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iPhone tethering works! (somehow?)

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ddrst09

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2009
8
0
First some background info:

I live in the US in Rhode Island, at&t is my service provider. I own an iphone 3gs. It is running the 3.0.1 firmware and it is jailbroken.


I was playing around in my settings today and under "settings>general>network" I found an option that says "Internet Tethering" I thought "hmm... I know this isn't going to work, but let's try it anyway" and I pressed the option, bringing me to a screen with an "Internet Tethering" toggle, and then instructions under it for connecting with either USB or bluetooth. I pressed the toggle, chose USB only (because my iphone was plugged into my computer (macbook pro)) and then my status bar (on the phone) began glowing blue, saying "Internet Tethering". On my computer, I went to system preferences, network, and it says "iphone USB" as one of my connected networks. I was like "WHAT?!" and so I turned airport off and tried loading safari, and IT WORKED!

So, I guess the point of me posting this is to find out exactly WHY i can tether. I have not performed any of the various tethering hacks available. What I have done however is install the trial version of the app "Mywi". I used it a few weeks ago, it was slow, I uninstalled it. Could that have activated something in the OS to allow the iphone to tether the way it's supposed to? Perhaps at&t is starting to test tethering in certain areas without announcing it? Has this happened to anyone else? It might be worth trying this out yourself if you can.

I've included screenshots of system preferences on the phone and computer.
 

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did i miss something? When was it not working. Mine's been working for ages. Unless it's an AT&T issue that I'm gladly not a part of.

Glad to see you got it working though!
 
It's an at&t issue. They are't allowing it yet, supposedly supporting it "sometime in the future", which is why I shouldn't be able to use it, but I can.:confused:
 
ddrst09 said:
It's an at&t issue. They are't allowing it yet, supposedly supporting it "sometime in the future", which is why I shouldn't be able to use it, but I can.:confused:
Click to expand...

Weve all been able to use this since 3.0 was out. If you get it working on 3.1, come back and tell us.
 
REALLY now? I was almost positive that at&t didn't want us to tether at all yet. They were waiting until their network was ready, and I thought they were going to charge an additional fee. Are you guys sure that you didn't do any of the many workarounds to get tethering to work?
 
ddrst09 said:
REALLY now? I was almost positive that at&t didn't want us to tether at all yet. They were waiting until their network was ready, and I thought they were going to charge an additional fee. Are you guys sure that you didn't do any of the many workarounds to get tethering to work?
Click to expand...

100% POSITIVE...
 
Maybe you'll get an extra charge for using it. Let us know if the bill is different after you use it.
 
I have AT&T and my phone is not jailbroken, but I notice that once in awhile my tethering data registers. I wonder if they test the connection once in awhile.
 
This is why I'm confused. Solid proof from apple's site. Read the fine print at the bottom. What is going on here???
 

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ddrst09 said:
REALLY now? I was almost positive that at&t didn't want us to tether at all yet. They were waiting until their network was ready, and I thought they were going to charge an additional fee. Are you guys sure that you didn't do any of the many workarounds to get tethering to work?
Click to expand...

That is all true. Remember you did jailbreak. I think that counts as a workaround to get tethering to work.
 
3GS jailbroken on 3.0

I don't have any tethering information on my Network page in settings. I don't really have a need for it now but I was curious if I would have it after reading this, and I don't :(
 
theman510, could you possibly do me a favor then? install the rock app (it's like another kind of cydia) then from it install the trial version of mywi, use it for a minute, shut it off, then uninstall it. Restart your phone and then look under network and see if tethering is available. If it works for you, mywi might be the cause.

And for all the people saying that you have always been able to tether since 3.0, are you on at&t in the US? Just about everyone else can tether but at&t.
 
ddrst09 said:
theman510, could you possibly do me a favor then? install the rock app (it's like another kind of cydia) then from it install the trial version of mywi, use it for a minute, shut it off, then uninstall it. Restart your phone and then look under network and see if tethering is available. If it works for you, mywi might be the cause.

And for all the people saying that you have always been able to tether since 3.0, are you on at&t in the US? Just about everyone else can tether but at&t.
Click to expand...

Where is the rockapp? in cydia? I don't have much memory left, if it's a big file i won't be able to do it but if it's small i don't mind trying it.
 
In order to get tethering u need atts ipcc file. U must of loaded it on to ur phone somehow. Thethering isn't offically supported by AT&T but that doesn't mean it won't work. In fact it's already been blocked on 3.1. It's not by the grace of gods hand that u have tethering working.
 
ddrst09 said:
And for all the people saying that you have always been able to tether since 3.0, are you on at&t in the US? Just about everyone else can tether but at&t.
Click to expand...

tethering actuallly does work on AT&T they just aren't ready to offer it as a service, and they don't want you doing it for free...that's why 3.1 fixed it
that's why on 3.0 or 3.0.1 MANY have been able to get it working through AT&T (myself included, but not anymore :( )
 
damesJ said:
In order to get tethering u need atts ipcc file. U must of loaded it on to ur phone somehow. Thethering isn't offically supported by AT&T but that doesn't mean it won't work. In fact it's already been blocked on 3.1. It's not by the grace of gods hand that u have tethering working.
Click to expand...

That must be it then. Mywi must do something with the ipcc file, and uninstalling it must leave that file the way it is, allowing you to tether normally. Mywi's developers wouldn't be happy to know this if it's true :/ People can just install their free trial version, uninstall it and then normal tethering works.
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The Rock app is found in cydia, and it does basically what cydia does. You can actually use it instead of cydia to do all of your installing. It shouldn't be too big.
 
ddrst09 said:
That must be it then. Mywi must do something with the ipcc file, and uninstalling it must leave that file the way it is, allowing you to tether normally. Mywi's developers wouldn't be happy to know this if it's true :/ People can just install their free trial version, uninstall it and then normal tethering works.
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The Rock app is found in cydia, and it does basically what cydia does. You can actually use it instead of cydia to do all of your installing. It shouldn't be too big.
Click to expand...

I tried to download the RockApp and got this message "Error: Prepare Archives. I wasn't able to locate the file for the com.rockyouriphone.rockapp package. This might mean you need to manually fix this package".

Sorry bro
 
I'm on a 3g non jail broken phone. all i did was follow the link to change the provider Profile (from another thread) and now i have the option to do tethering but I havn't tried it. the same hack SFStateStudent used i believe. I didn't update my provider file since i think that requires a little more work with itunes. I can wait another day for mms.
 
you dont need to jailbreak your phone for tethering to work.

my buddy has a 3g non-jb and is on ATT. tethering and MMS works for him. its not a surprise that tethering works on non-jb phones. its been working for a while already. you are just late to the party.
 
Is this what you wanted to see? I didn't want to show my serial number and all that so I clipped it out.
 

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