Ultimate guide to tethering & MetroPCS MSL (subsidy code/unlock phone) calculator

[Fifthe1ement]

Regular dial-up can connect at 54kbps, but MetroPCSs' speed is limited to your connection quality and users on the network at the time. I was able to achieve dial-up (sometimes slower, sometimes faster) speeds with my connection even-though the "initial" connection rate appeared as I said it did at around 900kbps. The connection speed is no where near broadband speeds but it can get the job done if needed be for email, quick browsing, etc... I'm not sure how EVDO speeds are anyone?

Yes the 6265i does have streaming video but you have to have the correct settings.

No problem,

Fifth

[nokiaONLY]

Yes the 6265i does have streaming video but you have to have the correct settings.

No problem,

Fifth

So you said the 65i does have streaming capability? Of course they have to be set through Diego right? Anyhow, I'll play around with it some more or if you like, you can tell us how...

[nothere2001]

Had 2 questions:
1.
I was able to get connect my laptop to my cell phone and got it working, but i have heard a few people talk about unlocking EVO on there phones. Did i miss read that or is it possible? I live in the Tampa FL area, and have the Samsung r400. I see the 1x icon on my cell phone, i have never seen the EVO icon.

2.
Kind of a dumb question but what do i do with the MLS code that i got from Juice's program? I did not needed it to tether my cell phone but wanted to make sure.


BYW, FIFTHE1EMENT Your guild was GREAT!! Thanks helped alot!

God Bless
Luis

[Fifthe1ement]

No problem bud and thanks for the kind words!

1. EVDO stands for Evolution-Data Optimized, and is a feature not found on many MetroPCS phones. It is a newer data technology for CDMA networks and enables broadband network speeds on your mobile phone. Most Metro phones only have 1xRTT, which is similar to 2.5G, while EVDO is more like 3G. The only Metro phones that are on sale now that support EVDO are the Motorola L7c SLVR & Samsung u520.

2. That code is used to determine your phone "unlock" code which is required for most Moto phones to tether.

Feel free to ask more questions,

Fifth

[johnkzin]

My phone was able to tether wtihout any special code, and able to connect at 1x (it's the current low end nokia they sell, don't recall the number; 2xxx)... but I wasn't able to figure out any way to make the HTTP proxy work (HTTPS is fine, but not HTTP). I even tried to set up my own proxy'ing magic, but couldn't get it to work.

(and, I am doing this with my Nokia N800 tablet, so the configuration data was very useful, but the windows oriented configuration steps weren't ... but obviously I'm a minority in that case)

[Fifthe1ement]

johnkzin any luck with the spam filter and did you take a look at my guide? My guide explains how to configure all devices. HTTPS will work without any proxy but you will need to setup the proxy for http. Nokia's do not require a code, except some require the dial string.

Regards,

Fifth

[Ja[H]x]

So I am trying to help out a customer of mine, he has a nokia 6235i.

I get connected, using the init string provided, with the username <cust10digitnumber>@mymetropcs.com and mymetropcs as the password. I have the proxy set as wap.metropcs.com, port 3128. I get a connection, but nothing else. Can't even hit secure sites. Made sure he didnt have a firewall, yada yada, all good. Now when I run an Ipconfig, it doesnt show a dns address...

Any ideas?

[johnkzin]

5th: Yeah, I did eventually get in, and I did read the guide. But it didn't directly cover my setup. But I was able to cobble things together. The hardest part was figuring out how to set up a proxy without it being an open proxy. And apparently it's working with one of my hosts (workstation at work), but not another one (machine at home).

It's barely usable at 1x speed (I've got the nokia 28xx, so no EVDO), but it is usable. Today I took a friend to the doctor, and all of the wifi's in my area were protected ... so I pulled out my metropcs phone, turned on bluetooth, paired up, and then ssh'ed to my workstation at work (doing port forwarding via ssh to the proxy running on my workstation). I was able to check a few things, read my rss feeds, and browse a couple web sites.

I did lose my link once in the middle, but was able to quickly reconnect without any problems.

I'm looking for a different/better proxy solution though.

Thanks for your help :-)

[cybtra]

I'm also having the same issue with the proxy server settings. I can connect to https sites without the proxy sever setup in my Axim X51 running WM2003 but cannot connect to http sites. I've setup the proxy server settings with the settings stated in the previous pages but then it wont even let me surf https or http sites. Has anyone had any luck setting the proxy server settings in windows mobile 2003 in order to allow the connection to work with all sites?

[Fifthe1ement]

Great johnkzin! I'm glad it worked out. And like I said it is fairly slow but doable. Also the tips in my guide help improve the speed! EVDO is good but it can be a pain to get working since none of the Nokia phones are EVDO compatible.

You can use any proxy it just has to be at the right port settings. Or you can tunnel as others have suggested. You will always be able to connect to HTTPS sites but you will need to modify the proxy settings to get it running all web pages. In the proxy settings make sure you set it to use proxy for all http. Please head my guide which has a better explanation of the proxy setup.

Regards,

Fifth

[mordigen]

I have a few things to say -- first off, thankyou so much for all the info! I worked fantastically, like a charm...and my connection speed is actually remarkably quick, actually much faster than dial up, so i am pleasantly surprised and happy

i only seem to be having one glitch of a problem that i cant seem to figure out a result to --- non of my messengers will connect, and I work as an online moderator for a chat group run by the www.xatech.com flash-chats. All the pages load fine, but the chat themselves wont connect --- any idea on how to resolve this? I've read through a lot of the responses and i'm not sure what to do, if it is dealing with the MSL or not, frankly on the MSL i got pretty confused and have yet to try it as i dont fully understand what i'm suppose to do lol :P excuse my ignorence, but i'm not so tech-savy with certain things, so i need it spelled out for me on what exactly im suppose to do or if there is another suggestion to get the messengers and flash chats to connect.

