iPhone Tethering and MMS Hacks Surface

[cmendill]

why no mms?

I don't understand why MMS on an iPhone is special? AT&T offers MMS on other phones right? Is there something special about how iPhone will do MMS? Is there some infrastructure that AT&T hasn't finished yet. Why the wait? What switch is AT&T going to flip at the end of the summer? Is it just going to be the "we say its ok" switch, or is there actually some technical reason that MMS on an iPhone is different? Are they worried about a surge in data usage?

 

[DELLsFan]

I hold no love for AT&T, but the hacks here are beyond the ethics of jailbreaking. It seems to me that they do more than they should - and why? So folks can bog down the bandwidth even more just to connect to their laptop (which very likely has alternate access to the internet)? No, AT&T is right to pursue every legal means to prevent the pirating of bandwidth so that those who aren't can enjoy the service they're paying for.

Now as far as the pricing (of SMS in particular) and the service itself, yes, AT&T can just suck it.

 

[Enuratique]

At&t - If You're Reading This Thread

Realize that a lot of iPhone users don't live in 3G coverage nor do they use that much bandwidth in the first place - like your's truly - yet they pay the same amount of money a lower-level DSL broadband account costs. I don't plan on using my newfound tethering capabilities unless I'm in a pinch and even then it would be for emergency purposes. The odds of me having both my work laptop, my iPhone, and lack of accessible wi-fi is pretty slim. In fact the only time I can think of needing this is at airports. So, please show some leniency here... You make plenty of extra profit from me - let a sleeping dog lie and just worry about the people who torrent while tethered and not paying for the tethering.

kthxbai

 

[Enuratique]

I don't understand why MMS on an iPhone is special? AT&T offers MMS on other phones right? Is there something special about how iPhone will do MMS? Is there some infrastructure that AT&T hasn't finished yet. Why the wait? What switch is AT&T going to flip at the end of the summer? Is it just going to be the "we say its ok" switch, or is there actually some technical reason that MMS on an iPhone is different? Are they worried about a surge in data usage?

I think it has something to do with the viewmymessage nonsense they make iPhone users go through. They need to manage that transition somehow / mandate users upgrade to 3.0?

 

[Snide]

Oh they will and they rightful should. Tethering uses a lot more data than just the iPhone.

I respectfully call BS.

My mom uses PdaNet through the iPhone as her sole internet connection at home.
I had her reset her Usage stats a couple months ago, and after one month, she had
used a whopping 900 MB. As we all know, there's an unofficial 5 GB "soft cap",
so she's using less than 1/5th of that. Her use includes normal browsing with
the occasional video here and there. Since AT&T calls the $30 data plan "unlimited",
this hardly seems excessive by any measure...

 

[cmendill]

I think it has something to do with the viewmymessage nonsense they make iPhone users go through. They need to manage that transition somehow / mandate users upgrade to 3.0?

Maybe, but they'll have to keep that running for people who don't upgrade. And they can't force you to upgrade. And if that were the case, wouldn't a 3.0 iPhone just act like any other MMS enabled phone.

 

[amac4me]

One concern that I have is that AT&T is likely to get very ticked about these hacks.

So it begs the question ... will they get so ticked as to price tethering high or offer it at a fair price given the pent up demand from a large number of the user base?

 

[Ipimpjuice]

We are not dumb

End of summer? Go fly a kite AT&T

 

[Hattig]

Would it be a good idea to get your desktop web browser to spoof as the iPhone web browser?

So when the phone company comes a bitching about your use, you can say "but it was all from my phone, you can check your logs". I am assuming that the phone companies have an invisible proxy or otherwise log website accesses of course.

 

[Enuratique]

One concern that I have is that AT&T is likely to get very ticked about these hacks.

So it begs the question ... will they get so ticked as to price tethering high or offer it at a fair price given the pent up demand from a large number of the user base?

If they had any business sense - they'd make it affordable... You attract more flies with honey than vinegar, or something like that.

 

[pilonog]

I don't understand why MMS on an iPhone is special? AT&T offers MMS on other phones right? Is there something special about how iPhone will do MMS? Is there some infrastructure that AT&T hasn't finished yet. Why the wait? What switch is AT&T going to flip at the end of the summer? Is it just going to be the "we say its ok" switch, or is there actually some technical reason that MMS on an iPhone is different? Are they worried about a surge in data usage?

From my understanding, when all of the iPhone users were setup in the AT&T switches, the soc codes for MMS were not added to their accounts which tell the system to allow MMS on their ANI. Now they have to go back and add this for millions of accounts and that is the reason for the delay.

 

[Enuratique]

Would it be a good idea to get your desktop web browser to spoof as the iPhone web browser?

So when the phone company comes a bitching about your use, you can say "but it was all from my phone, you can check your logs". I am assuming that the phone companies have an invisible proxy or otherwise log website accesses of course.

