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

[MakAttak]

Even better for me now!

Good for you. By the way, WinMo... piece of crap. No phone should have to have a task manager.

Why are you here, again? This is an iPhone forum and thread, not a "mine is better than yours" something out of the 3rd grade thread.

You are totally correct on the "This is an iPhone forum and thread, not a "mine is better than yours" something out of the 3rd grade thread" part, but if you would have read the first 2 lines...You know where i said i wanted to see how many of you dummies were amazed that you could "tether" your phones?! And i do agree on you that WinMo is a piece of crap, i also stated that further down. I only use it because it is the most productive and compatible of all mobile operating systems out.

 

[janey]

You know where i said i wanted to see how many of you dummies were amazed that you could "tether" your phones?!

I'm not surprised at being able to tether. Your WinMo phone can tether but you still technically shouldn't be doing so without the right data plan.

I am waiting for a "blessed" application to have an "easter egg" that does this seamlessly.

Not happening. This goes against the TOS of most carriers for the data plan you're getting with the iPhone. Apple will reject any application that will do this.

 

[MakAttak]

I'm not surprised at being able to tether. Your WinMo phone can tether but you still technically shouldn't be doing so without the right data plan.

What do you mean the right Data Plan?
Unlimited Data=Unlimited Data right? Or did I miss something?
It shouldn't matter how the data is transfered, either by me using Internet Explorer on my phone or sharing the connection to my MBP. Data is Data.

 

[janey]

What do you mean the right Data Plan?
Unlimited Data=Unlimited Data right? Or did I miss something?
It shouldn't matter how the data is transfered, either by me using Internet Explorer on my phone or sharing the connection to my MBP. Data is Data.

I guess you missed the terms that many carriers have about mobile data plans...like AT&T's here:

Furthermore, plans(unless specifically designated for tethering usage) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to computer accessories, Bluetooth® or any other wireless technology) to Personal Computers (including without limitation, laptops), or other equipment for any purpose.

Not like they can tell or that they will care if you use this minimally, but my point still stands.

 

[MakAttak]

A+!

I guess you missed the terms that many carriers have about mobile data plans

Not like they can tell or that they will care if you use this minimally, but my point still stands.

Great point! And I commend you on the info! But nowhere does it state that I cannot "share" my internet. And if it does, there is also an option to create a wireless network using my phone. So it's sort of easy to get around. But like you said, they can't tell either way because all of the data is being transfered first through the phone then to my MBP. I've never been contacted or billed my AT&T about it since i've been doing it for 2 years.

 

[janey]

But nowhere does it state that I cannot "share" my internet....I've never been contacted or billed my AT&T about it since i've been doing it for 2 years.

Not like they can tell or that they will care if you use this minimally, but my point still stands.

As long as you don't abuse it, they shouldn't be able to tell.

 

[spercharged69]

Great point! And I commend you on the info! But nowhere does it state that I cannot "share" my internet. And if it does, there is also an option to create a wireless network using my phone. So it's sort of easy to get around. But like you said, they can't tell either way because all of the data is being transfered first through the phone then to my MBP. I've never been contacted or billed my AT&T about it since i've been doing it for 2 years.

Trust me, they can tell. It doesn't matter if you're calling tethering sharing, borrowing, piggybacking, or anything else. If you're using your phone as a means to access the internet with another device you're tethering. When AT&T slaps you with a massive bill you're going to be completely S.O.L. when you're left arguing semantics with AT&T in that all you did was "create a wireless network!"

Chances are you've gotten away with it for two years because you've been using an EDGE device and not transferring nearly enough data for them to care about. I promise you, once you start abusing their 3G network "sharing" your internet access you'll be looking at a big bill, have a lot of explaining to do, or both.

AT&T's terms of use are very explicit. If you tether you risk being billed for your data usage at 7 cents per kilobyte.

 

[MakAttak]

Edge??? Dude that was back in 06!!

Trust me, they can tell.....Chances are you've gotten away with it for two years because you've been using an EDGE device and not transferring nearly enough data for them to care about. I promise you, once you start abusing their 3G network "sharing" your internet access you'll be looking at a big bill, have a lot of explaining to do, or both.

AT&T's terms of use are very explicit. If you tether you risk being billed for your data usage at 7 cents per kilobyte.

