iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 Disables Unauthorized AT&T Tethering

[MacRumors]

One of the big changes discovered in the latest iPhone 3.1 Beta released tonight was that it seems to disable tethering hacks for AT&T customers in the U.S.

Tethering is the process by which you can share your iPhone's wireless internet connection with your laptop via USB or Bluetooth. This allows you to have access to the internet from your laptop, using your iPhone as a wireless modem. While tethering officially arrived with the 3.0 firmware, U.S. AT&T customers have been unable to officially take advantage of it.

Shortly after the release of the 3.0 firmware, however, several hacks began circulating allowing U.S. AT&T customers to unofficially enable tethering on their iPhones. The latest beta firmware, however, seems to disable this functionality.

AT&T plans to provide an official tethering solution later this summer, but will certainly require an additional charge beyond the standard data plans.


Article Link: iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 Disables Unauthorized AT&T Tethering

[ipedro]

Sucks to be an AT&T customer

Tethering is great up here in Canada. Couldn't live without it now that I've had it.

[akutad]

Originally Posted by ipedro

Sucks to be an AT&T customer

Tethering is great up here in Canada. Couldn't live without it now that I've had it.

+1, also what's cool is that when I'm tethering My HD that's hooked up on my airport extreme shows up under my "shared" in finder. now I can access 1TB of storage anywhere. Love it!

[Anuba]

Originally Posted by akutad

+1, also what's cool is that when I'm tethering My HD that's hooked up on my airport extreme shows up under my "shared" in finder. now I can access 1TB of storage anywhere. Love it!

Tethering is fantastic but sometimes you want to plug in the iPhone for charging/syncing without tethering kicking into action. Is there any easy and convenient way to do that? I hate doing it on the iPhone because it takes forever to get to the switch, it's buried under Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering, which takes half a minute on my slow-as-molasses iPhone 3G... and in OS X there is no on/off switch at all.

[pendolino]

Originally Posted by Anuba

Tethering is fantastic but sometimes you want to plug in the iPhone for charging/syncing without tethering kicking into action. Is there any easy and convenient way to do that? I hate doing it on the iPhone because it takes forever to get to the switch, it's buried under Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering, which takes half a minute on my slow-as-molasses iPhone 3G... and in OS X there is no on/off switch at all.

you can do this by creating a new 'location' on the mac using network preferences where the tethering/iphone port (installed when you enable and activate tethering) is switched off. call this your general/normal/automatic location and call the other 'iphone' or something similar. in the iphone location i have wifi disabled since i dont need it for that use. let me know if you have trouble setting this up.

[jmann]

I'm sure jailbreaking will provide a work around.

[jav6454]

Originally Posted by jmann

I'm sure jailbreaking will provide a work around.

It already did, since the launch of the iPhone 3G last summer. I have tethered using my 1st Gen flawlessly from AT&T, and plan to do so on my new and soon to be 3GS, with the same cost and $20 Data + SMS plan as my 1st Gen

[Jamie 360]

Originally Posted by jav6454

It already did, since the launch of the iPhone 3G last summer. I have tethered using my 1st Gen flawlessly from AT&T, and plan to do so on my new and soon to be 3GS, with the same cost and $20 Data + SMS plan as my 1st Gen

How do you plan to hang onto your $20 plan? I was able to keep mine (which also had 200 texts included) with my 2G up until I ordered the 3GS. The first step in the order process forces you to accept the new $30 plan. I almost didn't order it due to the huge plan hike, but when I looked at "my current plan" on the AT&T Website there was a note saying my $20 plan was going to expire on 8/1 anyway.

[MarceePauff]

Originally Posted by Jamie 360

How do you plan to hang onto your $20 plan? I was able to keep mine (which also had 200 texts included) with my 2G up until I ordered the 3GS. The first step in the order process forces you to accept the new $30 plan. I almost didn't order it due to the huge plan hike, but when I looked at "my current plan" on the AT&T Website there was a note saying my $20 plan was going to expire on 8/1 anyway.

Any answer to this yet? I'm wondering the same thing. I'd like to upgrade my phone eventually, but keep my plan and I should be able to - it's still an iPhone; I should be "grandfathered" in. If you speak with an AT&T rep, will they let you just change devices and keep your plan?

[fabianjj]

Some post back there (I'm too lazy to find it and quote, my apologies) got me thinking of some old phones that had a setting so you could send SMS messages through GPRS, and then they were charged as GPRS data instead (And in Sweden only a handful of people have SMS plans, most people pay per SMS). No matter how expensive your data was 160 Bytes is very little in comparison to what an SMS woud cost.

I believe the Service providers were very pissed off and made the manufacturers disable the feature.

[NoExpectations]

...all wireless carriers charge extra for tethering....even if you have an unlimited data plan. These plans were priced under the assumption that all data traffic is to/from the actual device. Passthru traffic (tethering) will totally throw-off the pricing and capacity model.

As you know, tethering allows you to connect your own PC to the wireless network....but it can also allow someone to connect an entire LAN infrastructure behind it as well.

If tethering was free, this would only delay the rollout of MMS for the rest of us until the network capacity was built up to support both. And how would you add network capacity if you were not able to charge customers for the added service?

I have gripes too....but I understand the business model. Nothing is free.

[scubasteve03]

Relax guys! Everything is still very premature. This is just a beta! Some people are saying they are still able to tether with 3.1 Beta 2. I promise there will be another workaround to get tethering later. These guys are on top of their stuff and will find another loophole.

[HowEver]

First, nobody has an "unlimited" data plan. AT&T soft-caps at 5GB, no?

Here in Canada, there is the 6GB data plan--and Rogers Wireless and fido do *not* charge extra for tethering. They have hinted that they may start charging in 2010, and also hinted that those on the 6GB plan might still have it free.