There are many, many ways they can tell you're tethered outside of the UserAgent string... When tethered, your iPhone acts like a router, so the TTL value of TCP packets being sent through it will be one less than if they had come direct from the iPhone... Now if Apple had set the TTL to some non-standard starting value (default is 128) they could tell that way too... Also, they could tell what kind of ports you were connecting to... If you were only tethering for the purposes of web browsing, you'd be fine but doing stuff on strange ports (like BitTorrent, for example) that'd be a red flag too. Perhaps even the servers you connect to (like MSN Messenger's servers for example)

Long story short, don't think AT&T doesn't have the resources to do this kind of inspection - there are articles about how they let the CIA tap into their backbone for the purposes of spying internet traffic.

 

[ghostface147]

From my understanding, when all of the iPhone users were setup in the AT&T switches, the soc codes for MMS were not added to their accounts which tell the system to allow MMS on their ANI. Now they have to go back and add this for millions of accounts and that is the reason for the delay.

So they should be able to create a script that can mass enable it. I am very sure that the issue is their infrastructure is already weak enough with iPhone users using their data freely, now add multimedia and it will get only weaker.

 

[optophobia]

I respectfully call BS.

My mom uses PdaNet through the iPhone as her sole internet connection at home.
I had her reset her Usage stats a couple months ago, and after one month, she had
used a whopping 900 MB. As we all know, there's an unofficial 5 GB "soft cap",
so she's using less than 1/5th of that. Her use includes normal browsing with
the occasional video here and there. Since AT&T calls the $30 data plan "unlimited",
this hardly seems excessive by any measure...

That is a specific instance. It is not true in all cases. Your mom uses less on tethering than I do on my phone ( I use about 3GB/month)
If I were to use my iPhone for all my internet use then I would expect it to use over 20GB / month

 

[zombitronic]

Tethering uses a lot more data than just the iPhone.

[citation needed]

Yes, please. My understanding is that tethering just allows you to access your 3G connection via a computer. I'm not sure why you think tethering would use any more data than what's available from your iPhone, unless you mean that a user on a computer would likely use the connection more than a user on an iPhone. Still, you're limited by the speed of the 3G connectivity. It is an unlimited data plan and I don't see the difference between constantly downloading video on the 3G network via the iTunes app on an iPhone or downloading video via iTunes on a computer.

 

[Stargaze]

[seeing as this post has been hijacked by MMS]

Why do you need MMS on a phone that has full access to the internet??

i dont understand this overall cry for hte ability to text message someone a picture that i can email them

 

[DipDog3]

I guess no love for the iPhone 2G!

 

[DipDog3]

[seeing as this post has been hijacked by MMS]

Why do you need MMS on a phone that has full access to the internet??

i dont understand this overall cry for hte ability to text message someone a picture that i can email them

Cause a lot of people don't have email on their phone but they all have picture messaging.

 

[TheKrillr]

I'm wondering when this thread and articles will be removed haha ... I downloaded all the necessary files and created PDFs just in case

apple and at&t can drag my ass to court if they want, im never taking down my tutorial.

 

[Azrel]

Does anyone understand the technicalities of how this hack works, is it possible for O2 to track this particular hack down and begin charging the tethering 'bolt-on' charge.?

 

[BrownManUPS]

For those of you who have been watching the iPhone threads, I have been trying hard to get the MMS working, but I couldn't get it to work.

I just want to warn everyone that: group texting will not work if you don't get mms fully working and tethering may be an additional charge, as it shows up differently in your bill.

If you want to reverse anything you have done, you'll need to fully restore the phone by:

1) If you entered any terminal commands, you will need to make that command be "FALSE" instead of "TRUE".
2) Clicking restore
3) Restore as a NEW iPhone -- This is important, as the carrier file will be changed for a new one, the 4.0 version.

This is a pain in the ass to wait for the sync, but it is the most effective way.

Anyone who says to "call AT&T" to set up MMS is either a liar or a lucky individual, because I have tried 5 times and had no luck everytime (a supervisor tells them that MMS is available "later this summer).

Have fun.

 

[Snide]

Also, they could tell what kind of ports you were connecting to... If you were only tethering for the purposes of web browsing, you'd be fine but doing stuff on strange ports (like BitTorrent, for example) that'd be a red flag too. Perhaps even the servers you connect to (like MSN Messenger's servers for example)

Very good point. Anyone stupid enough to run a Bit Torrent client deserves to made an example of...
I have used FTP occasionally while tethered, but since my monthly usage is so low (well below 5 GB),
I haven't worried too much about it.

 

[jfw18338]

[seeing as this post has been hijacked by MMS]

Why do you need MMS on a phone that has full access to the internet??

i dont understand this overall cry for hte ability to text message someone a picture that i can email them

Because not everyone you want to send the picture to has an iPhone or constant access to their email...

 

[cocky jeremy]

**** At&t.

 

[stevenshizzle]

It Works

I got it to work by browsing to the website I never heard of and downloading the profile. Then I enabled tethering and paired it with my MacBook Pro via bluetooth. Tethering works.