Sprint says laptop cable is 'stealing'.

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:56:19 GMT, Jerome Zelinske wrote:
> Yes tapping into their service in such a manner as to avoid paying for
>it sounds like stealing to me.

I'm not avoiding payment for anything by tethering my laptop. I pay
for a plan that has unlimited Vision. The only thing I'm doing by
tethering my laptop is changing the Vision user interface from a
difficult-to-use device with 24 small keys and a 2" LCD display to an
easy-to-use device with a 17" LCD display and a 100 or so keys.

I don't deny that tethering violates TOS, and Sprint has every right
to terminate my service because of this, but I'm certainly not
stealing anything. I'm paying for Vision, I'm just using an
"unapproved" user interface.

Joe Huber
[email protected]

---

› See More: Sprint says laptop cable is 'stealing'.

A laptop is capable of downloading a lot more data than a little cell phone.
That is the reason for the restriction.

"Joseph Huber" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:56:19 GMT, Jerome Zelinske wrote:
>> Yes tapping into their service in such a manner as to avoid paying for
>>it sounds like stealing to me.
>
> I'm not avoiding payment for anything by tethering my laptop. I pay
> for a plan that has unlimited Vision. The only thing I'm doing by
> tethering my laptop is changing the Vision user interface from a
> difficult-to-use device with 24 small keys and a 2" LCD display to an
> easy-to-use device with a 17" LCD display and a 100 or so keys.
>
> I don't deny that tethering violates TOS, and Sprint has every right
> to terminate my service because of this, but I'm certainly not
> stealing anything. I'm paying for Vision, I'm just using an
> "unapproved" user interface.
>
> Joe Huber
> [email protected]

Mij Adyaw wrote:
>
> They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal service
> from them that they are not rightfully paying for. I wish they would do it
> so that all of these threads on this newsgroup and other Sprint forums would
> disappear once and for-all!
>
> <snip>

Nose? Face? Spite?

Personally, I'd prefer to ignore the complaint threads and tether my laptop
on those rare occasions.

Notan

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:16:45 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal service
>from them that they are not rightfully paying for.

So, if I use only my MM7400 to check my PCS email or place a bid on
ebay, it's not stealing. But if I tether my laptop to my MM7400 to
access my PCS email or place a bid on ebay, it's stealing. Why?
Either way, I'm accessing the unlimited Vision I pay for every month.
What exactly am I stealing from Sprint?

A laptop is simply an unapproved method of accessing Vision and a
violation of TOS. It is not stealing.

Joe Huber
[email protected]

I have a Legal Novatel Wireless card in my laptop and pay for the unlimited
data service. It works very well. I do not or never did result to illegal
tethers.

"Notan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
>>
>> They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal
>> service
>> from them that they are not rightfully paying for. I wish they would do
>> it
>> so that all of these threads on this newsgroup and other Sprint forums
>> would
>> disappear once and for-all!
>>
>> <snip>
>
> Nose? Face? Spite?
>
> Personally, I'd prefer to ignore the complaint threads and tether my
> laptop
> on those rare occasions.
>
> Notan

Because you can download many megabytes of data to your laptop. One single
PDF file or a music download can be greater than one megabyte. Your cell
phone cannot store that much data. A laptop is like drinking from a fire
hose.


"Joseph Huber" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:16:45 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal
>>service
>>from them that they are not rightfully paying for.
>
> So, if I use only my MM7400 to check my PCS email or place a bid on
> ebay, it's not stealing. But if I tether my laptop to my MM7400 to
> access my PCS email or place a bid on ebay, it's stealing. Why?
> Either way, I'm accessing the unlimited Vision I pay for every month.
> What exactly am I stealing from Sprint?
>
> A laptop is simply an unapproved method of accessing Vision and a
> violation of TOS. It is not stealing.
>
> Joe Huber
> [email protected]

Originally Posted by Mij Adyaw

They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal service
from them that they are not rightfully paying for. I wish they would do it
so that all of these threads on this newsgroup and other Sprint forums would
disappear once and for-all!

