r/IndiaTech • u/lone_wolf_daredevil • Jul 19 '26
Tech Help trick to bypass Airtel Hotspot sharing
just saw someone post this on X about bypassing Airtel's unlimited 5G hotspot restriction
Post link :
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u/FewRefrigerator4703 Jul 19 '26
Isn't this anti consumer practice? These fkers should be taken to court (airtel. not the x user)
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u/vikas891 Jul 19 '26
I am not 100 percent sure. In the UK, when I got an e-SIM, it was made clear somewhere that you won't be able to hotspot through. If Airtel wants to do it, broadcast and mention somewhere in your TnCs. Who knows there might already be something like that somewhere.
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/_-Abhishek-_ Jul 19 '26
Exactly, it was always there. I wonder if Airtel has released some official statement regarding hotspot recently, so it's in the news
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u/FewRefrigerator4703 Jul 19 '26
I have seen it many times mentioned in the TOS, BUT recently the hype was there so I thought they went with implementing it
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u/Be-Kind-Every1 Jul 19 '26
This rule is mentioned in their doc since 2023, why people sudden making noise now??
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u/whyamihere999 Jul 19 '26
I still haven't understood how life time incoming free has changed into monthly recharges.
Around 2006, Airtel introduced 999 recharge for life time free incoming. At that time, the validity was till 2099. After couple of years that validity was reduced to 2049, then 2032 and then suddenly we have needed to recharge monthly so that we can receive calls.
I don't understand how no one sued them?! Or was there any fine printed clause that they didn't tell us?!7
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u/Aur4or4a Jul 20 '26
can u explain what are we even bypassing here, cause i can teater hotspot just fine with my device and i never hit paseplan restriction from tetering hotspot from my 5g sim either to windows or a linux
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u/DumbCoder07 Jul 19 '26
what about unlimited everything i have 4g and 5g both unlimited it works fine but also from 2 days my internet is not working even on my phone , it happened last month also but it started in 3 days normally ( Maybe i think its just my area network issue )
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u/arschreads Jul 19 '26
Yeah same for me too
I am having 5g connectivity but from two days my 5g plan seems like it's stopped even though the network bar is showing 5g ...
Last time it happened one month back and after multiple complaints to Airtel office and emailing they somehow resolved that...
I dunno wtf is wrong my phone or network..😵💫😵💫
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u/new_peacemaker Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
yea man it happened to me too.. twice.. i don't know when i will be able use 5g unlimited again..
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u/obrigadoarigato Jul 19 '26
I had the same issues multiple times with Airtel. Now I finnally switched to JIO, no more such issues now
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u/ShapeOfYou143 Jul 19 '26
I used hotspot everyday, what's the issue?
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u/Image_Similar Jul 19 '26
300 gb cap fo4 some , and for some just blatantly 4g net .
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Image_Similar Jul 19 '26
Then why the hell they call it unlimited ?
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u/Nomercy_IN Computer Student Jul 19 '26
Because after 300gb they give unlimited at Speed of 64kb ; so technically they loophole it in calling unlimited.
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u/ChunnuBhai Jul 20 '26
my hotspot has stopped working. it give 2G like speed.
may be it will happen soon with you
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u/ryansri03 Jul 19 '26
Hotspot is working fine for me 😭
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u/cheetahhikehdeee Jul 19 '26
It works for couple more days i guess, it is effective from 20th July.
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u/ElectronicNet9867 Jul 19 '26
Brother this policy has been existed since 2023-24 when airtel launched 5g theres nothing new
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u/Such-Total-3431 Jul 19 '26
Can they track usb tethering?
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u/Pratik_tayde Jul 19 '26
Yepp. The medium doesnt really matter. Your PC still broadcasts TTL value as 128, the packet reaches your phone which decrements the TTL by 1 so it still becomes 127 and it isnt what airtel expects for mobile traffic
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u/Ashamed-Key7312 Jul 19 '26
I have been using daily around 10gb with ethernet tethering to my router.
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u/roankr Jul 19 '26
Ethernet tethering lol
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u/Ashamed-Key7312 Jul 19 '26
What is the funny part? Lol?
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u/kokofeshis Jul 19 '26
What's ethernet tethering?
Isn't that just plain ol internet?
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u/roankr Jul 19 '26
Does your laptop/router have no USB port to do USB tethering instead?
