Company founder, geek and entrepreneur, Josh Russell, posted this link to a very useful set of instructions on how to use your iPhone 3G (using OS version 3.0) to share it’s data connection. The concept being that you don’t need to mess around with a 3G data dongle — you can just use your iPhone instead. And avoid paying your operator extra for the privilege.
Richard Lai is the author of the set of instructions — and looking through them, I reckon it’ll take maybe 10 minutes to complete the steps. I’ll have a play of this later on.
Interestingly you can either tether via Bluetooth or USB — although Richard points out that you’ll kill the already rubbish iPhone battery by Bluetoothing — so you’re better to use the USB cable.
There’s no need to jailbreak or do anything untoward to your device and Richard has tested this on an iPhone 3G 16GB on o2 UK and also on an iPhone 3GS on o2.
Richard also recommends avoiding using your newly tethered iPhone to watch/download too much streaming video — or do anything that might quickly take you over your fair-use ‘unlimited’ data allowance.
It looks like you’ll be able to do this on with almost any official iPhone. There’s a link from Richard’s site to grab the AT&T config file (as well as the o2 UK and European ones).
Thank you for posting, Richard — and nice one Josh.
How to tether your iPhone 3G’s data/wifi connection – free: http://ping.fm/Hgl0H
How to tether your iPhone 3G’s data/wifi connection – free: http://ping.fm/Hgl0H
This is brilliant, Ewan, thanks for finding and posting about this. Don't have my iPhone yet (and my other phone will be a Nohkeeya), but I suspect this will be useful to me very very soon 🙂
@joshr Saw your comment http://is.gd/1cD3U & thought you should read this: http://is.gd/1cD4V “..and as yet we’ve never had to ring anyone.”
hey Ewan, thanks for posting my find 🙂
i was then alerted to this from @tomkiss:
http://twitter.com/tomkiss/status/2311464738
essentially O2 might disconnect you for doing it! which would be cutting off a very obvious revenue stream, one that it seems they don't think is significant enough to worry about. interesting!
so i asked @jamesparton, and he's poked O2 on twitter:
http://twitter.com/jamesparton/status/2313855852
to quote myself (sorry):
https://twitter.com/joshr/status/2311555387
“@tomkiss lol, really? so they'd rather not have my business than enable me to use their network? sounds like the record industry!”
let's see how this one turns out, maybe we can embarrass them in to letting us continue to give them money for the unlimited data WE ALREADY PAID FOR!
or we can organise some sort of protest/flashmob/exodus with subsidised iphones (as we'll have been disconnected, we only pay £59ish for a phone, woot!)
No worries. 🙂
@joshr Saw your comment http://is.gd/1cD3U & thought you should read this: http://is.gd/1cD4V “..and as yet we’ve never had to ring anyone.”
RT @richardlai: @joshr Saw your comment http://is.gd/1cD3U read this http://is.gd/1cD4V “..as yet we’ve never had to ring anyone” #tethering
RT @richardlai: @joshr Saw your comment http://is.gd/1cD3U read this http://is.gd/1cD4V “..as yet we’ve never had to ring anyone” #tethering
Top man Richard!
Top man Richard!
Ok I am in Afghanistan and there is a wi-fi network, but the guys wants you to pay for each device is there a way I can register my iphone with him and then when i wanna use my laptop i can tether my iphone to get connected? Can anyone give me some direction in doing so plz!