"Joseph Huber" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:05:41 -0000, (Jim Seymour) wrote:
>>You know: I have a laptop. I occasionally travel to places that have
>>sub-standard dialup service or in which it would be exceedingly
>>inconvenient to use a land-line, but where SPCS service is good. It
>>would be nice if I could tether my laptop to my SPCS phone and get a
>>decent/solid connection for minimal email work and maybe SSH'd
>>console connections for server admin purposes. It would be nice if
>>the time to do that just came off my minutes, with the traditional
>>charge for going over. I wouldn't even mind if, if I had free nights
>>and weekends, data connections came out of anytime minutes always.
>
> This paragraph very closely describes my situation, and the situation
> of other business users I know. I'd bet there are a fair number of
> users in this situation. Yet, Sprint just seems to not want to
> address this issue of occasional use direclty (i.e. disable #777
> altogether or come up with some economical plans that permit it); for
> some reason they would rather operate with the present "under the
> radar" policy. I'm sure Sprint knows that many folks tether laptops
> now and then; it's talked about openly here, on sprintusers.com, and
> probably many other places. If Sprint wanted to deduct 1.5 minutes or
> even 2 minutes from my monthly allotment for every minute of laptop
> data access to cover costs, I could live with that.
>
> Many of us were happy campers with this type of "minute" billing plan
> for Wireless Web. It's frustrating to have PCS phones available with
> modem capability, to have a need to legitimately use that capabilitiy,
> and then to have Sprint not allow the use of that capability via TOS
> or disabling the feature in the hardware itself. My MM7400 has modem
> capability, and I need to use it occasionally. Should a firmware or
> software update come out for my phone, do I dare get the update,
> knowing that Sprint could very well disable the modem feature?
>
>>SPCS has no idea how badly they're shooting themselves in the foot
>>with this kind of behaviour.
>
> You'd think this would be bad behavior, and Sprint would be seeing
> some adverse effects. However, FON stock is doing well, and according
> to MSNBC, FON presently has an "8" rating (significantly outperform
> over next six months). Things are going well, so there probably is no
> incentive for Sprint to address this issue.
>
> Joe Huber
> [email protected]

Mij. If I didnt know better I would say you smell like a company man. Just come out and say it why dont you!

In article <[email protected]>,
Joseph Huber <[email protected]> writes:
> On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:05:41 -0000, (Jim Seymour) wrote:
[snip]
>
>>SPCS has no idea how badly they're shooting themselves in the foot
>>with this kind of behaviour.
>
> You'd think this would be bad behavior, and Sprint would be seeing
> some adverse effects.
[snip]
> Things are going well, so there probably is no
> incentive for Sprint to address this issue.

Well, they may get a small >< incentive Real Soon Now, being as,
at work, we're just beginning the process of doing new wireless
contracts. This issue isn't a *big* one, but it *is* an issue
and it will figure into the final decision at least in some small
way.

--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison

In article <sHdGe.27085$bp.21548@fed1read03>,
"Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]> writes:
> They should just disable #777 altogether ...
[snip]

I agree whole-heartedly! That way, when somebody's evaluating
SprintPCS against, say, Verizon (whose service, as I understand,
doesn't suffer this artificial limitation), they can take it into
account w/o ambiguity.

You know, I *used* to be a SprintPCS cheerleader, too.

--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison

In article <[email protected]>,
Joseph Huber <[email protected]> writes:
> On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:16:45 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal service
>>from them that they are not rightfully paying for.
>
> So, if I use only my MM7400 to check my PCS email or place a bid on
> ebay, it's not stealing. But if I tether my laptop to my MM7400 to
> access my PCS email or place a bid on ebay, it's stealing. Why?

Yes: Why?

> Either way, I'm accessing the unlimited Vision I pay for every month.
> What exactly am I stealing from Sprint?
[snip]

The point is that somebody who does what you're doing *might* consume
more bandwidth, *far* more bandwidth, than that of which they'd be
capable with just the handset. My question is: So what? Set a
realistic bandwidth limit for handset usage, something well beyond
what anybody could reasonably be expected to use, call that the
"unlimited ceiling," and charge per/k for usage beyond that.

My Ghod, this isn't rocket surgery! You'd think we were dealing with
some third-world, back-water TelCom that uses mechanical cross-bar
switching technology, mechanical adding machines, and paper records
stored in old gray filing cabinets.

When I first signed-up with SprintPCS, they were the leader in new
wireless tech. and innovative service plans, and had damn good
customer service. It's beginning to look like they've lost their
way. From what I'm reading here, and what I'm experiencing myself,
lately, none of those exist at SprintPCS anymore. What a change .