IF you look at my previous post I am using an AT&T Tilt(Which is 3G) and i also did it on my AT&T 8525(Which also was 3G!) I don't know how many of you are aware that 3G has been around for more than 2 years.Steve Jobs seems to have brain washed everyone into thinking it was such a new and expensive technology when the first iPhone appeared that nobody actually realized it wasn't!! The 8125(Which i also owned) was an EDGE phone back in 06! So like i previously stated, i have YET to receive a call or bill or whatever from AT&T. Please explain to me how you expect them to differentiate between phone/computer usage! Bottom line:You CAN'T!

 

[MakAttak]

?

As long as you don't abuse it, they shouldn't be able to tell.

Question "janey"

What is your definition of abuse?
When you answer I will list to you all of the things that I use/used it for and you tell me if that would qualify for abuse.

 

[thechidz]

macattack. you sound like someone who is jealous because now that the iphone is out, your toys just dont get any attention from people and they just arent as cool

 

[thechidz]

Trust me, they can tell. It doesn't matter if you're calling tethering sharing, borrowing, piggybacking, or anything else. If you're using your phone as a means to access the internet with another device you're tethering. When AT&T slaps you with a massive bill you're going to be completely S.O.L. when you're left arguing semantics with AT&T in that all you did was "create a wireless network!"

Chances are you've gotten away with it for two years because you've been using an EDGE device and not transferring nearly enough data for them to care about. I promise you, once you start abusing their 3G network "sharing" your internet access you'll be looking at a big bill, have a lot of explaining to do, or both.

AT&T's terms of use are very explicit. If you tether you risk being billed for your data usage at 7 cents per kilobyte.

dude, you sound like no fun. as long as people arent downloading big files they will be fine. which they cant do anyway with a hacked iphone tether. I've hear att has a soft limit of ~5 gb. no one will come close to that with this method of tethering

 

[janey]

I don't know how many of you are aware that 3G has been around for more than 2 years....

I don't think you understand io_burn's point. Nowhere in that post you quoted was it mentioned 3G was brand new. Plus, io_burn has a point. Your argument has no legal legs to stand on, you are out of luck if AT&T does ever discover your tethering usage and decides to bill you for it, no matter what you decide to call it...if you don't have a plan for tethering, be ready to be billed if they discover that.

Question "janey"

What is your definition of abuse?
When you answer I will list to you all of the things that I use/used it for and you tell me if that would qualify for abuse.

That's up to AT&T. My definition of abuse: anything unusual for a mobile device or mobile usage 3g or not which would draw attention to you: certain websites, unusually high bandwidth usage. Et cetera.

Just because YOU have never received a bill for doing so does not mean it's unheard of. Frankly, from your posts, I think you're just looking to troll because you're attacking points that were never brought up the way you imply they have in a fairly trollish manner.

 

[Rybold]

WOOHOO !!!!

Now I can tether my laptop to my iPhone !!!

 

[brucebrendon]

I'm using it now on my 1G iPhone. Great for emergencies, but not really practical.

indeed i'm gonna do mine this weekend i think, save me swapping out my sim and sticking in old mobi each time i need to send and attachment, heck i might even use the usb off lappy to charge for a little bit while it's out of the bag. maybee a spot of msn until the app comes to iphone (no the biggest fan'o ebuddy).

oh btw mon i bought one of those invisible shield's for my 3G, (you know the film that wraps around the back aswell) was gonna apply tues eve... Obv i then ridiculously scratched up the back somehow in my pocket just before i sat down to apply, coulda been worse i guess, but o the irony!

 

[MakAttak]

macattack. you sound like someone who is jealous because now that the iphone is out, your toys just dont get any attention from people and they just arent as cool

Lol, hey if that's what you think it is then more power to ya!
I certainly am nowhere near jealous, more of disappointed that there are people who are supposed to be intelligent enough to know when they are getting duped or not but yet they AREN'T!

 

[spercharged69]

That's up to AT&T. My definition of abuse: anything unusual for a mobile device or mobile usage 3g or not which would draw attention to you: certain websites, unusually high bandwidth usage. Et cetera.

Just because YOU have never received a bill for doing so does not mean it's unheard of. Frankly, from your posts, I think you're just looking to troll because you're attacking points that were never brought up the way you imply they have in a fairly trollish manner.

That's pretty much all it comes down to. I've swapped my SIM in to my 3G Razr and tethered when I'm in a bind and need to get online in areas without WiFi, but I fully accept the risks of getting caught by doing that. It's irresponsible to encourage people to just go balls out tethering just because of anecdotal evidence of never getting caught.

It's not like AT&T's network consists of 10mbit hubs and when network admins run diagnostics they just walk around and make sure no collision lights are blinking too much. They have the ability to analyze your traffic, similar to... well, any network that isn't running SoHo dumb switches.

