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iPhone 3.0 MMS & Tethering: Part 2

August 3rd, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments

iphone-tetherOn my last post I talked about the new MMS features with regards to sending pictures in the iPhone 3.0 software update. In this article, I will document my experience trying out the tethering capabilities built right into the iPhone. Now like MMS, tethering technologies have been available on other platforms for years, and without jail-breaking your iPhone, you couldn’t do it previously.

The iPhone is only available on 2 carriers in Canada: Fido and Rogers. I am with Rogers and at launch of the 3.0 update they were one of the carriers that were ready to support tethering. I had to dig a bit to find out what were the conditions of tethering, can I do it now? Will I be charged a ton of money to do it? Do I need some kind of tethering enabled plan?

I managed to find this blurb on the Rogers web site:

rogers-30-blurb

So lucky me I already have a 1 GB data plan so I wasn’t worried about incurring charges. And it seems that I have until the end of the year to enjoy this. I haven’t seen anything yet as to what happens in 2010, but I’ll keep digging. A good resource for this is the forums at iphoneincanada.ca where they have a thread on iPhone plans that people can post.

Tethering

This is incredibly easy to do. My first test was with connecting the iPhone to my Windows Vista PC using the dock connector cable that comes with the phone. I made sure wireless was off and the ethernet cable was unplugged and that I had no internet access.

First up is you go to Settings, General and then Network to see this screen:

IMG_0285

Click into Internet Tethering to get this screen:

IMG_0286

You toggle the ON/OFF and almost immediately are are setup, when you go back to the home screen a nice little blue bar indicates that tethering is enabled:

IMG_0287

It’s very similar to when you exit a call to go to the home screen, only not green but blue. When you think about it, it makes sense and is handy to know so that you don’t leave it on and suck up all the bandwidth on your account.

When charging and the phone is locked, you still get the blue indicator:

IMG_0288

When I went back to my Vista PC, a new prompt came up:

Untitled1

I choose Home just to get rid of this screen and that was it. I fired up my browser and hit my first web page on tethering:

IMG_0289

On the final part I will show the Bluetooth connection with my new iMac and visit a speed testing web site.

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  • davidring
    Can this work in the US? I can enable tethering, but cannot get the browser to see the iphone connection. Any suggestions?
  • Hi. I believe AT&T enabled tethering late last summer. It's not the
    browser that needs the connection but your computer. Are you on
    Windows or Mac? If Windows what version?
  • davidring
    Nice to get your reply. Thank you. I am using Windows XP Service Pack 3. Been very frustrated trying to get Firefox ir Internet Explorer to recognize the Iphone connection.
  • Happy to help. Again keep in mind its Windows that needs the connection.
    Make sure you have all other connections disabled, meaning no Wi-fi and no
    ethernet plugged in. My guess is if all is working, Windows might use those
    forms of connections before the iPhone. So bottom line, make sure Windows
    has NO internet connection, then plug in your iPhone in tethering mode (so
    via USB cable) and I would have thought Windows would have taken care of the
    rest.

    I did it in Vista which seems to be easier, you may need to use the
    Networking applet in Control Panel to setup a new connection first.
  • davidring
    Reviewing your article, I noted that you are in Canada, where Rogers
    Wireless offers this service. I am in the US and they do not offer
    tethering here, although my phone seems to be able to produce somewhat high
    speeds through an ethernet simulation - or that is how the connection
    appears in the networking file. Maybe that is the problem. Rogers wireless
    probably send out the proxy codes or whatever codes the computer needs to
    see to set up the communications programs. AT&T does not want to use up
    their bandwidth to the Iphone users, because I guess Iphone's can really
    use it up quickly. Right?

    David

    Original Message:
    -----------------
  • davidring
    I believe that I have been doing just that. Windows recognized the Iphone
    upon hooking it up and I or the computer set up the network connection. The
    computer recognizes when the tethering is turned on and off. The Iphone
    tethers at 500 kbps. I set up the priority to look for the Iphone first,
    then other connections next - like the dialup that is the only other
    connection available to me here, but there is some "disconnect" so that the
    Iphone and/or the Windows does not have the connection. One thing, though,
    I have the Iphone loaded with version 3.0. There are newer versions.
    Should I load them up? At some point in time in the past I loaded up the
    BenM.at profile for US AT&T when attempting to tether the Iphone. What
    profile in the "General" settings are you using?

    David

    Original Message:
    -----------------
  • Sounds like you are doing everything right. I can't see how this could be
    different, but I did use a Vista machine, and I know the networking stack
    was rewritten. Maybe there is some extra work in Windows that must be done?
    On your PC for the web browser, I assume its just the "page cannot be
    displayed" error?

    It shouldn't be anything to do with the IP settings, but do you think you
    would need to release/renew the DHCP settings? I wouldn't think you would,
    but I don't know if Vista is doing some magic that XP does not.

    Also, not sure what you mean by profile in "general" settings.

    I would recommend updating your firmware to the latest iPhone OS version,
    this should be 3.1.2. There was some important security fixes since 3.0,
    plus if Apple were ever to help you they would likely want you to update.

    I have an XP laptop available to me, I can try to tether there and document
    what I do to make it work and hopefully help out.
  • davidring
    Just after you sent this message, I got the iphone to tether. Works
    well, but very slow. We have Edge system here. 3G is supposed to be
    coming soon.

    Any ideas on how to speed up the browsing? I have not had the chance to
    try the 3G system anywhere around here. Are you on 3G?



    david
  • Hi, I finally got around to testing this. Even though you have it working, thought I would follow up. Unfortunately, after updating iTunes to the latest on my Acer XP laptop, I plugged in the iPhone, saw the New Hardware wizard, let it do it's thing and it installed "Apple Mobile Device Ethernet". Once it was done it worked like a charm!
  • davidring
    Wonderful to hear from you. My iphone is working well, albeit slow due to
    not having 3G. It works at about the same speed as dial-up, but it does
    work.

    Thank you again, and keep in touch.



    David Ring

    Original Message:
    -----------------
  • Will do. Do you have a Twitter or buzz I can follow?
  • Hi yes sorry for not getting back to you about the WIn XP test!

    Not sure on how to speed up your connection. Sorry to hear you only have
    EDGE. I am fully 3G here (thankfully) and rarely see anything less. I'm
    afraid a lean browser is your best bet, maybe disable things like
    javascript, flash, ads, etc to save on downloads. Could go as far as images
    but I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe Chrome with some extensions to do the
    above?
  • davidring
    Where do you find the DHCP settings?

    David

    Original Message:
    -----------------
  • With your iPhone plugged into your PC, go to control panel and then
    network. You should see the connection to the phone in there. I'm not
    certain what it would be called, but you can right click, go to
    properties, and you should be able find it in there. I don't suspect
    this to be the problem area. If I can make it work on my xp laptop
    I'll let you know.
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