How to: Tether your iPhone to your Mac for internet access

[Snide]

After experimenting further, I have some more notes which might be useful:

I keep the Terminal window open on the right side of screen, and as long as
I'm pinging the iPhone, the pages will render on the Macbook. However, when
the iPhone goes into power-saving mode, the pinging stops. Simply getting the
iPhone screen on again resumes the pinging (which is a PITA, needless to say).

I installed John Tool from Installer App, and when I activate it, the iPhone keeps
network connections alive, and it returns pings indefinitely, even after screen powers down.
So if a web page doesn't load, I just hit the Enter key repeatedly until it does;
no need to visit the site first on the iPhone...

 

[koobcamuk]

I tried this last night.

Thanks for the notes above, but I will try to find a way for my 3G enabled phone to make these kind of connections as the iPhone method was unreliable and slow.

Someone should make an app that sets everything up...

 

[bigandtasty]

Thanks Snide!

Thanks for the helpful answer to my question

 

[Snide]

Thanks for the notes above, but I will try to find a way for my 3G enabled phone to make these kind of connections as the iPhone method was unreliable and slow.

Believe it or not, I'm tethering right now on the Macbook, and websites load substantially
faster using EDGE than the same pages load on the iPhone itself using a fast WiFi connection.
The bottleneck seems to be the iPhone's limited processor speed and RAM, not the data-rate!

So 3G won't make much difference using the iPhone by itself, but for tethering
it will be great. Plus it will be possible to make and receive calls while using data.

 

[ski1ski1]

Believe it or not, I'm tethering right now on the Macbook, and websites load substantially
faster using EDGE than the same pages load on the iPhone itself using a fast WiFi connection.
The bottleneck seems to be the iPhone's limited processor speed and RAM, not the data-rate!

So 3G won't make much difference using the iPhone by itself, but for tethering
it will be great. Plus it will be possible to make and receive calls while using data.

You are so wrong. The bottleneck is EDGE, not the iPhone processor. Have you tried the iPhone on WiFi ? Night and day difference between WiFi and EDGE on the iPhone. Proof enough the iPhone processor is not the bottleneck. You will see a similar night/day difference on the new 3G iPhone compared to the current iPhone on EDGE.

 

[Snide]

You are so wrong. The bottleneck is EDGE, not the iPhone processor. Have you tried the iPhone on WiFi ? Night and day difference between WiFi and EDGE on the iPhone. Proof enough the iPhone processor is not the bottleneck. You will see a similar night/day difference on the new 3G iPhone compared to the current iPhone on EDGE.

Sorry, but I browse MacRumors all the time on the iPhone using WiFi (1.3 Mb DSL),
and the tethered Macbook on EDGE is definitely faster rendering pages.
Perhaps you mis-read my post? Please try it yourself and report back.

 

[koobcamuk]

Tethering was just too unreliable. I only managed to pull up google a couple of times...

I installed John Tool from Installer App, and when I activate it, the iPhone keeps
network connections alive

So, if I do this, I don't need to ping in terminal? Pinging is lame... I just want to connect and go

 

[ski1ski1]

Sorry, but I browse MacRumors all the time on the iPhone using WiFi (1.3 Mb DSL),
and the tethered Macbook on EDGE is definitely faster rendering pages.
Perhaps you mis-read my post? Please try it yourself and report back.

I think you are misunderstanding my logic. You said:

The bottleneck seems to be the iPhone's limited processor speed and RAM, not the data-rate!

So, if the bottleneck was actually the iPhone's processor and RAM, why would the iPhone on a fast WiFi connection be so much faster. If your theory was true, a fast WiFi connection on the iPhone would be just as slow as an EDGE connection on the iPhone. But since WiFi is a lot faster then EDGE on the iPhone, that shows the processor and ram is not the bottleneck.

 

[ski1ski1]

Maybe you have a poor WiFi connection or signal with your iPhone. Because an iPhone on a good WiFi connection displays web pages almost instantaneously.

 

[MaxiK]

I'm trying to get the tethering thing to work. I understand all the step, but getting hung up at one...

the srelay step in the vt-100 terminal... I get the following error:

# srelay
/usr/local/etc/srelay.conf: line 0: no valid
 entries found.using default.
no server socket prepared, exitting...
cannot open server socket
#

Now, read earlier that there was an error message that get's kicked out - but with the no server socket prepared, exitting line - it would lead me to believe that the socks server does not fire up. I tried to cat the file - no luck, I tried to vi the file - it comes up empty, but it will not allow me to write the file, even empty - just to create it.

