Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Tethering Enabled

E

Exegesis48

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2009
202
0
I've had iOS 4 GM since it was "leaked" but have not been able to convince AT&T to enable tethering. Thinking "launch" day is upon us, I took a gamble and called to see if anything has changed, and sure enough, AT&T turned tethering on for me. Seeing as I work on a military installation and wi-fi is strictly forbidden, this makes all the difference in the world to me.

So nice to have a legitimate tethering option without having to jailbreak my phone. Hope someone else is able to benefit from this information as well.
 
Exegesis48 said:
I've had iOS 4 GM since it was "leaked" but have not been able to convince AT&T to enable tethering. Thinking "launch" day is upon us, I took a gamble and called to see if anything has changed, and sure enough, AT&T turned tethering on for me. Seeing as I work on a military installation and wi-fi is strictly forbidden, this makes all the difference in the world to me.

So nice to have a legitimate tethering option without having to jailbreak my phone. Hope someone else is able to benefit from this information as well.
Click to expand...

Sweet! Thanks for sharing! Can I ask what plan you have?
 
if only tethering worked from iPhone to iPad I would so be getting that right now, but Apple needs to make their extra $130 for the iPad + 3G model.
 
That's some cool news to hear. I've been kind of wondering when all this tethering stuff would be going down. So would we have to ask an AT&T rep to enable it for us or is it an automatic function we enable ourselves?
 
lorenwade said:
Hahahaha. Could always jailbreak that iPhone of yours. ;)
Click to expand...

I installed MiWi on my old iPhone 3G, but I felt the battery drained too fast that I decided I would wait for an official option from AT&T, but with the $20 additional fee and no iPad tethering, I might just have to jailbreak again.
 
saving107 said:
I installed MiWi on my old iPhone 3G, but I felt the battery drained too fast that I decided I would wait for an official option from AT&T, but with the $20 additional fee and no iPad tethering, I might just have to jailbreak again.
Click to expand...

Hehehe. Buy an extra battery and you should be set for hours!
 
Too bad it's not free. I could go crazy at work with that and actually get stuff done that requires stuff made since I was born. OK it's not really that bad, but we're on Firefox 2.0 because we're on Panther. Do you realize what all stuff you can't do on browsers and OSes that old? ACK!
 
I have the $45 2gb plan + tethering now. I wasn't able to enable it through attwireless.com though, I had to call and talk to a rep, (i'm a premier customer so i get 24/7 telephone support). I explained that I wanted to enable tethering and I had iOS 4 (I didn't say how i managed to get iOS 4 since it's not out until another few hours). After putting me on hold for a bit the rep came back and said I was good to go and that I needed to restart my phone to enable tethering. After a quick restart and connecting my phone to my laptop, I'm good to go.
 
I thought Tethering created a Wi-Fi network or whatnot to connect to. Why can't a Wi-Fi only iPad connect to a tethered iPhone, especially if you are paying extra for the tethering option. Has Apple blocked this somehow on the iPad? I would think you just select the network name and log in?
 
Someone who has tethering... could you explain how it drains the battery? How do you use it... with a laptop? How does it connect? Check your data usage if you can to see how much it drains it by simple web browsing.
 
roland.g said:
Has Apple blocked this somehow on the iPad?
Click to expand...

according to AT&T, the iPhone not being able to tether to the iPad is an Apple limitation in the OS and not an AT&T restriction.

but no, enabling tethering doesn't create a WiFi hotspot like you think. Once you have tethering enabled, you can connect to another device (Laptop) either by Bluetooth or USB only.
 
roland.g said:
I thought Tethering created a Wi-Fi network or whatnot to connect to. Why can't a Wi-Fi only iPad connect to a tethered iPhone, especially if you are paying extra for the tethering option. Has Apple blocked this somehow on the iPad? I would think you just select the network name and log in?
Click to expand...

Works fine on an EVO. Doesn't work on an un-jailbroken iphone because tethering on an iphone doesn't use wifi. It uses a direct connection to the device.
 
roland.g said:
I thought Tethering created a Wi-Fi network or whatnot to connect to. Why can't a Wi-Fi only iPad connect to a tethered iPhone, especially if you are paying extra for the tethering option. Has Apple blocked this somehow on the iPad? I would think you just select the network name and log in?
Click to expand...

iPhone tethering only thru bluetooth or usb.

