NetShare iPhone Tethering App Reappears in App Store [Updated]

[clmason]

I'm not sure that would hold water - some (quite a lot) of phones support tethering out of the box but that doesn't mean you can go ahead and use it if your plan forbids it. There was a case a while ago in Canada where a man used his phone for tethering because "he didn't realise he couldn't" and ended up with a bill for $85,000 It was later reduced to $3,243 as a "goodwill gesture"

He was routing, not using a proxy. (And it was Bell, not Rogers.)

 

[Davidkoh]

Just called TeliaSonera (the provider that sells iPhone 3G in sweden), asked them if I could either use my sim card in another phone and use it as a 3g modem, or use the iPhone. I got unlimited data plan, their response: "that's what the dataplan is for, you surf the web however you want, whenever you want and as much as you want". So this is a GO for all swedes!

So, anyone can help me? I've gotten it to run, just that before it starts loading it takes like LONG time to connect or whatever. Like 1-2 minutes, and loading sites are slower than on the iPhone. Did a speedtest and got 90 kb/s download and 21 kb/s upload. That was inside my house with like 2-3 bars in reception (Pretty thick walls ). How can I make it better?

 

[clmason]

note: I'm more than aware that "the wikipedia" is not the end-all of sources. but how is what we're talking about not tethering?



please note before any responses - i think that reasonable usage of this product is unlikely to cause any problems. but that as mentioned above:


Edited to Add: I'm not being argumentative here. As i understand this, tethering is the physical means by which the connection occurs, by whatever software process. Proxy is the software process that facilitates this physical connection. If this is wrong, please correct me...i'm no expert. more just curious since VZW charges me an extra fee every month to tether, and appears to have perfected the detection process...

I've already explained this in older posts. Briefly, you are *not* connecting your laptop to the Internet via the iPhone. Instead you have an app running on the iPhone that does all the transfer. You setup a private network between your laptop and the iPhone and when you want data, you talk to the iPhone and say, hey, please get this data for me, and the iPhone gets it. The laptop never talks directly to the Internet, because it is not connected to the Internet directly. So, it avoids the above definition.

 

[clmason]

Just called TeliaSonera (the provider that sells iPhone 3G in sweden), asked them if I could either use my sim card in another phone and use it as a 3g modem, or use the iPhone. I got unlimited data plan, their response: "that's what the dataplan is for, you surf the web however you want, whenever you want and as much as you want". So this is a GO for all swedes!

So, anyone can help me? I've gotten it to run, just that before it starts loading it takes like LONG time to connect or whatever. Like 1-2 minutes, and loading sites are slower than on the iPhone. Did a speedtest and got 90 kb/s download and 21 kb/s upload. That was inside my house with like 2-3 bars in reception (Pretty thick walls ). How can I make it better?

Wow, that's an *awesome* attitude! I wish we had that in north america. Give us a pipe and let us use it however we want.

 

[Davidkoh]

Wow, that's an *awesome* attitude! I wish we had that in north america. Give us a pipe and let us use it however we want.

Yeah, he basically told me I could surf either on my phone or use it with my computer. Bet I could even put the sim card in a 3g modem if I wanted

 

[f(A)t'kId]

Anybody see this off their website. Look at the bottom right of the image. Was that always there? The part that says "A valid iPhone data plan authorized for tethering". I wonder if they just added that or if it's always been there.

 

[zigzag]

Anybody see this off their website. Look at the bottom right of the image. Was that always there? The part that says "A valid iPhone data plan authorized for tethering". I wonder if they just added that or if it's always been there.

That's unrelated, we still haven't heard back from Apple.

 

[ben.mcmahan]

I've already explained this in older posts. Briefly, you are *not* connecting your laptop to the Internet via the iPhone. Instead you have an app running on the iPhone that does all the transfer. You setup a private network between your laptop and the iPhone and when you want data, you talk to the iPhone and say, hey, please get this data for me, and the iPhone gets it. The laptop never talks directly to the Internet, because it is not connected to the Internet directly. So, it avoids the above definition.