--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison

Mij Adyaw wrote:
>
> I have a Legal Novatel Wireless card in my laptop and pay for the unlimited
> data service. It works very well. I do not or never did result to illegal
> tethers.

If this were illegal ("Sprint illegal"), Sprint would be sending warnings out
to every user that logged on, for even a minute.

When I'm on the road, I log on long enough to check my e-mail and, if necessary,
send a few e-mails. We're talking a few minutes, at most.

If Sprint said they're gonna charge me minutes and/or $5.00/month for this
luxury,
I'd go for it. But, for me to spend money on a data card and a monthly data
plan,
for this pittance of use, forget it... I'd seriously start looking elsewhere for
another carrier.

In my opinion, Sprint knows this.

It's one of the reasons I stay with Sprint.

Notan

In article <j4eGe.27090$bp.13556@fed1read03>,
"Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]> writes:
> I have a Legal Novatel Wireless card in my laptop and pay for the unlimited
> data service. It works very well. I do not or never did result to illegal
> tethers.
[snip]

Fine. Wonderful. Good for you. But you appear to be purposefully
missing the point: Why would somebody pay for unlimited wireless data
access just to *occasionally* collect a bit of email or log into a
server at work (perhaps for some emergency maintenance), all of which
they could as well do, albeit far less conveniently, from the
handset? I'm not talking about rampant web surfing, constant
bittorrent data transfers, etc., etc. I'm talking maybe a few
hundred K now and then. Hell, I wouldn't use the phone that way but
once in a blue moon--if that. For those odd, infrequent occasions
where I *might* *need* the phone for a data connection, I'm supposed
to pay for unlimited data access? Not bloody likely!

I gotta tell you, Mij, you're not doing SPCS' case any favours. The
more you proselytize for SPCS on this issue, the more I think about
it, the more put off I am by what they're doing.

--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:45:18 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Because you can download many megabytes of data to your laptop. One single
>PDF file or a music download can be greater than one megabyte. Your cell
>phone cannot store that much data. A laptop is like drinking from a fire
>hose.

What does 1 MB have to do with anything? Yes, the laptop connection
can certainly be abused, but so can your phone. Again, my Vision plan
is unlimited. I can go to text.dslreports.com/mspeed with my phone
and run the 600 kb test for several hours straight, and in the process
doing nothing but tying up Sprint's bandwidth. Would you consider
that to be stealing as well? You still haven't shown how I've stolen
anything by tethering my laptop.

Tethering *might* be considered unethical, because when you do it, you
knowingly violate a contract to which you are a party. Sprint's
remedy is to terminate your account. Of course, one *might* also
consider it unethical for Sprint, by their TOS, to attempt to coerce
me into buying a data card and additional data plan to access Vision
with my laptop, when I have already bought a phone from them capable
of connecting my laptop to the unlimited Vision plan that I am already
paying for. Not that one should justify the other...

Joe Huber
[email protected]

I am not a company man or a shill. Six months ago, I switched from Verizon
to SprintPCS and I could not be happier. The only problem that I ever had
was with a customer service rep that was located in India. I was trying to
report a coverage hole on a freeway and he did not understand the meaning of
freeway or interstate highway and insisted that I give him a street address
on the freeway. All of my other interactions with Sprint customer service
and technical support have been very positive.

I have been accused by my coworkers of being a Sprint Shill because I really
like and recommend the service. I am in a completely different high-tech
business and use a cell phone and laptop with wireless card for business
communication.

Regards,-

-mij (#1 Sprint Shill,.... only kidding) ;-)

SprintPCS Rules!!!


