Tethering with a Wifi connected iPhone

[donaldj]

Hello,

My laptop's network card doesn't seem to want to work. So I got the idea to use my iPhone as a sort of network adapter.

My iPhone is connected to my home network, so i just tethered it, and assumed it would use my home network on the laptop as well.

Let me lay it out for you.

1. iPhone is connected to WiFi
2. Laptop is tethered to iPhone
3. Is the Laptop now connected to WiFi? (or does it use the data?)

Thanks!

 

[Snide]

Take 3 guesses...

Seriously though - you're correct; it uses whatever the router is using for data.

Out of curiosity, are you tethering a stock iPhone using carrier-setting hack,
or using PdaNet on a jail-broken iPhone?

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Unfortunately this won't work - you can only share your 3G connection, not your WiFi one

 

[mackmgg]

Out of curiosity, are you tethering a stock iPhone using carrier-setting hack,
or using PdaNet on a jail-broken iPhone?

Why not just using it normally? Not all carriers require a hack you know, AT&T is one of the few that don't have it ready yet.e

 

[donaldj]

Hmm... Two contradicting answers.

By the way, this is a stock iPhone, with a carrier hack. (I'm on Rogers Canada, but i don't have the 1GB data plan they require for tethering)

Does PDANet do what I want? (I'm willing to jailbreak)

I'm just looking for any way to connect my WiFi connection to my laptop via my iPhone here...

 

[samcraig]

does your laptop not have a slot you can get a cheap wireless card for? seems silly to connect the iphone for wifi....

 

[SeanZy]

When connected to WiFi the iPhone will still only tether the 3G network. It does not tether wifi connections. Think about it, you wouldn't be using their data anymore and therefore would reduce the chance of you going over the limit and paying money. It's business.

 

[slapguts]

It will work fine if you use the carrier hack, but not if you use PDANet. Not sure why it didn't work for Phil A, but it worked fine for me.

 

[slapguts]

Here's a screenshot. Notice that Wi-Fi is is on, ans so is BlueTooth and tethering. I'm using my home's wifi, tethered over BlueTooth, and the Airport on my MBA is off. Works just fine.

 

[MBHockey]

Yes, your phone is connected to wifi, but your computer that is tethered is using your phone's 3G or Edge connection (whichever area it is in).

Do a reverse nslookup on your IP from your laptop while tethered -- it will be an AT&T mobile host -- not that of your router. Alternatively, you could turn on AirPlane mode, then just re-enable wifi alone. If you tether, your laptop will not have any internet even though your phone will.

 

[donaldj]

Yep. MBHockey has it right. I can not use the normal tether feature to use my WiFi.

Pity really.

Anyone know of another iPhone tethering app that will let me use my WiFi?

 

[slapguts]

Damn, I was wrong. I tried turning airplane mode on, and it kills the Bluetooth. Can't seem to get USB tethering to work anymore. So no way to test it.

Strange. My power just went out (storming in Sarasota), and it worked right through my router being reset, so it must be pulling through 3G.

I must say, it's way faster than I thought it should be.

 

[donaldj]

Blasted, this wouldn't be a problem if I had an unlimited plan. Cursed Rogers. I only have 500mb

Still open to suggestions about a way to tether via USB, whilst still using my wifi....