This is the same basic process for VZW "tethering", although their app is called vz-connect.

I think you're getting into a semantic argument here, whether it is explicitly "tethering" as you've defined it.. Broadly speaking, you are using your Iphones connection for connectivity on your laptop, which is a service that most providers charge extra for.

As I've said before, I'm more curious than anything about how this will work out, and maybe I'm just jaded from being on Verizon - who charges for every possible extra - but i just cant see how they dont charge you for this..regardless of what definition you use for "tethering".

Honestly, if Apple/ATT set a precedent for this sort of thing (i.e. free Internet access w/o restrictions via your (non-tethered ) phone connection) - I'd be stoked, since VZW's charges for it are pretty high, and you'd figure market pressure would bring it down.

 

[ben.mcmahan]

Anybody see this off their website. Look at the bottom right of the image. Was that always there? The part that says "A valid iPhone data plan authorized for tethering". I wonder if they just added that or if it's always been there.

plot thickens.

 

[meagain]

It was only a matter of time, of course, but netshare has already made it into torrent circles.

I can't find it anywhere. If anyone knows where it is, can anyone PM me or linkify? Thanks.

 

[dirkfr]

interpretable Rules by T-Mobile Germany

It is interesting to see the discussion of inhowfar tethering is allowed or not under an AT&T plan.

Here the terms state that voip, instant messaging such as aim, ivpn are not part of the contract... though they do work.

Furthermore they state, that the datarate is applicable only to use with the iPhone and to use the iPhone in accordance with the technical settings given by T-Mobile and Apple.

There is a limitation to volume and traffic, in that, depending on the plan you chose, bandwidth will bei limited after reaching a certain volume per month.

But, there is no explicit rule forbidding the use of aim, voip or tethering the phone. So I guess at least in my case, using Netshare, which was/is/was (or whatever) provided through Apple without any hacks..... I see no reason to breach any contract, since I use the phone as officially provided.

Voip is another story. Sipgate.de offers a voip client for the iPhone, though it has to be jailbreaked to use. Rumors around here seem to predict a legal suit about it, since T-Mobile claims Sipgate is tempting customers to breach the contract.

I am glad I did get Netshare while it was online again. Still, none of the mail programs (Apple, Eudora, Thunderbird) I tried connect and proxifier woul dnot work.... Still, that's just little drawback.

Dirk

 

[bigmc6000]

http://www.gearlog.com/2008/03/att_more_than_5gb_of_data_cost.php
"We've heard elsewhere about both AT&T and Verizon throttling connections to 200 kbps/sec if you go over 5GB. But what about that new "DataConnect 5GB Overage Plan?" You can't find it anywhere on AT&T's Web site. But if you call in, you'll find it's $350/month for 5GB, plus $0.50 per megabyte (really, $.0005 per kb, but my megabyte formula is more readable.) Since you're probably a heavy downloader, let's think of that as $500 per gigabyte."

I think I'll pass on paying $10 for the privileged over going over 5GB. Good luck. Of course AT&T is going to approve tethering with a gold mine like this working for them.

This 5GB limit that everyone is worrying about is INSANE! It's 5GB a month, good Lord. Just do me a favor - go to Setting, General, Usage and tell me how much data you've used on the Cell Network. I bought my phone on day 1 last year and I've used 1.3GB of download, 219 MB of upload and that's over 13 months!!!!

I'd say this - if you've got an EDGE iPhone - I wouldn't even begin to worry about a limit as there's virtually no way you're going to get there unless you use your iPhone in "tether" mode all day, everyday. If you're a 3G person and you're honest to God worried about it I'd wait a month and see how much you use and then decide if it's worth it. Again, unless you use this on a day to day basis it's not going to have any noticeable impact on your monthly download numbers.

 

[JitteryJimmy]

Good deal if it goes through.