Also, i just wanted to add in that though i successfully connected, i did have to tweak a few things to do it that might shed some light into others' problems they've been having

I use a motorola w385, so not sure if that had something to do with it -- but under the username i had to had a '1' at the beginning of the 10 digit number, and also the password i had to use was the last 4 digits of my phone number. This was the one piece of info I actually successfully got from MetroPCS themselves :P I also had to go in under the modem properties and adjust the buffering rate --- a lower rate allows better connection while i higher rate allows quicker surfing, so you may have to just play around with them until you get the right connection speed you want

hope that helps a few others, and i hope some more may have some suggestions for my messenger/chat problems

many thanks, once again, i am SO happy a EXTREMELY greatful for this info because i do a lot of business online that i was desperately missing :P

hope to here from you guys soon
-mordi

[mordigen]

I have Metro PCS, I have the Kyocera Strobe, I also have the actual Kyocera Mobile Phone Tools program and the data cable to connect my laptop and my stobe together. But every time, the mobile Phone Tools does not detect my phone. Does anyone have a step by step guide on how I can tether my strobe to my laptop so my stobe acts as a modem and I can use all of the other features of the Mobile Phone Tools? Pardon me, but I am so green that I do not understand alot of the jargon mentioned on these posts. I just want step by step instructions. PLEASE

i had the exact same problem with my motorola and the phone tools -- its just a communications glitch, if you disconnect your phone from the comp, turn it off, then restart it, select the redetect or refresh the phone tools, then plug the phone back in it should work just fine -- but, that wont help the connection any. The phone tools is good for customization, but not connection. The issue is MetroPCS will tell you this feature is not even possible, so using the phone tools does no good because you cant get any of the info needed to run the software --- if you manually set up a dial-up connection in the windows connection center yourself, without using the software, followeing the directions everyone has stated above it should work --- you may have to fiddle with every different variety of the same connection that many people have given (as i did :P) but one of them should work just fine.

[mordigen]

Oh, one last question:

Has anyone who has been doing this been contacted by MetroPCS for abusing their internet access, misusing their phone, etc.?

if you go back to page one you can see that a link is included to an article stating how this is legal --- so no, because no one is abusing their service. From what i have seen, people who do not have metroweb cant connect, the people who can have already subscribed to metroweb, so your not abusing anything, you pay for the service just like anyone else, you're simply reconfiguring it to display on your PC rather than solely on your phone.

An example of this is that TONS of cell phone manufacturers supply sofware specifically for this reason -- i got mine through motorola completely free, so if it were illegal or abuse companies would not distribute such software because of the liability.

so take comfort, you're doing nothing wrong, just utilizing the service you bought to it's fullest extent

[mordigen]

That's not really an excuse :-) You can always pressure your hosting provider to clean up their act, or move to another hosting provider.



Actually, you sent it to me. My _email_ host (web host has nothing to do with it) is not hosted at some service, it's my own machine. I run mail servers for a living, so it's not much extra effort to also run my own.

But, I can't remove you from the blacklist. As I said, your mail server is blacklisted by spamhaus (you've heard of the spamhaus RBLs, right? http://www.spamhaus.org). I don't run the blacklist, I subscribe to it.

But I'll see what I can do for a work-around.

..... well, no offense, but it is obvious that a company is not going to change their whole hosting and server just because one person happened to subscribe to a specific spam blocker. You were the one who just plainly stated you dont run it, you subscribe to it....well, *doi*, if it's giving you that big of issues then unsubscribe to it, get your email, then re-subscribe instead of telling a whole company to rearrange special for you :P

[johnkzin]

if you go back to page one you can see that a link is included to an article stating how this is legal --- so no, because no one is abusing their service.

It's not a matter of whether or not it's illegal. That's completely irrelevant to my question.

For example, AT&T and Verizon both have "unlimited data" plans for tethering your cell phone. But they also have usage terms in their contract that state that if you use the data plan excessively, they can and will terminate your service. And they've done it (so, you have an unlimited data plan, but you used it too much, so they terminated you).

So, it's not a matter of "illegal", it's a matter of "what do the terms of use say that might cause your service to be terminated if you're using the data access in ways that metropcs doesn't like". For example:

1) if they detect that you're tethering, when they don't give you permission to tether (detectable via your web browser's signature in the http headers, which they could see via sniffing the traffic).

2) if you use your data service to access heavy connection oriented services (ex: tunneling a skype connection, and receiving a skype call through it).

3) or if they notice that you're tunneling on a port (such as port 443), because the port is constantly open, but that it's definitely not https (or not POP that you're accessing on port 110, etc.).

These would all be indications that you're using the service in a manner they didn't intend (assuming their "terms of use" agreement says so). Which, as you say, isn't illegal ... but as other carriers have shown, it might still violate the terms of use agreement, and therefore still get your service terminated.

So. That's the question. Has anyone been contacted by MetroPCS about whether or not MetroPCS can tell they're tethering, and as such that they're using the service in a manner that is inconsistent with the metropcs terms of use agreement?