Thanks.. Has WiFi hardware, but the Android upgrade locked out 3rd party WiFi apps that had worked well. No significant benefit for me to "upgrade" the phone, except an extra bluetooth protocol and feature. Sprint terms and fees aren't as good, and my spare batteries, etc don't fit newer ones (I just swap batteries instead of using a car charger, etc). Getting the WiFi hotspot to work in the phone is do-able, but it's likely detectable with phone and Sprint IDs. Possible that my infrequent usage might not be seen as seems the case for my occasional use of tethered PDAnet. Chuck > -----Original Message----- > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of Clug > Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2015 1:14 AM > To: TCLUG > Subject: Re: [tclug-list] Questions > > On Sun, 8 Feb 2015, Chuck Cole wrote: > > > Can I get free and unlimited WiFi hotspot operation by > unblocking that in my > > Sprint Galaxy SII? > > The Galaxy SII is a fairly old phone, so I'm not sure how > easy it is to > unlock and root (I know the SIII is a bit complex... because my mom > unlocked and rooted hers). > > I don't know that the official Android versions available for > he SII have > a WiFi hotspot feature, but I do think custom ROMs like > CyanogenMod from > that era had it built-in. If you unlock the phone you can > probably get > CyanogenMod on there. > > However, mobile carriers have lately become pretty smart > about detecting > when you're using your mobile as a wifi hotspot and have > started blocking > it. I know T-Mobile does, and I can't find a way to work around it > (supposedly changing your browser's useragent helps, but it > doesn't seem > to work for me, plus I use other protocols). So your mileage > WILL vary. > > -- > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >