Jailbreaking Allows Users to Tether the iPhone 3G to their Laptops

[MacRumors]

Cre.ations.net posts a step-by-step guide on how to tether your iPhone 3G to your laptop.

The process of tethering allows your laptop to use your iPhone's 3G internet connection, avoiding the need to find separate internet connectivity for your laptop. Tethering, of course, is against AT&T's terms of service and could result in penalties to your account. Strangely, AT&T does offer tethering as a $30-additional fee for other 3G smartphones. It's unclear if the absence of this feature on the iPhone is due to Apple's or AT&T's reluctance, but it certainly would require Apple to integrate software support if they were to offer it.

The process is broken down into these simple steps:

- Jailbreak your iPhone 3G
- Install 3Proxy and Terminal
- Create an ad-hoc Wi-fi network using your laptop
- Join the network with your iPhone
- Find the iPhone's IP address
- Open Terminal and run the proxy program
- Open Safari on your iPhone and open a web page
- Configure your browser to use the proxy

A more detailed guide can be found at Cre.ations.net.

Article Link

[MacTheSpoon]

Hmm, interesting. I'll bet that, similar to cut-and-paste, it's just low on the list of Apple's priorities, then, and we'll probably see it eventually.

[ShiggyMiyamoto]

Meh.. While this is cool and all, I did something similar using my EDGE iPhone (1st gen) and it works, but it's a pain trying to get anything other than web browsing working... I couldn't use iChat for some reason... I could only use Adium.. When there's a better way to set up proxies and forwards, I'll do it again. Until then, my 2.0 iPhone 1st gen is staying virgin of Jailbreaking.

[csmitty]

is AT&Ts $30 fee per month for tethering, or just flat. cuz that makes for an expensive plan. Also this seems really simple to do as well. and its not actually "tethered" in a physical meaning, maybe you could get around it?

[arn]

Originally Posted by csmitty

is AT&Ts $30 fee per month for tethering, or just flat. cuz that makes for an expensive plan. Also this seems really simple to do as well. and its not actually "tethered" in a physical meaning, maybe you could get around it?

For other AT&T smartphones.

It's $30 for unlimited data
$30 additional for tethering

So $60 total for unlimited data + tethering.

[protekt0r]

Originally Posted by arn

For other AT&T smartphones.

It's $30 for unlimited data
$30 additional for tethering

So $60 total for unlimited data + tethering.

tethering used to be $15. i guess AT&T caught on. still, it's in line w/ their broadband access plans (i.e., aircard plans).

[ThunderSkunk]

I've been doing this on my edge model. It often times crashes my airport quite badly after the first page load, but occasionally works for up to 5 or 10 minutes at a time. The flawless disk-Access mode (iphone popping up in Finder), Touchpad.app, and to a much lesser extent, Tethering, are the three reasons I Jailbreak. Invaluable tools, all three, and why I thought I'd hold off going to 2.0.

Coincidentally, it's been fine for months, save for the glitchiness of tethering, up until today, when my Weather.app went schitzo and removed itself from the OS! I plugged the phone in, and iTunes read my 12GB of mp3's & videos as "other" data, which it doesn't seem to know how to erase... so now I'm out of drivespace too, & can't access what's on it...

Holy moly, when these things eat it, they eat it big.

Guess I'm upgrading to 2.0 after all. Hopefully that wipes it during install.

...You can jailbreak post-update, right?

[jwpedersen]

The article mentions penalties from at&t. How would at&t know that you are tethered to your mac? Newbie here so take it easy on me.

[ShiggyMiyamoto]

Originally Posted by jwpedersen

The article mentions penalties from at&t. How would at&t know that you are tethered to your mac? Newbie here so take it easy on me.

I'm assuming they can track where the data is flowing, and whether it's between the device and their network, or the device, their network, and a connected computer.

Welcome to the forums btw.

[jwpedersen]

Originally Posted by ShiggyMiyamoto

I'm assuming they can track where the data is flowing, and whether it's between the device and their network, or the device, their network, and a connected computer.

Welcome to the forums btw.

Thanks, glad to be here. There is a lot of friendly, helpful people hangin around here.

[protekt0r]

Originally Posted by ShiggyMiyamoto

I'm assuming they can track where the data is flowing, and whether it's between the device and their network, or the device, their network, and a connected computer.

Welcome to the forums btw.

once the data hits your iphone it's impossible for AT&T to figure it out. because the method uses a proxy and the iphone's existing safari browser, all the data appears to originate and go to the iphone's browser. that's assuming, of course, you're just doing http stuff.

the only way at&t could get a clue is if your data usage is much, much higher than the average iphone 3G user. but even still they can't prove you're tethering (although they really don't have to). at&T does have an internal data cap which is largely "fluid" in nature (they change it often and w/ trends). they typically go after the top 5% of bandwidth hogs.

[io_burn]

Originally Posted by jwpedersen

The article mentions penalties from at&t. How would at&t know that you are tethered to your mac? Newbie here so take it easy on me.

From a network administrator's standpoint, it would be really easy to tell based on traffic patterns, which ports are in use, etc. The biggest tell though is the amount of data you'd be using. AT&T has a soft cap around 5GB where you raise a red flag. If you use enough bandwidth to get AT&T to notice you, and they start going through your usage and notice you're connecting to torrent ports, or P2P ports... you'd have a lot of explaining to do when they call you on it.

On the other hand, if you only tether to check things on the internet or look at your email along with other normal things you can do on your iPhone... there's not much reason for them to ever catch you.