It wouldn't even be that involved, the iPhone is only capable of running one process at a time, if I started capturing traffic of someone who is supposed to be using an iPhone and they have 100 http requests open, IMAP requests every minute, open connections to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, and everything else Adium connects to it would be extremely obvious you were tethering.

The key is not hogging enough bandwidth to ever give AT&T a reason to look up what you're doing.

I've hear att has a soft limit of ~5 gb. no one will come close to that with this method of tethering

What. You seriously have no concept of how much data "web 2.0" sites are having you download these days. Install something like Men uMeters or iStat Menus or anything else that tracks bandwidth usage. Since I booted up my Mac when I got to work 20 minutes ago I've downloaded over 100 megs. Ask anyone who lives in Australia or other countries that have ISP's which offer capped transfer internet service how quickly they burn through their allotment just doing regular internet stuff.

 

[MakAttak]

I' Don't Think YOU Understand.

I don't think you understand io_burn's point. Nowhere in that post you quoted was it mentioned 3G was brand new. Plus, io_burn has a point. Your argument has no legal legs to stand on, you are out of luck if AT&T does ever discover your tethering usage and decides to bill you for it, no matter what you decide to call it...if you don't have a plan for tethering, be ready to be billed if they discover that.

Well if you would have read the posts more carefully you would have known that I was responding to his statement of: "Chances are you've gotten away with it for two years because you've been using an EDGE device and not transferring nearly enough data for them to care about. I promise you, once you start abusing their 3G network "sharing" your internet access you'll be looking at a big bill, have a lot of explaining to do, or both." Seems that you got the impression that I was focusing on the point that "3G was brand new." AT&T cannot fault me for using an application that came with my phone. Thats like your new car coming with a radio and although you have fully paid for the car and the right to use it for whatever means you choose, the dealer says "It is ok for you to listen to the radio with the windows up, BUT if you let them down and share the music we will charge you 7 cents per second!" They shouldn't include it if they don't want it to be used. Point Blank.

That's up to AT&T. My definition of abuse: anything unusual for a mobile device or mobile usage 3g or not which would draw attention to you: certain websites, unusually high bandwidth usage. Et cetera.

Just because YOU have never received a bill for doing so does not mean it's unheard of. Frankly, from your posts, I think you're just looking to troll because you're attacking points that were never brought up the way you imply they have in a fairly trollish manner.

And sorry janey if you think im "just looking to troll." Just merely trying to make you aware that none of this stuff is new. All of it is OLD technology. For me to read the news on macrumors.com and see that as a big story is ridiculous.

 

[spercharged69]

Where is anyone saying tethering or 3G is new technology? The reason this is being posted on MacRumors is because the 3G iPhone was just jailbroken, and therefore can be tethered. I'm not sure what's hard to understand about that... but by all means, keep the nerd rage flowing.

 

[MakAttak]

Oh and just to list some of the things I do while using my "internet sharing" option(Nothing extensive in my eyes but well over the capabilities of a phone's browser):

Browse the web for hours at a time, not disconnecting each other.
Downloading tons of music.
Streaming movies over those free sites.
E-mailing files for school.

Mind you I lived in an apartment and used my phone as the only source of internet.

 

[MakAttak]

Where is anyone saying tethering or 3G is new technology? The reason this is being posted on MacRumors is because the 3G iPhone was just jailbroken, and therefore can be tethered. I'm not sure what's hard to understand about that... but by all means, keep the nerd rage flowing.

That was never the point of any of my comments. Point was that you guys have to go through all of this just to share the internet from your phone? Maybe you understand now??

 

[digitalpencil]

I'm wondering about the reality of all of this and how AT&T (or O2 in my case) could figure out definitively if you've been tethering..
People are arguing that if caught, they're charging 7c/kb but how can they determine definitively if your unusual usage rates are a result of tethering or if you're just an iPhone safari junkie?? surely they can't.. surely when they bash you with a fat bill you can merely claim ignorance and point to your 'unlimited' data plan. I mean, yes, they have a fair-usage policy but this would legally have to have some defined conditions before they could start charging per kb!
When they call and moan about tethering, play dumb.. say you don't know what it means, that you use safari a lot but that you're pretty crap with computers and wouldn't know how to 'tether' a phone in the first place and that you were under the impression you had an 'unlimited' dataplan.. there's surely nothing they can do because there's no real way they can legally prove that you've been tethering short of examining the physical phone itself.

In terms of remote verification, the only thing i can think of is browser config check flagging firefox/osx instead of safari/iphone but i don't think even that's possible because this isn't real tethering is it? it's piggybacking through safari and http port 80?