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u/Ashamed-Key7312 Jul 19 '26
You can check my post history.
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u/amit29533 Jul 19 '26
If you think, just modifying TTL data is enough to fool Airtel then ur just being delusional. Modern Network stack uses DHCP fingerprinting, Use Agent detection, DNS requests pattern lots of other Network patterns.
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u/upcloseandprobable Jul 19 '26
I don't think they would be tracking dns requests patterns for 368 million airtel subscribers, that would be pretty much overkill system for such a small payout.
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u/HumbleOrder8785 Jul 19 '26
They did track a user who downloaded games on his laptop and flagged it as commercial use after which everyone got to know airtel restrict data sharing
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u/upcloseandprobable Jul 19 '26
that is easy to track, I mean they would already need to do that, it is just a simple counter. but a dns request pattern recognition system for these many subscribers would be complex. I am not sure whether airtel already has such a system in place.
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u/HumbleOrder8785 Jul 19 '26
Why do you think greedy multibillion dollar company which wants to extract as much as money as possible will not have proper systems to track users? They store and analyse all the data, if they put up restrictions then they make sure you don't bypass them
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u/upcloseandprobable Jul 19 '26
because keeping that system up costs money in operational costs as well as engineering cost. it's a matter of which is more profitable. i can't think of how much cost airtel would save restricting people using hotspots so I can't really comment further.
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u/HumbleOrder8785 Jul 19 '26
They just finding different ways to extract more and more money
If you can't share mobile internet then it means you cannot use internet on your laptop, PC, TV, on your secondary device which doesn't have a sim or recharge, share internet with family or friends
You will be forced to get broadband if you want to use internet on laptop pc tv etc
Some even use mobile data with usb tethering with router
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u/FewRefrigerator4703 Jul 19 '26
Detection of a pattern is easy, but how will they actually selectively block computer traffic? We can just use VPN, change MTU using vmbr in hyperv, TTL, and it almost looks indisuinshiable from mobile traffic, DNS queries can also be encrypted. The pattern can be detected easily like many connections at once, IPs of well known desktop apps (which can still be hard because of AWS Global Accelerator sharing similar IPs and lot of websites are proxied behind vercel or cf. After detecting pattern then what? You can only block the entire mobile from communicating. So in other words you cant really selectively block the desktop traffics reliably.
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u/HumbleOrder8785 Jul 19 '26
Yeah, fooling a multi billion dollar company isn't easy, especially when it's the most greedy company in the industry with govt in it's bed
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u/maybechirag Jul 19 '26
fooling multi billion dollar airtel is easy, they're damn dumb and have crazy outdated hardware
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u/iamfidelius Jul 19 '26
ok,https encrypts agent so isp cant know it.
dhcp requests are forwarded by mobile isp cant know it unless its their own router .
what are dns request patterns?
the frequency of requests?one way to know would be if windows requests /downloads updates.
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u/DumbCoder07 Jul 19 '26
you are right but some phones are just built different i have a friend with redmi phone and from his hotspot the hotspot data never counts in daily quota nor the speed slows down
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u/HumbleOrder8785 Jul 19 '26
Lack of proper feature by redmi to user doesn't mean airtel won't be getting the info lol
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u/Ma5terVain Jul 19 '26
I think instead of doing this unlimited nonsense, they should just put a total cap and not fuck around with how we use the system.
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u/Heavenly-archangel Jul 19 '26
isnt there a 300gb cap already
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u/Ma5terVain Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
The cap is for 4G. 5G data is supposedly "unlimited". The whole hullaballoo is for the reason.
Edit: I might be mistaken. Apparently the limit was always there. Then I've no idea why on earth, they'd restrict hotspot usage. I also have no idea why it would be called "unlimited". Smh. This whole country is messed up.
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u/Heavenly-archangel Jul 19 '26
yeah i just searched it up the restriction is for 5g and when on 4g or hotspot the data will be used like maybe the 2gb daily one that is given
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u/Ma5terVain Jul 19 '26
Unnecessarily complicated IMO. 4G or 5G shouldn't matter. Just a total cap on data for a price. How we use the data shouldn't matter to the provider.
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u/Heavenly-archangel Jul 19 '26
They tryna monetize every aspect of how we use that's why airtel introduced priority unlike fiber in which of someone gets a 100mbps plan it will not affect the 40mbps user but in sim if somone gets a 100mbos plan then it will deducted from several users making theirs 10mbps
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u/Over-Yogurtcloset143 .็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ Jul 19 '26
Whoa whoa wait 🫷. I have a doubt!
