How to nab free T-Mobile WiFi lovin' without running Vista
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 29th 2007 2:14PM
posted Jan 29th 2007 2:14PM
So, you're not quite ready to spring for a copy of Vista, or maybe your system can't handle it, or perhaps you're running Mac OS or (gasp) Linux. Why should you be left out of those three months of free T-Mobile WiFi just because you don't kowtow to The Man? Never fear, it turns out it isn't all that hard to get tricksy on those T-Mobile Hotspots, since they're only verifying your OS based on the user agent string your browser spits out. Luckily for you, a simple bit of googling will quickly reveal methods for swapping the user agent on most major browsers, and once you enter the string "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)" you should be all good to go. Then all you'll need to do is train your browser to http://hotspot.t-mobile.com/vista/ and start browsing those internets. Tell 'em Engadget sent ya', they'll understand.
one word: awesome!
I pay for the hotspot service.
I should be grateful that this can save me three months worth of fees.
But I still can't shake the feeling that I'm gonna see a lot of other techies hogging my bandwidth without paying for it.
With time, you'll get over it
It's not "your bandwidth" -- it's "The People's Bandwidth". :D
My mother left a war ravaged, Communist country (Viet Nam) so I could claim bandwidth as my own.
Screw the people. If that motto has worked for China and Microsoft all these years, it'll work for me.
1. Download the firefox extension for spoofing user-agents: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/59/
2. Restart firefox and goto: Tools > User Agent Switcher > Options > Options...
3. Click "User Agents" and then "Add"
4. Fill out the window with following info:
Description: Internet Explorer 7 (Windows Vista)
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)
App Name: Microsoft Internet Explorer
App Version: 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)
Platform: Win32
5. Save it, goto Tools > User Agent Switcher > Then click the newly added one. Browse over to http://hotspot.t-mobile.com/vista/ and you should be redirected to a trial sign-up page.
Enjoy!
i had a feeling that this is how they were doing it -- but nobody seemed to know last week when i asked the question!
I would just use the IE Tab extension for firefox. You can switch the rendering engine to IE7's engine. Easy as pie.
Hmm I expect this promo to last about a month instead of 3. Once this starts hitting the net in mass T-Mobile's AP's are going to be swamped.
Doesn't mean I won't do it though since....well....I'm an asshole.
This article is entirely false. I'm sitting at a T-Mobil Hotspot right now, running Windows Vista. You may be able to sign-up by spoofing the user agent, but once you get to the hotspot, it makes you install an ActiveX control that does other Vista checks.
But good try, though.
You're rigtht. I tried it on a MacBook Pro running firefox and it didn't work either...
After doing this in Firefox, my hosted gmail would only allow me to view basic html view, not the standard view.
Strange.
Considering that I've been to many coffee shops that offer open, free AP's, this shouldn't bother anyone. I've never had any issues using these. Now, If the cheap lynksys AP's that are being used at these shops out-performs t-mobiles (non-free) AP's ,well, that's just sad.
Paul, Apple OS X is not Linux rather BSD Unix. Kind of like Microsoft Vista is really DEC VMS with a GUI
well more accurately
;-)
Like Robert M. said this doesn't work. They require an ActiveX control to be run before you can get past the local only proxy. For more see: http://blogs.coreygouker.com/2007/01/27/Free+TMobile+Hotspot+Access+With+Windows+Vista+Or+Maybe+Free+For+All.aspx
Why waste your time at Starbucks and pay money when you can go to Panera Bread for free?
Maybe because there are 800 Panera Bread in the U.S. while Starbucks has 5,700 locations.
two words: Freaking Awesome!
I don't understand how Starbucks thinks it can get away with charging for wifi when every other coffee shop in the US gives it away for free (and has cheaper coffee). It's almost as bad as hotels - Holiday Inn Express can afford to give it to you for free, but a room that costs 3 times as much wants to charge you $30 a day. They're 5 years behind the rest of us and digging in their heels. Don't support tmobile or the businesses they partner with, 3 months free or not.
I wanted to add my 2 cents here, An UPDATE if you will. Since I have both Vista and XP running on my machine, it was easy to verify this user agent hack. It doesnt work. Don't confuse being able to create an account with actually browsing the internet. Switching the user agent DOESN'T WORK.
I am sure theres some hidden APIs or active x controls that are at work here, Ill figure it out and get back to you all.
The crazy part is that you can enter ANYTHING for your name. So when i called in and gave my name as "Stray Light" service was confused. Apparently they hadn't heard about this Vista promotion, and wondered how in GODS NAME I had an account with info like that?
This hack is not going to work, at least not by itself.
The browser string appears to be the key to the redirect. When you actually log in, there is a control downloaded that does some further checks. This is fairly common with these "public" type of accounts (wireless hotspot providers, hotels, etc.). If you really want to get on, guaranteed, get a copy of Vista. It works on the system. If you are determined to hack it, the control looks for something unique to Vista. This could be registry strings, bits of software, or a combination of both. By the time you complete the hack, you might actually get a day or two of service. Good luck! :-)
I'm more interested in knowing why GMail treats that User Agent String as unsupported. Assuming it's correct, shouldn't they support IE7 on Vista?
Changing the User Agent String will not give you access to T-Mobile Hotspots. The only workaround I know that works (without purchasing Windows Vista) is running a virtual machine of the the old beta. I've posted an article on my blog with instructions here:
http://www.hackernotcracker.com/2007-02/connect-to-t-mobile-hotspots-for-free-technically-without-vista.html