Just my 7c..

 

[digitalpencil]

OK.. none of this makes sense and there's no way it would legally stand up (in the UK at least)... Looking over O2's ToS ( http://www.o2.co.uk/termsconditions/iphone )

Data Charges
* Unless a data or BlackBerry Bolt On is taken, your tariff will include O2 Web Daily under which data will be charged at £3 per MB up to a maximum of £1 per day (00:00am to 23:59pm). Once you have reached your maximum daily charge of £1, O2 Web Daily allows you unlimited use of Telefónica O2 UK Limited's Edge/GPRS/ 3G networks (as applicable to your handset), for personal internet use via your mobile phone. All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes. You may not use your SIM Card:
o in, or connected to, any other device including modems;
o to allow the continuous streaming of any audio / video content, enable Voice over Internet (Voip), P2P or file sharing; or
o in such a way that adversely impacts the service to other O2 customers.

If O2 reasonably suspectsyou are not acting in accordance with this policy O2 reserves the right to impose further charges, impose network protection controls which may reduce your speed of transmission or disconnect your tariff at any time, having attempted to contact you first.

Firstly, despite this apparently being specific to the iPhone, it's talking about 'Blackberry Bolt-Ons' and appears to be a regurgitated policy from that specific ToS.. & secondly, it talks about data being charged "£3 per MB up to a maximum of £1 per day" (err.. basic maths?)

It does outline that if they suspect that you are "not acting in accordance with this policy" they can impose further (undefined charges), impose network protection controls (aka, throttle the **** out of your connection) or cut you off the network, but as i've previously outlined, I can't think of any technical method by which O2 (or any SP for that matter) can definitively identify who's an iPhone junkie and who's been tethering (as long as you're not attempting to tunnel bittorrent traffic through http or something daft like that) remotely!

Moreover, ToS are intended to be legally enforceable policies.. there's no way this thing would stand up in Judge Judy's court room let alone a ****ing magistrate's court!

As I've said, I think we're safe.. all they can do from a legal perspective is attempt to bully people into paying up. I think if you played dumb and mentioned legal action they'd back off a mile for fear of bad publicity. which, isn't to say that they're incapable of implementing an operable system by which they could accurately determine which traffic is coming from tethered devices but that currently, it seems like a technical impossibility coupled with the fact that as legal documents go, the above holds about as much water as a colander..

 

[spercharged69]

I think we're safe..

Oh, in that case that's good news for the guy in this thread that got billed $600 and the dozens of people I've seen on Howard Forums that have either had their data plans cancelled, billed 7 cents a kilobyte, or both.

 

[digitalpencil]

Oh, in that case that's good news for the guy in this thread that got billed $600 and the dozens of people I've seen on Howard Forums that have either had their data plans cancelled, billed 7 cents a kilobyte, or both.

well, that's kind of my point but in terms of 'safe', I was actually referring to those of us who live in the UK.. Looking over AT&T's contract, it doesn't look like there's much room to maneuver but having a lawyer in the room atm, from what I can see under the O2 contract, they couldn't legally charge you a proverbial dime without being first capable of proving in a court of law that the excess traffic of a specific customer's account was a result of tethering or general usage and that technically speaking, that would currently be an impossibility.

Despite having paid $600 to AT&T (sorry bud) i'm really not sure how AT&T could prove you ran up bandwidth whilst tethered short of a) bullying you into admitting it and consequently billing you or b) analysing your account for bittorrent/p2p shaped traffic using some form of sandvine-esque hardware which would be daft anyway given that these ports would be most probably locked on 3G networks anyhow..

It sucks if people are getting ****ed by this and perhaps the carrier can prove that you are tethering your iPhone.. my point is that it's highly doubtful and that this entire fiasco reminds of those RIAA cases where they attempted to prove that X was downloading songs off P2P networks but could come up with no legally viable proof and just bullied people for out-of-court settlements..
Again, just my two-cents.. i could be way off

 

[sschwar4]

Seriously ... when I got billed for my "unlimited data" my bill was over $600 so watch out!

You have got to be kidding! I have an Edge and 3G phone that are tethered all the time. Data on average is over 20GB per month. The price tag is only $40 per month with a voice plan.

From my experience, 3G phones have a limited data rate as compared with data cards. I suspect that the iPhone 3G may have limitations as well.

This is based on speedtest.net. Blackjack 375K, SierraWireless 3G card, 1.8M, SE Z750 875K, SE Edge 85K.