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lbhskier37

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 11, 2011
105
12
I've had iPhones for 3 years now and have never thought of jailbreaking until now. I've always avoided it for the same reason I avoid android, I just want it to work and couldn't care less about customizing. I'm perfectly happy getting l my apps through the App Store and have never felt the need for anymore functionality than comes stock. Until now. I bought a wifi ipad over Xmas and have really wanted tethering a few times. I have an old AT&T plan that is super cheap compared to the share your wallet plans they offer today. I don't have unlimited, but still have the desire to use my ipad away from wifi now and again. Is jailbreaking worth it just for that? Are there some downsides? Do I loose any of the stock functionality like syncing with iTunes and using the official App Store?
 
I've had iPhones for 3 years now and have never thought of jailbreaking until now. I've always avoided it for the same reason I avoid android, I just want it to work and couldn't care less about customizing. I'm perfectly happy getting l my apps through the App Store and have never felt the need for anymore functionality than comes stock. Until now. I bought a wifi ipad over Xmas and have really wanted tethering a few times. I have an old AT&T plan that is super cheap compared to the share your wallet plans they offer today. I don't have unlimited, but still have the desire to use my ipad away from wifi now and again. Is jailbreaking worth it just for that? Are there some downsides? Do I loose any of the stock functionality like syncing with iTunes and using the official App Store?

You do not lose any of the stock functionality. Try it you can always go back, I would suggest that you try BiteSMS as well.
 
I'm really all about stability and not having to worry about things working or not. Am I going to sacrifice anything in that respect?
 
I'm really all about stability and not having to worry about things working or not. Am I going to sacrifice anything in that respect?

No. Especially if all you install is a tethering app.

Tetherme,mywi, and pdanet are all extremely popular are will not negatively affect your phone.

If you ever install a tweak that is poorly written or done it could negatively affect stability, but that can be easily fixed but uninstalling the tweak.
 
No. Especially if all you install is a tethering app.

Tetherme,mywi, and pdanet are all extremely popular are will not negatively affect your phone.

If you ever install a tweak that is poorly written or done it could negatively affect stability, but that can be easily fixed but uninstalling the tweak.

Wouldn't Att know if I decided to do this? I'm on their grandfathered unlimited plan and using an iPhone 5.
 
Yes. You're paying for data, not how to use your data. That would be like the water company saying you can take a shower but have to pay extra to run your dishwasher.
 
Wouldn't Att know if I decided to do this? I'm on their grandfathered unlimited plan and using an iPhone 5.


PDANET has a feature that supposedly hides your tethering from AT&T ( with mixed results) I think MyWi now also has this feature. All TetherMe does is enable the standard Apple tethering" option in the settings app, which obvious doesnt even attempt to hide anything.
 
I understand that PDANet is not compatible with iOS 6 and will actually harm your install.
 
Yes. You're paying for data, not how to use your data. That would be like the water company saying you can take a shower but have to pay extra to run your dishwasher.

Sadly AT&T doesn't see it this way, and if they catch you tethering on a old unlimited plan they will force you into a new plan that charges you for tethering AND has a limited amount of data allowance.

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I understand that PDANet is not compatible with iOS 6 and will actually harm your install.

I meant once they are compatible.
 
I suppose I'll look into mywi and pdanet when it's available for ios6.

I would just hate to get busted and loose my unlimited plan.

If you can hide your tethering I'm going for it but if it only does so with mixed results, than no.
 
I suppose I'll look into mywi and pdanet when it's available for ios6.

I would just hate to get busted and loose my unlimited plan.

If you can hide you tethering I'm going for it but if it only dies so with mixed results, than no.

People have been caught before using pdanet and every single tethering hack by AT&T.
There's a way they figure it out and so far there is no full proof method that its 100% they wont detect you.
Its a risk.
They usually give you a warning and if you do it again you're gone down to a tiered data package.
 
By the way, is there a jailbreak for ipad mini running on verizon to hide your bandwidth usage?
 
Ya jail breaking for me isn't abot customization as all I have with that is 5 icon dock, but rather being more useful. I don't want to have to go into a wether app when I can just unlock and it's right there on my springboard. I use mine for tethering because 30 bucks a month makes NO sense, and also, I find that some things that are normally anoying such as this autocorrect that I'm sure will butcher this comment lol, can be fixed with cydia tweaks! Try it and you will never go back!

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Can verizon see tethering with tetherme?
 
Sadly AT&T doesn't see it this way, and if they catch you tethering on a old unlimited plan they will force you into a new plan that charges you for tethering AND has a limited amount of data allowance.

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I meant once they are compatible.

Very true. My tactic is just to keep my data usage high. I average about 8-9 GB a month (mostly streaming radio at work) with or without tethering. So when I tether to my iPad it's to replace web browsing I would've done on my iPhone anyway.
 
Yes all of them can see tethering with any of the apps, the questions is do they care.

Right now Verizon does not (for the most part), and if you have LTE it is less likely they (Verizon) will care.

This. Also, I've been told certain accounts get a pass based on overall corp spend.

I have also noticed ATT has backed off on throttling when using LTE.
 
Look, I'm all about jailbreaking, but to indicate there are NO drawbacks or risks and no stability issues is just not true...

Within 24 hours there have been widespread reports of the Weather app not working (no big deal I agree, but it's an indicator that stuff gets broken), and people are having issues after installing basic tweaks like SBsettings with the phone being stuck on the boot logo after a restart.

That kind of stuff may be no big deal to an experienced JB'er who can work around the instability issues, but if you are an average user that might not bring their entire computer with them everywhere to "just do a restore" when something like that pops up, it can really ruin a day.

When I jailbroke the original 2G (using jailbreakme), it locked up on me during a business trip. I had no phone and no way of restoring. That has NEVER happened on the stock firmware for me (and even though I'm sure it has, it's much more rare on stock than on JB firmware).

Jailbreaking is cool. It lets you pira... errr... customize lots of stuff, steal tethering from AT&T (violating the contract you agreed to), and lets you do lots of other things too.

I think it's sorta worth it when available, but not nearly as needed as it once was.

And it DOES void the warranty, even if you lie about it later when you need it (because that's what you're doing if you take it in for warranty work, lying about it being jailbroken, even if you restored it after...).

Is it worth it? To me, yes. But I'd say probably not for the vast majority of "average" users. If you want to, just know that the "there are no drawbacks" statement is a bit of a lie. There are. Some less annoying than others, but there are.
 
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