Verizon charges me about $15 per month premium for a 5 GB tethering plan on top of their standard "smartphone plan". As a Verizon customer, I always believed that Verizon are control freaks... I perceive that they sell you a service, and then they want to charge you extra to actually use the service in an interesting way. In a similar way, I see it that they sell you a phone, and then charge you a monthly fee for certain additional features.

Hopefully this iPhone plan is everything I want. I'll give it a couple weeks - if it works out that all this is true, then I'll gladly cancel my Verizon plan, pay the penalty, and get myself a shiny new iPhone.

 

[bigmc6000]

I've already explained this in older posts. Briefly, you are *not* connecting your laptop to the Internet via the iPhone. Instead you have an app running on the iPhone that does all the transfer. You setup a private network between your laptop and the iPhone and when you want data, you talk to the iPhone and say, hey, please get this data for me, and the iPhone gets it. The laptop never talks directly to the Internet, because it is not connected to the Internet directly. So, it avoids the above definition.

You should go work for the NullRiver people - that's a very clever argument, I like it!

 

[bigmc6000]

The fact that this is not true tethering DOES NOT, I repeat, DOES NOT prevent them from finding out that you are using this internet sharing app.

Simply put, the iPhone is a device of limited capability. Many people have said they want to use this for WoW.

Do you honestly believe they can't check the ports and server addresses of their logs and locate people who have.. "somehow".. managed to log into WoW on their iPhone?

Or better yet, set up something on their side to detect and police people's accounts if they do?

The simple fact is, you cannot rely on a lack of NAT to protect you.

Simply hooking my laptop up to the internet at all gets Dropbox, MobileMe and many other services that are part of my machine running.

How easy would it be for AT&T to isolate certain aspects of the Windows & Mac operating systems that perform certain operations when they connect to the internet, and use that to recognize people who are sharing their internet connection with a laptop?

Stop all this silliness.

If you want to use it, use it, but don't assume AT&T can't find out who each and every person is that downloads and uses this application.

Please don't tell me you're suggesting that going to macrumors.com on your laptop is going to be discernible to AT&T compared to going to macrumors.com on your iPhone because that's just ridiculous. I'd say MOST people are going to use it for chat, Safari, and mail. All of which are already on the iPhone so the call via the tethering tool is exactly the same as if you were on your iPhone. And, as I said earlier, 5GB monthly is a HUGE amount of data, most people never even come remotely close to that...

 

[navigates]

Has anyone tried changing their home address to the UK to see if you can get the App.

 

[Veri]

This isn't Nullriver putting up and taking down their app repeatedly to court publicity, is it? Assuming that's possible (as it certainly should be, e.g. to stop distribution if critical security/data loss bug found).

The alternative explanation, the fear that originally made me draw a line through development plans for the iPhone, would be that Apple is exercising its power to arbitrarily decide what apps are suitable for distribution. At least my 9-year-old Motorola Timeport will give me tethering out of the box, if all the devices I've owned since then suddenly disappear too .

 

[ben.mcmahan]

Verizon charges me about $15 per month premium for a 5 GB tethering plan on top of their standard "smartphone plan". As a Verizon customer, I always believed that Verizon are control freaks... I perceive that they sell you a service, and then they want to charge you extra to actually use the service in an interesting way. In a similar way, I see it that they sell you a phone, and then charge you a monthly fee for certain additional features.

Hopefully this iPhone plan is everything I want. I'll give it a couple weeks - if it works out that all this is true, then I'll gladly cancel my Verizon plan, pay the penalty, and get myself a shiny new iPhone.

You're lucky if it's just $15, i have to pay $30 b/c my data plan is only $30 (tethering plans have to = $60 at VZW now so as to not compete with broad band access card plans)

Good luck with the ETF/contract break...you might be able to negotiate it down...

 

[optophobia]

How to install it on a jailbroken phone : instructions

 

[mike12806]

This isn't Nullriver putting up and taking down their app repeatedly to court publicity, is it? Assuming that's possible (as it certainly should be, e.g. to stop distribution if critical security/data loss bug found)

I'm pretty sure that isn't possible. Apple requires submission even just for application updates, so I doubt they give dev's the opportunity to pull and post their app at will....