Any tips or suggestions? I'm running 1.0.2 firmware, not sure if apple fixed this little "bug" or not... I hope not....

Try this command:

srelay -i 192.168.x.x (use the ip static set in the iphone)



bye
MaxiK

 

[ajitsapplepie]

can I tether unclocked 1.0.2

I would like to know if can tether my 1.0.2 unlocked iPhone to my mac? Is there a need for me to update with 1.1.1 and if yes do i need a different process or i can follow the way mentioned above?

 

[Snide]

I have played with several different iPhones (which led to me purchasing one).
With all of these iPhones, I noticed that they were relatively slow loading pages
on Wi-Fi, just as was Steve Job's iPhone on-stage at MacWorld SF '07.
You can attribute it to whatever you want, but it's a fact. I went from
a 400 Mhz Pismo to a 2 Ghz Macbook, and webpages load WAY faster on
the Macbook on the same Wi-Fi connections. Heck, Steve Jobs boasted that
the Intel machines loaded webpages faster than the PPC machines, presumably
due to the dual-core processor. This explains why I suspect the iPhone's 400
Mhz processor is a significant bottleneck in terms of webpage rendering.

To get more to the point, there's a cafe I frequent where I have been tethering.
So far I have spent several hours tethered, and have a good feel for how fast
the pages render. Definitely way faster than the iPhone itself on EDGE.
At the moment I am at a different location, but I just ran a few time-comparisons...

On this page:

https://www.macrumors.com/

Macbook tethered via EDGE: 8 sec.
iPhone on EDGE: 27 sec.
iPhone on Wi-Fi (10 feet from router): 10 sec.
Macbook on Wi-Fi: 2 sec.

The first page of this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/345976/

Macbook tethered via EDGE: 14 sec.
iPhone on EDGE: 40 sec.
iPhone on Wi-Fi: 15 sec.
Macbook on Wi-Fi: 3 sec.

On this page:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/forum.html?f=0&b=0#forum

Macbook tethered via EDGE: 9 sec.
iPhone on EDGE: 15 sec.
iPhone on Wi-Fi: 8 sec.
Macbook on Wi-Fi: 4 sec.

In my experience at the cafe, the pages were loading a good bit faster while tethered,
perhaps the EDGE speed is better there? While these tests show that EDGE Tether™
and Wi-Fi are very close (which doesn't jibe with the debating above, snicker),
there's a huge difference between the Macbook on EDGE and the iPhone on EDGE.

So please help me to understand what is going on here, if you would be so kind.

 

[thechidz]

I downloaded apptapp installer and when it asked for firmware it only has an option for 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2

my firmware is 1.1.2 so this will not work for me??? If you have any suggestions I would really appreciate it

thanks

 

[hxe3333]

Snide:

You are probablly right, Macbook are generally able to render pages faster than iPhone.

I have one suggestion though, well, to everyone, if you haven't done... One thing I noticed was that iPhone's cache and history can significantly slow down the safari in much less time. Have you tried clearing cache and history lately? You can feel the difference. It's the same for Macbook that cache and history could slow safari down too, but takes much more time to fill up enough for the slow down. I guess it's normal considering the iPhone's memory size etc.

 

[MrRoo]

The link for the tetherkit is dead can anyone post a link of where to download it? Thanks

 

[Snide]

Tethered macbook on EDGE blows away iPhone on Wi-Fi!

I am back at the cafe I mentioned in an earlier post, which has better EDGE speeds
than where I tested the speeds above. There's no doubt about it, the tethered
Macbook is more than twice as fast as the iPhone on Wi-Fi under optimal EDGE conditions.

Here's what I just tested:

https://www.macrumors.com/

Macbook tethered via EDGE: 3 sec.

First page of this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/345976/

Macbook tethered via EDGE: 4 sec.

At the same location, the first link (MR) took the iPhone (EDGE) 31 sec.

The second link (first page of this thread) took 43 sec.

Clearly, the tethered macbook offers a fantastically better browsing experience,
and to say Safari is snappier™ would be a gross understatement.

Again, the iPhone on a 1.3 Mb connection (10 feet from router) took
10 seconds for the MR main page, and 15 seconds for
the first page of this thread. The Macbook took approx 2 sec and 3 sec.
respectively on those links.

Those are real-world numbers, and all the discussion about bottlenecks, ect
is absolutely, completely irrelevant - the tethered Macbook kicks serious butt.

