Galaxy Nexus on AT&T users - AT&T limiting protocols?

[tbessie]

Hey folks...

I was going to post this in the AT&T forum, but that forum seems so low-traffic, I was afraid nobody would see it, so here I am.

So I am using my Google-branded Galaxy Nexus on AT&T. Just a couple of days ago, I noticed that several types of connections were being disconnected after about 10 seconds of use.

Looking further, and posting elsewhere, I found a few other people were having the same problem.

Basically, FTP and SSH connections that last more than about 10 seconds are being disconnected (at least on my phone, and on some others). I am not sure if unbranded phones are being targeted, or if AT&T suspects I am tethering, or what's going on, but long-lasting non-HTTP connections are being terminated.

As mentioned here:

Re: Has AT&T started disabling SSH connections fro... - AT&T Community Support

... someone said they ran a packet analysis on a similar situation, and found that an RST packet seemed to be being injected into their TCP stream when using these protocols, and they suspected it was AT&T doing this.

I have talked with AT&T several times on this, and, of course, they won't put me in touch with anyone who could tell me definitively WHY this is happening. They say "It's not an AT&T phone, we can't guarantee anything" and that's it. Their network security policies on their corporate site are sufficiently general that they could be considering use of FTP, SSH, or a non-branded phone as a "security threat" and doing this... there seems no way to actually know, however.

Has anyone experienced this? Any background on this kind of thing? Someone else on another forum said this is similar to stuff Comcast has done, but was called on. If AT&T is doing this, but selectively (eg. non-branded phones for less-used protocols for users they suspect of tethering), it might not be that common, especially if they just started doing this recently.

Anyway, any insight anyone has would be welcome. It makes my use of AT&T's network about 1/4 as useful as it had been for me.

- Tim

[Hook]

I've never used SSH or FTP on a phone, but I'll set up an SSH connection to my server and test it out on my nexus 1. Question, what happens if you do it over wifi? Also, what are you using for SSH on your phone. I'll try the same app as well as another.

Of course, AT&T, if they are doing it, may not do it to Gophones which are really treated differently and ae even expected not to be AT&T phones.

[tbessie]

I've never used SSH or FTP on a phone, but I'll set up an SSH connection to my server and test it out on my nexus 1. Question, what happens if you do it over wifi? Also, what are you using for SSH on your phone. I'll try the same app as well as another.

Of course, AT&T, if they are doing it, may not do it to Gophones which are really treated differently and ae even expected not to be AT&T phones.

It works fine over WiFi - no issues at all.

I'm using ConnectBot on my phone - probably the most commonly used SSH client for Android.

And yeah, it might be some combination of phone/plan/usage and if they've noticed something about it or not yet.

I hate that there seems to be no way to get a "what are you doing, technically, to my data connection?" answer from them. I'd like to see a full-disclosure law about that made, so you could easily click a button on their website for your account and they'd have to send you complete info about what they were doing to your data stream and why.

- Tim

[Hook]

It works fine over WiFi - no issues at all.

I'm using ConnectBot on my phone - probably the most commonly used SSH client for Android.

What is a "GoPhone"? I googled - is it a pay-as-you-go phone plan? Your Nexus One wouldn't be a special kind of phone, then, right? You mean just that it's a pay-as-you-go plan, so any phone can connect and is not expected to be an AT&T phone?

- Tim

Yes, sorry, thought you knew. My Nexus One is and always has been a Gophone, a PAYG phone. I don't do contracts. That's why I can do things like use it as a mifi for my Samsung Player. I buy my bucket of data from AT&T, but they have no say in how I use it

[Hook]

So far, my connection over SSH to the linux server that hosts my domain in Rhode Island is fine and I've been at it for about 5 minutes.

[tbessie]

Yes, sorry, thought you knew. My Nexus One is and always has been a Gophone, a PAYG phone. I don't do contracts. That's why I can do things like use it as a mifi for my Samsung Player. I buy my bucket of data from AT&T, but they have no say in how I use it

I googled further and changed my posting, but looks like you hadn't refreshed your page - yeah, I knew you had a GoPhone, but hadn't looked up exactly what that was. :-) Bit confusing, sounds like it's a special kind of phone, when it's just the plan that differs (at least in your case), which was why I was scratching my head. :-)

- Tim

[Hook]

Sorry, yeah-- it really means Gophone plan, although there are also Gophones which are AT&T branded and ROMed and sold in Gophone packages. I don't us them either. This is my Unlocked, unbranded Nexus One I bought from Google, like you.

Now, more than 10 minutes later (and I made sure wifi was off), my connection is fine.

[tbessie]

Sorry, yeah-- it really means Gophone plan, although there are also Gophones which are AT&T branded and ROMed and sold in Gophone packages. I don't us them either. This is my Unlocked, unbranded Nexus One I bought from Google, like you.

Now, more than 10 minutes later (and I made sure wifi was off), my connection is fine.

Well then, it's could be something that is triggered by a certain combination of factors, as mentioned; after all, I was using the Galaxy Nexus for a few months before, and all was fine; just started this week.

So maybe they did a "sweep" of phone types and usage patterns and set some flag on my phone's record in their database.

You don't happen to know if there is ANY way one can get AT&T to reveal what's going on on their end, do you? They have that impenetrable wall of Customer Service, you know, as do most of the carriers.

I might do an experiment and try ConnectBot back on my NexusOne, and also on one of my old Symbian phones, and see if it still does it. If it does, that means it's attached to my AT&T account itself and not to the phone id or type.

If it is, indeed, connected to my account, and they won't change anything or reveal what they've done, it might be time to switch to Verizon, despite my dedication to GSM. Bleh.

Or, of course, I could buy one of their phones on contract (Galaxy S3 or something, when it's available) and say "Hey, I have one of your phones, and it's still not working!" Tho' I bet that wouldn't make any difference at all to their support people.

- Tim

[Hook]

Do the Nexus One test. The thing is, I have no idea why they would care about SSH and FTP type protocols. I have no doubt AT&T would screw with anything and not tell you, but for the life of me I can't figure what here would get them going and would be a waste of time for them to sniff for it with 95% of users.

[tbessie]

Do the Nexus One test. The thing is, I have no idea why they would care about SSH and FTP type protocols. I have no doubt AT&T would screw with anything and not tell you, but for the life of me I can't figure what here would get them going and would be a waste of time for them to sniff for it with 95% of users.

Oh I'm sure there are some corporate security types who came up with some heuristics to sniff out unusual patterns and mark them as suspect. It keeps them employed. :-)

- Tim


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