 

[aristotle]

Tethering + VOIP (for Sipgate) = potential iPhone purchase

No Tethering + No VOIP (for provider of geographic numbers) = no iPhone purchase

They will allow VOIP on the iPhone on Wifi but they will not allow VOIP over the cellular data network for obvious reasons. If this is not obvious to you then I would suggest getting your head checked out for brain damage. No cell provider in their right mind would allow VOIP on a cellular network because their main business is.... wait for it.... voice calls.

 

[JHKL]

After having downloaded and used the app, I have a hunch that people here might be over-speculating the cause of this app being pulled off. I think I've only used this for maybe 10 minutes consecutively without it requiring a reset of the iPhone. For some reason Proxifier all of a sudden cannot connect to the proxy server (i.e. the iPhone) even though it had been working for 10 minutes or so prior. Even if I reboot the app and reset the wifi connection, it still fails to work properly. New connections from Safari or iTunes fail to register.

Depending on how many people have tried this and found similar results, it is quite possible that it might be due to general bugginess of the app that it has been taken down and Apple just hasn't gotten around to telling Nullriver about it.

Of course, there is also the possibility that Apple's lawyers had a heart attack when they saw it and they're reviewing the fine print of their contract with AT&T...

 

[jlbrown23]

Remember that the iPhone is not only sold in the US, and tethering may not be forbidden by some of the other cell companies that the iPhone is used with in other countries, so it makes sense that Apple would allow the app to be sold for customers whose cell carriers do allow tethering. Just because Apple is allowing the app to be sold doesn't mean they're now responsible for you breaking your cell phone carrier's rules.

Here's why I think you are wrong on this:

You have to remember, that the folks on the macrumors.com forums are people who are REALLY in to the technology, and know a lot about it. WE may be aware of all of these fine distinctions, but 99% of the iPhone users out there DON'T, and have no clue about them. They just go to the app store and see something Apple has approved of and certified for sale, and think "That looks cool! I want to be able to do that!". Unlike us here they have no clue if there is any TOS issues.

If you then turn around and start terminating contracts, sending giant bills to the 99% who downloaded the program in good faith, it is a PR nightmare and possibly legally actionable against Apple(they are perfectly capable of blocking sale of the app in whatever countries they choose). They're just not going to do this without some sort of warning. The program will either somehow be disabled, or you'll get a stern warning from AT&T to knock it off or else(or 2.1, 2.2 firmware just disables it). Or they figure they got it off the App store early on, so only a handful of people have it and it is not worth their time to stop for a couple of thousand people. Just keep an eye out for people who are dling 10GB a month and go after them(whether they are doing it with NetShare or just the phone itself).

 

[w00tini]

Sorry if this is a repost...best tutorial yet (for those that have Netshare)

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/tutorial-turn-1.html

 

[mike12806]

Here's why I think you are wrong on this:

You have to remember, that the folks on the macrumors.com forums are people who are REALLY in to the technology, and know a lot about it. WE may be aware of all of these fine distinctions, but 99% of the iPhone users out there DON'T, and have no clue about them. They just go to the app store and see something Apple has approved of and certified for sale, and think "That looks cool! I want to be able to do that!". Unlike us here they have no clue if there is any TOS issues.

If you then turn around and start terminating contracts, sending giant bills to the 99% who downloaded the program in good faith, it is a PR nightmare and possibly legally actionable against Apple(they are perfectly capable of blocking sale of the app in whatever countries they choose). They're just not going to do this without some sort of warning. The program will either somehow be disabled, or you'll get a stern warning from AT&T to knock it off or else(or 2.1, 2.2 firmware just disables it). Or they figure they got it off the App store early on, so only a handful of people have it and it is not worth their time to stop for a couple of thousand people. Just keep an eye out for people who are dling 10GB a month and go after them(whether they are doing it with NetShare or just the phone itself).

Agreed. I think sometimes we (me included) lose perspective that we don't represent the mindset of the average consumer! Yay for us informed Apple followers!