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iTether App Offers Internet Tethering On Your iPhone for One Time Fee
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I can't be 100% sure, but it *should* allow you to at least download it and have the icon just sitting there, not sure if it would work though.
Then when you buy an iPhone, under the App Store, under "Purchased" you can pull it down on the phone.
Works For Me
Ran a speed test with over 9Mbs down and nearly one up. Shared the connection with another Mac using Airport Wi-Fi sharing. Fast page load on their laptop as well. Worth the $15 to me although also have purchased MiWi and jailbroken my phone in the past but tired of the cat and mouse with that every time there's an iOS update. Having a USB attached actually does two things that are an advantage. With MiWi the battery drain on the iPhone was heavy but by using USB you're getting a charge from the computer. Second, the data rate appears to be significantly faster than using the iPhone as a hotspot. It appears to use a USB Ethernet connection at least that's what to select in AirPort sharing.
Limitations then are that there's an app to run on both the phone and computer and that the app on the phone has to be up front. Maybe not so bad in that if you're using your computer anyway you're likely not doing much on the phone while it's in use as a modem. The phone can go into standby mode (where you have to punch the home button and unlock the screen) and the connection still works. I tested receiving a phone call where the phone rang even with the app up and running. From what I read in other user reviews the tether.com site has to be up and running and when they first released the app in the Apple app store there was an overload of their server so a brief period where negative reviews were being written as folks couldn't get the set up to work with the site down.
Overall I'm glad to have a fast option for tethering that is a one time cost for the application. Data is data that I'm already paying my carrier per month for a couple GB's worth. Why (as only here in the US) we have to pay twice as much for the privilege of tethering smacks of greed on the provider's part to me.
Going back six years ago I was tethering through Bluetooth to a Nokia phone at $19.95 p/mo unlimited data. It was slow before EDGE or 3G and maybe 4G is around the corner for the iPhone 5, but it worked and I didn't have to worry about how many bytes I had used for the month. I wanted and am glad to have gone with an iPhone but the carrier upping the cost and capping their data with an iPhone is not so great. The phone is so great though that the carrier's cheesiness is outweighed.
I believe this is currently (November 2011) the best option for tethering with an iPhone as MiWi requires a jailbreak which is a regular hassle with the iOS updates and drains the battery unless you plug in anyway. Tethering is something that goes back for years for me with several models of Nokia phones and several models of Mac laptops. I've used just about every method along the way and connecting USB and launching two applications isn't a big deal especially when the data rate appears to be faster with the hard wire and the phone's battery gets a charge while connected. I'm glad for a solution to once again be able to tether my iPhone.
Ran a speed test with over 9Mbs down and nearly one up. Shared the connection with another Mac using Airport Wi-Fi sharing. Fast page load on their laptop as well. Worth the $15 to me although also have purchased MiWi and jailbroken my phone in the past but tired of the cat and mouse with that every time there's an iOS update. Having a USB attached actually does two things that are an advantage. With MiWi the battery drain on the iPhone was heavy but by using USB you're getting a charge from the computer. Second, the data rate appears to be significantly faster than using the iPhone as a hotspot. It appears to use a USB Ethernet connection at least that's what to select in AirPort sharing.
Limitations then are that there's an app to run on both the phone and computer and that the app on the phone has to be up front. Maybe not so bad in that if you're using your computer anyway you're likely not doing much on the phone while it's in use as a modem. The phone can go into standby mode (where you have to punch the home button and unlock the screen) and the connection still works. I tested receiving a phone call where the phone rang even with the app up and running. From what I read in other user reviews the tether.com site has to be up and running and when they first released the app in the Apple app store there was an overload of their server so a brief period where negative reviews were being written as folks couldn't get the set up to work with the site down.
Overall I'm glad to have a fast option for tethering that is a one time cost for the application. Data is data that I'm already paying my carrier per month for a couple GB's worth. Why (as only here in the US) we have to pay twice as much for the privilege of tethering smacks of greed on the provider's part to me.
Going back six years ago I was tethering through Bluetooth to a Nokia phone at $19.95 p/mo unlimited data. It was slow before EDGE or 3G and maybe 4G is around the corner for the iPhone 5, but it worked and I didn't have to worry about how many bytes I had used for the month. I wanted and am glad to have gone with an iPhone but the carrier upping the cost and capping their data with an iPhone is not so great. The phone is so great though that the carrier's cheesiness is outweighed.
I believe this is currently (November 2011) the best option for tethering with an iPhone as MiWi requires a jailbreak which is a regular hassle with the iOS updates and drains the battery unless you plug in anyway. Tethering is something that goes back for years for me with several models of Nokia phones and several models of Mac laptops. I've used just about every method along the way and connecting USB and launching two applications isn't a big deal especially when the data rate appears to be faster with the hard wire and the phone's battery gets a charge while connected. I'm glad for a solution to once again be able to tether my iPhone.