[ShiggyMiyamoto]

Originally Posted by io_burn

From a network administrator's standpoint, it would be really easy to tell based on traffic patterns, which ports are in use, etc. The biggest tell though is the amount of data you'd be using. AT&T has a soft cap around 5GB where you raise a red flag. If you use enough bandwidth to get AT&T to notice you, and they start going through your usage and notice you're connecting to torrent ports, or P2P ports... you'd have a lot of explaining to do when they call you on it.

On the other hand, if you only tether to check things on the internet or look at your email along with other normal things you can do on your iPhone... there's not much reason for them to ever catch you.

Exactly. I had my 1st EDGE iPhone tethered to my MacBook via TinyProxy, and I was able to go on AIM, and surf the web, albeit slowly. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't torrent, especially on EDGE's dialup speeds...

Originally Posted by io_burn

Doubtful, considering AT&T currently offers a 5GB data plan that allows for tethering for $60 a month. Be very careful with tethering your phone without a data plan that allows for it, there have been quite a few horror stories on Howard Forums with people thinking they're getting over on AT&T by tethering, then AT&T notices their suspicious data activity, figures out they're tethering, then cancels their data plan and bills them per kilobyte.

io, I know exactly what you're saying. One summer at the local swimming pool I took my mom's cell phone and I started using the mobile AIM on it. We were charged per (by T-Mobile at the time) message ala txt msg charges aka 5-10 cents per message. I was doing this for over a half hour, racking up a $15 additional bill to our phone bill. Now that I have my own plan on AT&T I can txt and do stuff as much as I want, within reason. I use my data plan alot, but I use txting minimally as I only have 200/month.

[protekt0r]

Originally Posted by io_burn

From a network administrator's standpoint, it would be really easy to tell based on traffic patterns, which ports are in use, etc. The biggest tell though is the amount of data you'd be using. AT&T has a soft cap around 5GB where you raise a red flag. If you use enough bandwidth to get AT&T to notice you, and they start going through your usage and notice you're connecting to torrent ports, or P2P ports... you'd have a lot of explaining to do when they call you on it.

On the other hand, if you only tether to check things on the internet or look at your email along with other normal things you can do on your iPhone... there's not much reason for them to ever catch you.

right. at&t blocks most P2P ports on their cellular network anyways. i used to have a 3G aircard and nothing P2P worked.

[thechidz]

Originally Posted by jwpedersen

The article mentions penalties from at&t. How would at&t know that you are tethered to your mac? Newbie here so take it easy on me.

in general, they will only flag you if they see abnormal use. the jailbreak method only allows for very basic, and slow web browsing. not even worth it IMO. but if you do it just watch your data usage. I prefer to use an unlocked aircard with my sim, which gets much much better service if I really need data on the go.

[mixel]

Originally Posted by MacTheSpoon

Hmm, interesting. I'll bet that, similar to cut-and-paste, it's just low on the list of Apple's priorities, then, and we'll probably see it eventually.

Jeez, I hope so!

Other phones let you do it, but if the iphone takes off as much as Apple hope, and they make it as easy as Apple usually do - not sure all of the telecos will like it. O2 wouldn't mind here in the UK tho, probably.. So .. Yeah .. I'd love this feature - its the only thing which I keep my old S/E .. even though it's nowhere near 3G speeds sometimes it's a really handy feature.

[io_burn]

Originally Posted by MacTheSpoon

Hmm, interesting. I'll bet that, similar to cut-and-paste, it's just low on the list of Apple's priorities, then, and we'll probably see it eventually.

Doubtful, considering AT&T currently offers a 5GB data plan that allows for tethering for $60 a month. Be very careful with tethering your phone without a data plan that allows for it, there have been quite a few horror stories on Howard Forums with people thinking they're getting over on AT&T by tethering, then AT&T notices their suspicious data activity, figures out they're tethering, then cancels their data plan and bills them per kilobyte.

[gcmexico]

Originally Posted by io_burn

Doubtful, considering AT&T currently offers a 5GB data plan that allows for tethering for $60 a month. Be very careful with tethering your phone without a data plan that allows for it, there have been quite a few horror stories on Howard Forums with people thinking they're getting over on AT&T by tethering, then AT&T notices their suspicious data activity, figures out they're tethering, then cancels their data plan and bills them per kilobyte.

*
do they offer this plan for the iphone 3G?

[io_burn]

Originally Posted by gcmexico

*
do they offer this plan for the iphone 3G?

No idea, I'm sure if you called AT&T and told them you wanted to give them more money they wouldn't have a problem with that.

[toxicbomber]

It works. Confirmed on iPhone 2G. Nice. :P Don't kill me AT&T, I just went on google.com to just test it. lol

[unr1]

If they are not including SMS in their data plan and charging us for it then I'm not gonna feel the least bit bad about tethering my phone for casual browsing and chatting

'nuff said

[Diode]

That's not really tethering.

Tethering is using your phone as a modem .... this is not the case here. Your just piggybacking a existing connection.

[io_burn]

Originally Posted by Diode

That's not really tethering.

Tethering is using your phone as a modem .... this is not the case here. Your just piggybacking a existing connection.

Hahaha... OK, go get yourself a Usenet account and go hog wild downloading every file you can get your hands on then argue semantics with AT&T because you weren't tethering you were piggybacking.

I dare you.

[Juo100]

Just got this working in Safari, seems better than the SSH tunnel method as it lets the iPhone auto lock (or just lock) and still functions. As O2 said they would support this if the iPhone supplied it I wonder where they stand?

Ill still obviously exercise caution but this will be nice for casual browsing on the off chance I cant find a Wifi network in London (not very often).

Still, nice to have the functionally just incase.

[polobruce]

Where can i go to jailbreak my iphone 3g? Besides the tethering is there any other benefit?