"locnard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Mij Adyaw Wrote:
>> They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal
>> service
>> from them that they are not rightfully paying for. I wish they would do
>> it
>> so that all of these threads on this newsgroup and other Sprint forums
>> would
>> disappear once and for-all!
>>
>> "Joseph Huber" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>> > On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:05:41 -0000, (Jim Seymour) wrote:
>> >>You know: I have a laptop. I occasionally travel to places that
>> have
>> >>sub-standard dialup service or in which it would be exceedingly
>> >>inconvenient to use a land-line, but where SPCS service is good. It
>> >>would be nice if I could tether my laptop to my SPCS phone and get a
>> >>decent/solid connection for minimal email work and maybe SSH'd
>> >>console connections for server admin purposes. It would be nice if
>> >>the time to do that just came off my minutes, with the traditional
>> >>charge for going over. I wouldn't even mind if, if I had free
>> nights
>> >>and weekends, data connections came out of anytime minutes always.
>> >
>> > This paragraph very closely describes my situation, and the
>> situation
>> > of other business users I know. I'd bet there are a fair number of
>> > users in this situation. Yet, Sprint just seems to not want to
>> > address this issue of occasional use direclty (i.e. disable #777
>> > altogether or come up with some economical plans that permit it);
>> for
>> > some reason they would rather operate with the present "under the
>> > radar" policy. I'm sure Sprint knows that many folks tether laptops
>> > now and then; it's talked about openly here, on sprintusers.com, and
>> > probably many other places. If Sprint wanted to deduct 1.5 minutes
>> or
>> > even 2 minutes from my monthly allotment for every minute of laptop
>> > data access to cover costs, I could live with that.
>> >
>> > Many of us were happy campers with this type of "minute" billing
>> plan
>> > for Wireless Web. It's frustrating to have PCS phones available
>> with
>> > modem capability, to have a need to legitimately use that
>> capabilitiy,
>> > and then to have Sprint not allow the use of that capability via TOS
>> > or disabling the feature in the hardware itself. My MM7400 has
>> modem
>> > capability, and I need to use it occasionally. Should a firmware or
>> > software update come out for my phone, do I dare get the update,
>> > knowing that Sprint could very well disable the modem feature?
>> >
>> >>SPCS has no idea how badly they're shooting themselves in the foot
>> >>with this kind of behaviour.
>> >
>> > You'd think this would be bad behavior, and Sprint would be seeing
>> > some adverse effects. However, FON stock is doing well, and
>> according
>> > to MSNBC, FON presently has an "8" rating (significantly outperform
>> > over next six months). Things are going well, so there probably is
>> no
>> > incentive for Sprint to address this issue.
>> >
>> > Joe Huber
>> > [email protected]
>
> Mij. If I didnt know better I would say you smell like a company man.
> Just come out and say it why dont you!
>
>
> --
> locnard
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Cell Phone Forums: http://cellphoneforums.net
> View this thread: http://cellphoneforums.net/t183279.html
>

It is all a matter of perspective. Nobody likes to get caught in the act of
stealing service or violating the ground rules of a contract. It would be
sour grapes for anyone. I for one am glad that Sprint has this rule
regarding tethering laptops so that there is more bandwidth for business
customers like me. Otherwise every 10 year old kid with a Sprint phone would
be connecting the phone to his computer to surf the net and download
pornography and there would be no bandwidth for legitimate users. Free
internet service just because you have a Sprint phone. Do you really think
that is a good idea? That this the real truth of the matter.

-mij



"Jim Seymour" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Joseph Huber <[email protected]> writes:
>> On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:16:45 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>They should just disable #777 altogether so that folks cannot steal
>>>service
>>>from them that they are not rightfully paying for.
>>
>> So, if I use only my MM7400 to check my PCS email or place a bid on
>> ebay, it's not stealing. But if I tether my laptop to my MM7400 to
>> access my PCS email or place a bid on ebay, it's stealing. Why?
>
> Yes: Why?
>
>> Either way, I'm accessing the unlimited Vision I pay for every month.
>> What exactly am I stealing from Sprint?
> [snip]
>
> The point is that somebody who does what you're doing *might* consume
> more bandwidth, *far* more bandwidth, than that of which they'd be
> capable with just the handset. My question is: So what? Set a
> realistic bandwidth limit for handset usage, something well beyond
> what anybody could reasonably be expected to use, call that the
> "unlimited ceiling," and charge per/k for usage beyond that.
>
> My Ghod, this isn't rocket surgery! You'd think we were dealing with
> some third-world, back-water TelCom that uses mechanical cross-bar
> switching technology, mechanical adding machines, and paper records
> stored in old gray filing cabinets.
>
> When I first signed-up with SprintPCS, they were the leader in new
> wireless tech. and innovative service plans, and had damn good
> customer service. It's beginning to look like they've lost their
> way. From what I'm reading here, and what I'm experiencing myself,
> lately, none of those exist at SprintPCS anymore. What a change .
>
> --
> Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will
> not
> [email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
> http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A.
> Edison