Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PdaNet released for iPhone - Now truly tether your laptop to your iPhone

I can't find it!

I have used Pdanet in the past with my Treo and I know that it's a great program, so I really want to install it on my iphone!

I am running a jailbroke 1.14. I install Cydia and I cant find Pdanet even by using the instructions from June Fabrics (It is as simple as launching Cydia and go to Manage->Sources->ModMyi, then scroll down to PdaNet and install.)

Am I just out of luck until I update my firmware to 2.x?
 
Works well but drains battery

I've tried NetShare, internet sharing via USB using Proxifier, and PdaNet. I must say PdaNet is the best and easiest to configure with Windows and Mac. However it drains the phone battery like crazy even with the wall charger connected.

I did an experiment today with the battery fully empty, I charged it to 20% then started PdaNet, it drained the battery in 15min and shut the phone off even with wall charger connected. Then fully charged the battery, left wall charger on and started PdaNet, within 30min I was half way through the battery. So while this solution is nice, it doesn't allow you to use it for hours even when charging the phone. Web surfing consisted of just going on regular web sites, no video or downloading. I get 5 bars and 3G where I did the test. I noticed that the screen turns black but PdaNet continues to work so I can't blame it on the screen for draining the battery.

BTW I used the wall charger to provide the phone with a stronger charging current than with USB and see if charging that way would allow it to at least maintain battery at the same level, it didn't.
 
I believe that you need to be on 2.1 for PdaNet. If you can't find it, you may need to update your software.
 
peoe2 said:
I've tried NetShare, internet sharing via USB using Proxifier, and PdaNet. I must say PdaNet is the best and easiest to configure with Windows and Mac. However it drains the phone battery like crazy even with the wall charger connected.

I did an experiment today with the battery fully empty, I charged it to 20% then started PdaNet, it drained the battery in 15min and shut the phone off even with wall charger connected. Then fully charged the battery, left wall charger on and started PdaNet, within 30min I was half way through the battery. So while this solution is nice, it doesn't allow you to use it for hours even when charging the phone. Web surfing consisted of just going on regular web sites, no video or downloading. I get 5 bars and 3G where I did the test. I noticed that the screen turns black but PdaNet continues to work so I can't blame it on the screen for draining the battery.

BTW I used the wall charger to provide the phone with a stronger charging current than with USB and see if charging that way would allow it to at least maintain battery at the same level, it didn't.
Click to expand...

This makes perfect sense because, not only is your phone having to maintain connection with your cellular data network while it's using it, but it also has the wifi radio on, to maintain connection with your computer. Couple that with the phone processor actively running PdaNet and handling the connection between it and your computer as a wireless router, and of course you can expect this to use more battery than what you are putting in. There probably will never be a perfect tethering solution that does not drain the battery at a fast rate (You can still get around 2.5 - 3 hours of tethered surfing, however), but PdaNet sure seems like the closest thing to that.
 
jcde7ago said:
This makes perfect sense because, not only is your phone having to maintain connection with your cellular data network while it's using it, but it also has the wifi radio on, to maintain connection with your computer. Couple that with the phone processor actively running PdaNet and handling the connection between it and your computer as a wireless router, and of course you can expect this to use more battery than what you are putting in.
Click to expand...

NetShare does the same thing and runs a proxy on top of that (if I'm correct) but yet doesn't drain the battery as much as PdaNet does.
 
So I have installed PDANet on my iPhone and it is working great! But I do have one problem with the connection so far. I am currently on an unlocked 1G 8GB iPhone on the T-Mobile network and when I connect to the iPhone on my PC and try to connect my Cisco VPN software I am unable to connect.

Don't get me wrong. I love being able to get Internet access through my cell phone data plan but it is very important that I can VPN into work. Has anybody else ran into this problem?


Thanks,

Mike
 
peoe2 said:
NetShare does the same thing and runs a proxy on top of that (if I'm correct) but yet doesn't drain the battery as much as PdaNet does.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. I made sure my phone was fully charged and was plugged in via wall outlet. I ran NetShare for two hours, while my phone was plugged in...the entire time, my phone battery indicator said it was fully charged...however, once i unplugged my phone from the outlet, it had actually drained the battery to less than 20%.

ANY amount of tethering is going to drain the battery. And no, NetShare does not do the same thing...all it does is run a proxy server, PdaNet turns your phone into a wireless router. You have to set up your internet browser to work through a proxy in order to use NetShare, as well as any other apps that need internet. If those programs don't support proxy, then they can't connect through NetShare. PdaNet is basically like having an aircard, and is worlds different (and above) NetShare.
 
jcde7ago said:
I ran NetShare for two hours, while my phone was plugged in...the entire time
Click to expand...

With PdaNet it takes 30min to go from full battery to 50% with wall charger connected. That would mean 1h total with full battery and charger vs. 2h on NetShare as you reported, therefore PdaNet drains the battery more.

You've said things are obvious and disagreed, I'm fine with that. I hope you're above the 'let's argue with someone today' type of posts. I don't intent to offend you and I'm not interested in arguing. Please let's focus on sharing our experiences with these tools, sharing facts.

Have you used both NetShare and PdaNet and if yes I'll be interested in learning your comparison of both tools in terms of battery usage. I sure hope they're the same but that hasn't been my experience so far.
 
I'm with a couple others who can't find this app on Cydia.
I'm on a 2.1 1st Gen iphone and just upgraded the software and don't find it anywhere... Bummer.... any suggetions?


Edit....
Upgrade Cydia, restart, and let everything load up and it appears when you search for it. Good stuff.
 
mikefromokc said:
... when I connect to the iPhone on my PC and try to connect my Cisco VPN software I am unable to connect.

Don't get me wrong. I love being able to get Internet access through my cell phone data plan but it is very important that I can VPN into work. Has anybody else ran into this problem?
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat, except I'm just trying to use the generic Microsoft VPN. When I'm not tethered I'm able to VPN using the built-in client on the iPhone, but I can't seem to get that to "pass through" when using PdaNet. Hoping there's a workaround somewhere to this...
 
It runs in the background, totally amazing. Fantastic application. However, it does seem to drain battery fast like the above poster mentioned, I'll do some tests later.

Dustin
 
What about using the phone as a phone at the same time? Does this run in the background or does it behave like App Store apps?
 
swanzoid said:
I'm in the same boat, except I'm just trying to use the generic Microsoft VPN. When I'm not tethered I'm able to VPN using the built-in client on the iPhone, but I can't seem to get that to "pass through" when using PdaNet. Hoping there's a workaround somewhere to this...
Click to expand...


This is what it says on the PdaNet FAQ on their website:

Even though the current version does not support VPN (will be fixed later) from the computer, you can still use VPN as long as you are able to setup a VPN connection on iPhone after the PdaNet connection is established. All computer traffics will then go through the VPN connection.
Click to expand...

You can read the full FAQ here: http://junefabrics.com/iphone/faq.php

It also says to try this to get greater battery life:

After the connection is established and working, bring PdaNet to the foreground and turn the phone off. This will not drop your connection but will reduce battery usage.
Click to expand...
 
sweet!
that took less than a couple of seconds to setup, easier than NetShare, and works well on all the apps. No more paying for hotel WiFi!
 
Yes, it works so much better now! And the icon is now an actually iPhone App icon :) No more leaving it on the last page due to it's ugly icon.

The insomnia function works well and everythings is going well :)
 
What will flag your account in terms of data? Is it a set threshold AT&T uses and if you go over that set amount then your account is flagged or will it be flagged if one month you use 100mb and the next you use 2gb?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back