 

[hxe3333]

I believe you. I'm just saying if you clear cache and history often, you can enjoy faster rendering (not specifically comparing to macbook) on iPhone. In my experience, it takes about twice or more time to render if cache and history is filled.

By the way I do tether too when I'm planning to stay long.

 

[Snide]

I believe you. I'm just saying if you clear cache and history often, you can enjoy faster rendering (not specifically comparing to macbook) on iPhone. In my experience, it takes about twice or more time to render if cache and history is filled.

By the way I do tether too when I'm planning to stay long.

I cleared the history on the iPhone, and it made no difference at all.
Closing all open Safari pages and restarting the iPhone made no difference either...
How does one clear the cache on the iPhone?

Happy tethering, BTW.

Edit: At the moment I'm "tethered" to a friend's Powerbook via Internet Sharing
from his high-speed Verizon Wireless PC card via Airport. Just tested it at 850KB,
and have access to all ports. Life is good. ;-)

 

[hxe3333]

I cleared the history on the iPhone, and it made no difference at all.
Closing all open Safari pages and restarting the iPhone made no difference either...
How does one clear the cache on the iPhone?

Happy tethering, BTW.

Preference>Safari
Almost to the bottom, there are three buttons, clear history, clear cookies, and clear cache. If you haven't done it since you got the phone, most likely you feel the difference. Enjoy!

 

[Snide]

Duplicate post - unable to delete...

 

[Snide]

Preference>Safari
Almost to the bottom, there are three buttons, clear history, clear cookies, and clear cache. If you haven't done it since you got the phone, most likely you feel the difference. Enjoy!

On the iPhone?? Sorry, can't find Preferences for Safari on the iPhone.
The only thing I could find to clear is the history. Can you be more specific?


Edit: Doh! Nevermind, I found it. I will try it and compare...

 

[Snide]

OK, I cleared Safari's cache and history, and then restarted the iPhone for good measure.
I then visited the MR's main page and then the first page of this thread once before timing.

This time I am 5 feet away from an Airport Extreme base station on a (tested)
6 Mb cable connection. Here are the results of the iPhone on Wi-Fi:

https://www.macrumors.com/

9 sec; 10 sec (tested twice)

First page of this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/345976/

21 sec; 25 sec (tested twice)

For comparison, the Macbook tethered via EDGE took 3 sec and 4 sec...

I think that settles it!

 

[thechidz]

OK, I cleared Safari's cache and history, and then restarted the iPhone for good measure.
I then visited the MR's main page and then the first page of this thread once before timing.

This time I am 5 feet away from an Airport Extreme base station on a (tested)
6 Mb cable connection. Here are the results of the iPhone on Wi-Fi:

https://www.macrumors.com/

9 sec; 10 sec (tested twice)

First page of this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/345976/

21 sec; 25 sec (tested twice)

For comparison, the Macbook tethered via EDGE took 3 sec and 4 sec...

I think that settles it!

Is anyone here tethering with 1.1.2 firmware? I tried downloading apptapp but the options were for 1.0.x only?

Any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Consultant]

After experimenting further, I have some more notes which might be useful:

I keep the Terminal window open on the right side of screen, and as long as
I'm pinging the iPhone, the pages will render on the Macbook. However, when
the iPhone goes into power-saving mode, the pinging stops. Simply getting the
iPhone screen on again resumes the pinging (which is a PITA, needless to say).

I installed John Tool from Installer App, and when I activate it, the iPhone keeps
network connections alive, and it returns pings indefinitely, even after screen powers down.
So if a web page doesn't load, I just hit the Enter key repeatedly until it does;
no need to visit the site first on the iPhone...

Cool. Will try it.

When you wake the iPhone, you can cover the light sensor, so the screen is at the dimmest setting.

You can then set the iPhone's sleep (I think it's called screen lock) to 5 minutes or never.

 

[Snide]

When you wake the iPhone, you can cover the light sensor, so the screen is at the dimmest setting.

You can then set the iPhone's sleep (I think it's called screen lock) to 5 minutes or never.

Thanks - I'm going to try that. JohnTool doesn't seem to work...what happens is
I'll be browsing and I notice that the pinging in the Terminal window stops.
So I simply press the iPhone's Home button, and 2 or 3 seconds later the pinging
resumes, and the pages will load again. What you describe sounds like the best solution,
at least for now.

Is anyone here tethering with 1.1.2 firmware? I tried downloading apptapp but the options were for 1.0.x only?

Yes, I'm on 1.1.2 firmware...check out this thread for everything you need to know.