As stated here or at TiPb (I can't remember, and am too lazy to check), it routes through their servers, so as to hide what is being routed, and appear to be normal iPhone Safari browsing.
It's similar to how Opera for the iOS and one other browser that did the same did. It sends the data to their server first, to circumvent.
Read that post before. It's a great explanation of the way the app works.
But it's obvious to some here on MR
that the iTether app will still have the carrier's upset with the way the app works, and request that Apple do something to intervene. Time will tell if Apple does anything though.Yup, it uses the USB cable to connect to the computer for data and that will also then charge the iPhone. Problem is of-course if you're running your laptop on battery it then is draining it's battery by charging the iPhone.
I wonder if there's a way of telling MacBooks "You're running on your battery. Don't charge anything on your USB ports, just do data."...
Mac half not working
Just read this article this morning, went and bought Tether from iTunes, and was finished downloading as soon as it started, and is on my phone... but to get it to work on my Mac, and downloading the .dmg (from the link provided in the original article here), first it took a year and half to download, but after it finally finished, go to open it and this is what I get -
***UPDATE***
That .dmg I just 'Get Info' on it, and it said it was just 11Kb and not the full 1.4Mb that the download says it is... so, it must have just timed out while downloading... and downloading it again now as I type... again saying that it's going to take 32 minutes at 122Kb download speed... so their servers must still be getting hammered! May have to wait until after work today, or tomorrow, and hopefully will still be there and be able to do it, and not a waste of $15!
***UPDATE 2***
Sweet! Found a link, I think on page seven of this thread, Opyium reposting a link from Matthew12, a link to an external way to download the .dmg, clicked on it and it downloaded in no time flat, opened it up and is now connecting me and allowing to to update this! Am getting a SppedTest speed of 553ms Ping, 1.24 Mbps DL, and .36 Mbps UL... not blazing, but great to know I have in a pinch if need it!
Thanks to everyone for their help!
Just read this article this morning, went and bought Tether from iTunes, and was finished downloading as soon as it started, and is on my phone... but to get it to work on my Mac, and downloading the .dmg (from the link provided in the original article here), first it took a year and half to download, but after it finally finished, go to open it and this is what I get -
***UPDATE***
That .dmg I just 'Get Info' on it, and it said it was just 11Kb and not the full 1.4Mb that the download says it is... so, it must have just timed out while downloading... and downloading it again now as I type... again saying that it's going to take 32 minutes at 122Kb download speed... so their servers must still be getting hammered! May have to wait until after work today, or tomorrow, and hopefully will still be there and be able to do it, and not a waste of $15!
***UPDATE 2***
Sweet! Found a link, I think on page seven of this thread, Opyium reposting a link from Matthew12, a link to an external way to download the .dmg, clicked on it and it downloaded in no time flat, opened it up and is now connecting me and allowing to to update this! Am getting a SppedTest speed of 553ms Ping, 1.24 Mbps DL, and .36 Mbps UL... not blazing, but great to know I have in a pinch if need it!
Thanks to everyone for their help!
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Whoa wait a second... does that mean all data is first routed to tether's servers? Isn't that a big privacy/security risk?
I did not know that the data was routed to Tethers serves first. This means that VPN will not work over this connection. I am hoping this information is incorrect. I cannot try iTether yet because the Mac dmg I downloaded (a couple times already) cannot be mounted for some reason.
My download from tether.com failed part way through, and I imagine yours has too. I downloaded the DMG from elsewhere. Have a read through this thread for the links.
can anyone post an alternate download for the MAC portion?
As mentioned by the previous poster, the Tether.com website is extremely busy and it is impossible to download the MAC version of the software (the download stops after a few kb and never finishes downloading the whole 1.5 MB dmg image).
To anyone who successfully downloaded the file: Could you post it to an alternative download site?
Thanks!
As mentioned by the previous poster, the Tether.com website is extremely busy and it is impossible to download the MAC version of the software (the download stops after a few kb and never finishes downloading the whole 1.5 MB dmg image).
To anyone who successfully downloaded the file: Could you post it to an alternative download site?
Thanks!
Now that this tethering app has been approved, it is probably only a matter of time until we see other similar tethering apps appear on the store. I personally would not use itether since it needs to phone home to their servers for it to work. I have handylight anyways and rarely ever use that.
It's because their site is getting hammered. The DL failed, i bet your DL is only like 3kB.
I am pretty sure this app DOES NOT route any data through their servers.. Otherwise people wouldn't be reaching such high speeds and decent to low to latency. It DOES phone home for licensing reasons.
But that's Opera... not tether. I'd really like to know if my traffic is being routed before I use this seriously.
Easiest way to find out is seeing if ALL your data is coming from a singular IP address. If it is, the data is being proxied through their server. I doubt this is happening though.
Previously in this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13930152&alternate#post13930152
(there's a Windows link near there too)
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13929728&alternate#post13929728