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Help me understand tethering and my situation

B

BBQ BOY

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
158
0
I have a iPhone4 through AT&T on the unlimited plan. I plan to buy the iPad2 very soon but am wondering if I buy the wifi model can I tether to my iPhone and be able to access the internet using the 3G network from my phone? I was told yes but I have to pay something like $50 a month. If that is the case then why would I even bother with tethering and just but the 3G iPad2 and pay for a monthly data plan?
I am still a little uncertain on what tethering is. Is my phone basically sending my iPad a 3G or edge signal so I can access the net at anytime as long as there is a signal?
 
It's $45 month for data + tethering for 4GB per month. You would have to give up your unlimited iPhone data plan as well. If unlimited is important to you then you're better off just copping a 3G iPad and paying for the data as it is needed. It's $15 a month for 250mb and $25 for 2GB for the iPad.
 
Jailbreak your iPhone and download MyWi.

Tether with your unlimited plan to anything.
 
darngooddesign said:
Another option is to jailbreak your iPhone and buy MyWi. That way you will keep your unlimited plan and have tethering.
Click to expand...

Or get PDANet instead of MyWi. It's like a quarter of the price and has pretty much the same features.
 
If you are going to pay for tethering, I would just get the 3g ipad that way you can avoid the hassle of activating tethering on your phone every time you want to tether.

If not, you can just get tetherme form the cydia store and to activate the native tethering in 4.3.1 which works pretty well
 
Thanks everyone. Excuse my next question. Typically I would just search for this answer but I am traveling and do not have the time.
How much is MyWi?
How do I jailbreak my iphone4?
What are the con's of doing so?
 
Bottom line:
Tethering is $20 extra per month. Gives you 2GB data extra per month. Costs phone battery while you use it, and of course your iPad will be used too.

3G on iPad itself will cost you $15 or $25 extra per month. 200 MB per month or 2GB per month ($15 or $30). Only costs your iPad battery.

MyWi is $20 to purchase. It is $5 more for an addon that makes the tethering very simple. These are one time costs, and tethering itself is free. You will be restricted to 2 GB max data per month (as per your cell phone plan). **

**You may receive an e-mail from AT&T that you are illegally using tethering and they will upgrade your plan. We don't know who AT&T is sending these e-mails to, and it may be that only people who are using a lot of data on unlimited GB/month plan are getting these emails.

Here is the easiest way to jailbreak your iPhone 4 on 4.3.2:
http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/2011/04/18/how-to-jailbreak-iphone-4-3-2-with-redsn0w/
 
The only cons are that you're breaking your contract by not paying the $20 for tethering and decreasing the phone's performance and making it less stable by jailbreaking.
 
Jailbreaking does not automatically make a phone less stable. You just have a higher chance of doing so because you have more freedom on what you install.

You can look at it as a "guns don't kill people" type argument.
 
you can not use tethering with your unlimited iphone plan.
if you choose to tether, you need to switch to their 2gb plan and add tethering (tethering bumps the cap to 4gb)

att is also cracking down on people who jailbreak to tether. after a certain cutoff date, they will automatically switch you to a 2gb plan with tethering. (and you lose your unlimited)

i personally think saving $10 a month isn't worth losing my unlimited iphone and unlimited ipad plans.
 
JB your iPhone, install TetherMe to enable personal hotspot and enjoy. Do not use JB your iPad.
 
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