Wireless providers are fully aware that data traffic from tethering, whatever the method or purpose, could easily exceed 5 or 6GB. "Passthrough" or not. The only question is whether they will treat data as data. The vast majority don't use a fraction of their available data. Those who over-use it will no doubt be charged.

But we may not be charged extra for tethering. It just isn't known yet.

Originally Posted by NoExpectations

...all wireless carriers charge extra for tethering....even if you have an unlimited data plan. These plans were priced under the assumption that all data traffic is to/from the actual device. Passthru traffic (tethering) will totally throw-off the pricing and capacity model.

[akutad]

Originally Posted by NoExpectations

...all wireless carriers charge extra for tethering....even if you have an unlimited data plan. These plans were priced under the assumption that all data traffic is to/from the actual device. Passthru traffic (tethering) will totally throw-off the pricing and capacity model.

As you know, tethering allows you to connect your own PC to the wireless network....but it can also allow someone to connect an entire LAN infrastructure behind it as well.

If tethering was free, this would only delay the rollout of MMS for the rest of us until the network capacity was built up to support both. And how would you add network capacity if you were not able to charge customers for the added service?

I have gripes too....but I understand the business model. Nothing is free.

Nothing is free? Here in canada there is not extra charge for tethering. I get up to 6GB of tethering at no extra charge piggybacked with my data plan.

[Anuba]

Originally Posted by NoExpectations

...all wireless carriers charge extra for tethering....even if you have an unlimited data plan.

No they don't. TeliaSonera (the iPhone carrier in Scandinavia) doesn't charge anything for it, they just enabled it on the day that 3.0 was released and that was that. They wouldn't dare charge a cent for it because customers would never accept it. A data plan is a data plan is a data plan. You can't charge people for an unlimited data plan and then go "oh, you're actually going to be USING it... well that throws off our calculations completely".

Stop making excuses on behalf of overly greedy and backwards carriers, they're the ones who have a lot of explaining to do.

[ddTaylor]

Originally Posted by jmann

I'm sure jailbreaking will provide a work around.

I already does - with several applications - iModem and PDAnet with the later being my favorite for ease of use and cost...

D

[dopeytree]

Does this affect other network hacks arround the world too?

[haunebu]

Aaand that's exactly why I won't be upgrading beyond 3.0.

[thefunkymunky]

Does the O2 hack still work?

[smileyborg]

Whoa...big surprise! (...not)

I think I'd rather AT&T allow me to tether with my iPhone for no additional charge, in exchange for making my "unlimited" data plan a "limited" plan of, say, 5GB a month.

There is no such thing as truly "unlimited," as the fine print reveals. So why advertise it as such...let me do what I want with what I pay for, and I will happily accept a less-than-infinite amount of bandwidth for my $30 each month.

[DELLsFan]

Originally Posted by smileyborg

Whoa...big surprise! (...not)

I think I'd rather AT&T allow me to tether with my iPhone for no additional charge, in exchange for making my "unlimited" data plan a "limited" plan of, say, 5GB a month.

There is no such thing as truly "unlimited," as the fine print reveals. So why advertise it as such...let me do what I want with what I pay for, and I will happily accept a less-than-infinite amount of bandwidth for my $30 each month.

+1

I would accept such a compromise as well. I'm tired of arguing semantics over unlimited vs. limited. However, I'm also tired of AT&T pricing on SMS (which - regardless of the technology behind it - should be a part of that unlimited data package, IMO).

[mobi]

Originally Posted by smileyborg

Whoa...big surprise! (...not)

I think I'd rather AT&T allow me to tether with my iPhone for no additional charge, in exchange for making my "unlimited" data plan a "limited" plan of, say, 5GB a month.

There is no such thing as truly "unlimited," as the fine print reveals. So why advertise it as such...let me do what I want with what I pay for, and I will happily accept a less-than-infinite amount of bandwidth for my $30 each month.

Very well stated! Many people share this same viewpoint, myself included!

[Ronlap]

Originally Posted by smileyborg

I think I'd rather AT&T allow me to tether with my iPhone for no additional charge, in exchange for making my "unlimited" data plan a "limited" plan of, say, 5GB a month.

I almost agree. I use my iPhone a LOT more than I use my MacBook outside of my house, for epocrates, email, web, and Foreflight. The only time I would need tethering is if I am in a hotel or airport which doesn't offer free Wi-Fi. As it is, many airports, hotels, and coffee shops already offer free Wi-Fi so my use of tethering would be very small. Looking at my monthly at&t bill I am using less than 1/4 GB/month anyway and some of this would shift to my tethered laptop.

[winterspan]

Originally Posted by smileyborg

.... no such thing as truly "unlimited," as the fine print reveals. So why advertise it as such...let me do what I want with what I pay for, and I will happily accept a less-than-infinite amount of bandwidth for my $30 each month.

Exactly. I'm really sick of this behavior. First they advertise "unlimited data", but in reality anything over 5GB is "abusive use" and is charged more. Then they tell you that you cannot use said connection for "real-time video streaming, server applications, data acquisition, etc" which is just as ridiculous -- trying to mandate what you can do with your 5GB. DATA IS DATA!

AND THEN they have the nerve to charge you $30 more a month to tether your phone to your computer despite it using the very same 5 gigabytes in the first place! And they ALL do this!

This in unacceptable and if they don't change this, their hand needs to be forced. Overall. The USA badly needs more telecom competition. A country and economy so big should have far more providers.

[focalplane]

Originally Posted by thefunkymunky

Does the O2 hack still work?

Nope. Disables that too.

Disables SMS also. Crashes every time i try to sent a text!!

Avoid. Its a dog, this version