard to remember that is why most people keep it simple and bingo! Heck in the old days our generic mobile account password was password.... :laugh2:
--- Quote ---It's like selling you a chair and then charging you extra if you want to prop the chair under a door knob to hold the door closed.
--- End quote ---
Now look at what you just typed. You are complaining about using a device for something that it was not included in your contract. Chairs are for sitting, but if you want to use it to stand on, that could incur an extra charge (you might exceed the chair's ability, capacity or added risk). If you want to prop a door open, another charge, and so on. I'm sure video calling is extra too, as is using VOIP.
You are using the phone under your carrier's terms and conditions, regardless if the device does something that is not in your plan.
It costs you $50 to turn on this feature? Welcome to America. :laugh2:
I do admit it sucks to be locked out of a feature or discriminated against and that is not fair. Most of the time it is for your protection.
But we have fools out there who do stupid stuff, so charge them extra (for the paperwork) and let them exceed their usage plan and get raped on the charges. Those guys make us money, and I like to work collections.
Boy do I wish I was your carrier customer service representative Jake. The laughs we I would have.... :laugh2:
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