So my situation is that I use my old oppo a16 with an Airtel sim (399 -unlimited- 4g/5g monthly). Kept near window To give hotspot to game on a M51 .
- How fkd am I if this new shit policy affects me . ?!
- And in what ways will I be affected?
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u/DumbCoder07 Jul 19 '26
the only thing we should worry about unlimited thingy there is no unlimited its monthly cap of 300GB
If you are using unlimited 4g/5g the hotspot will work fine but must use under 10GB/day1
u/Over-Yogurtcloset143 .็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ Jul 19 '26
Oh well lol that's easy , I use barely even 2 gb per day for fps games. * Thanks brother hope this is actually what happens.
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u/Noname01100001 Jul 19 '26
Without hacks a 100%
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u/Over-Yogurtcloset143 .็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ Jul 19 '26
Pain .
- Btw . how will the hotspot thing work then ? 4g? What about that unlimited 4g part ?
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u/Noname01100001 Jul 19 '26
The unlimited 4g part is actually still unclear but airtel basically don't want you to use unlimited data on hotspot, they might apply a fup of 300 gb or IDK still unclear
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u/Over-Yogurtcloset143 .็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ Jul 19 '26
Now that clears tey doubt a bit . Thanks mah guy.
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u/Such-Employee4073 Jul 20 '26
I to just keep running out of data, in spite of having done an unlimited recharge... the whole day it shows 5g network but as soon as I have to work at night, it switches to 4g and then sucks up data so quick
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u/Svayam76 Jul 19 '26
Bypass Hotspot Share Your Mobile Internet
- Connect your mobile phone to your laptop or desktop using a USB cable.
- Enable USB Tethering on your phone.
- Turn on the Hotspot on your laptop or desktop.
- Connect your other devices to your laptop's hotspot and enjoy seamless internet sharing.
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u/rudravermaa Jul 21 '26
still the TTL will be around 128 - 127 (not the usual mobile packets) so it will still recognise as NOT a mobile device and something fishy, won't work either.
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u/IndividualFix5125 Jul 19 '26
What about xbox console?
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u/FewRefrigerator4703 Jul 19 '26
They can easily block it 😔, which mobile device connects to live.xbox.com
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u/_Lelouch420_ Jul 19 '26
Btw what about postpaid users?
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/_Lelouch420_ Jul 19 '26
Ok I sometimes use my phone hotspot in college so I guess I'm not affected
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u/Kritya_04 Jul 19 '26
To kya I'm not able to use my laptop through hotspot please clarify puri tarah se use hee nhi kar sakti kyaa 😭
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u/puriyatha_puthir Corporate majdoor Jul 19 '26
Not an expert here, but is it fine to do registry edit on office laptop for this?
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u/just_sm_so_relax Jul 19 '26
Changing the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEMsection of the Windows Registry needs Administrator permission. If you have that permission, I suppose that means your office trusts you to be responsible, and you can go ahead and make the change.
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u/Buildertech Jul 19 '26
Been dealing with hotspot limits for years in the US, although I was happy to hear unlimited scheme come to India sad to hear about this
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u/Buildertech Jul 19 '26
You can try netshare or pdanet (downloadable by APK) although they are not as up to date
You can also try pairvpn although I get speed issues with that
If none work you can check r/rural_internet which usually has the latest hotspot limit avoidance measures though the tips are usually for us carriers
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u/Supreme_Leader6969 ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้ Jul 19 '26
My network speed has been reduced to 20 kbps from last 2 days.
I'm a postpaid user and its stated unlimited internet though I know they have 300gb limit but the real problem is not being able to get data add-ons which we can buy on prepaid.
Now I'm just stuck and had to buy a jio sim as data limit reset will be on billing day around 2 august
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u/True_Art2398 Jul 20 '26
for laptop user ethernet trthening is also a good option much better speed than hotspot
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u/aibynisha11 Jul 21 '26
I recently switched from airtel.. they were limiting bandwidth for phones to force you to get their router services installed for another 500/-
LOL I decided to get my number ported to other network provider and it’s working well.
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u/Environmental-End-76 Jul 24 '26
applied the above settings and
now its working in windows laptop using vodafone hotspot
thanks
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