The iPad doesnt support bluetooth or usb tethering if I remember correctly ?

MyWi , and a spare power supply for outdoors ....or power cord whenever indoors or in your car. No big deal. Then you dont have to pay AT&T twice or Apple an extra $130 for 3G
 
I hope AT&T told you that by turning on tethering you lost your unlimited data. You are now at 2GB per month and you can never go back to unlimited (well, maybe within a certain number of days).

Mark
 
AbjectEvolution said:
Someone who has tethering... could you explain how it drains the battery? How do you use it... with a laptop? How does it connect? Check your data usage if you can to see how much it drains it by simple web browsing.
Click to expand...

Tethering (pda net / mywi) over a ad-hoc or wifi network (ap) drains the battery the fastest because both the 3g and wifi are going at the same time. This option I highly doubt Apple / AT&T will ever offer.

Tethering over bluetooth is second in the draining category and USB is the best as it charges the phone at the same time.

With heavy downloading only tethering over USB will keep charging the phone.

Just monitor data usage through your AT&T account.
 
Mark Booth said:
I hope AT&T told you that by turning on tethering you lost your unlimited data. You are now at 2GB per month and you can never go back to unlimited (well, maybe within a certain number of days).

Mark
Click to expand...

Yep, it you want to tether, the best bet is to Jailbreak. That way you dont have to pay ATT's rape fee, and you can use wifi, and you could have kept your unlimited data plan.
 
Tethering

saving107 said:
according to AT&T, the iPhone not being able to tether to the iPad is an Apple limitation in the OS and not an AT&T restriction.

but no, enabling tethering doesn't create a WiFi hotspot like you think. Once you have tethering enabled, you can connect to another device (Laptop) either by Bluetooth or USB only.
Click to expand...

I tethered my Ipad with my jailbroken iPhone and it worked perfectly.
 
Mark Booth said:
I hope AT&T told you that by turning on tethering you lost your unlimited data. You are now at 2GB per month and you can never go back to unlimited (well, maybe within a certain number of days).

Mark
Click to expand...

no. if you had an unlimited data plan before June 7th, you got to keep it the way it is and if you wanted to enable tethering, it would be just $20 more a month.

any new customer after June 7th now has a cap of 2GB, but existing customers still have unlimited (unless they chose to down grade to save themselves an extra $5 a month)
 
As it might be a nice feature once in a while, truth be told I'm happy with a 64GB WiFi only iPad. I can get by with using my iPhone for any real web needs when I don't have WiFi access. I use the iPad mainly at home, flights, or at friends and relatives who have WiFi.
 
saving107 said:
no. if you had an unlimited data plan before June 7th, you got to keep it the way it is and if you wanted to enable tethering, it would be just $20 more a month.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but you are INCORRECT! Yes, there have been a fair number of AT&T reps that have said what you suggest. But subsequent inquiries by folks that were told that have found the earlier reps to be wrong.

It doesn't matter if you've had unlimited data since 2007 on an iPhone plan... If you add the $20 AT&T tethering, you MUST switch down to the $25 2GB plan. AT&T will NOT allow you to have the $30 unlimited data AND the $20 tethering at the same time.

Mark
 
Mark Booth, you were right.

Data Plus - 200 MB of data for $15/month. Additional 200MB for another $15.
DataPro - 2GB of data for $25/month. Additional 1 GB of data for $10.
Tethering - Additional $20/month for DataPro customers.

iPhone users are specifically mentioned as being supported by the Tethering option, and support will be deployed with the release of iPhone OS 4.0.

The press release seems to indicate that Tethering will only be allowed with the DataPro plan. This would mean that existing iPhone customers would have to replace their current $30/month unlimited plan with the $25/month 2GB plan in order to qualify for the $20/month tethering plan. In other words, existing iPhone users who wish to take advantage of tethering would find their data rates increasing from $30/month to $45/month ($25 + $20) and find themselves limited to 2GB of data. AT&T indicates that if you don't want tethering, you may keep the current $30/month unlimited rate.

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/0...hone-tethering-and-new-smartphone-data-plans/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back