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Ntombi

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 1, 2008
3,822
1,636
Bostonian exiled in SoCal
I'm trying to help a clueless friend long-distance. He has a 3G with 3.1 and is running Vista. He wants to be able to tether.

I know he'll have to downgrade to 3.0 (or 3.0.1), and then go from there, but with all the searching I've done, I can't figure out which is the simplest method for me to tell him to follow. He is really clueless (I asked what OS he was running, and he told me Safari), and I don't have a 3G to test it on.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?
 
To downgrade firmware all you need to do is restore to an older firmware in iTunes by holding option (shift for Windows) and clocked Restore in iTunes.

If you were wanting to downgrade things like baseband I'm not sure, because I just keep my baseband on the version I want it to be on. I think Fuzzyband can downgrade some 3Gs, but not all.

Not that this applies only to the 3G, and not the 3GS.
 
I think his baseband is updated too. :( Edit: I just asked, and it's the 5.11.07 firmware.

Aggie, that's for the tethering part (and I've bookmarked it, thanks), but I need the OS downgrade to work first.
 
Okay, so you followed the YouTube instructions for the downgrade, and then did this for the carrier file?


Tell me if I'm wrong anywhere.

  1. Close iTunes.
  2. To open the command prompt, either go through the start menu - click start, All Programs, Accessories, then click on Command Prompt or in the run box type: cmd
  3. CD (DOS command for change directory) to the iTunes directory in whatever drive you have iTunes.
  4. Then you type: iTunes.exe /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1
  5. Restart iTunes and connect iPhone.
  6. Shift-click Update and choose the correct carrier file (I'm sending 6.0 to him)
Am I missing anything?
 
Thanks, peeps! I sent him a long list of instructions, so we'll see how he does. :p Having neither the same phone nor the same Windows OS made it hard to try to talk him through this, so I appreciate the help.
 
Thanks, peeps! I sent him a long list of instructions, so we'll see how he does. :p Having neither the same phone nor the same Windows OS made it hard to try to talk him through this, so I appreciate the help.

I know it's your friend, but perhaps a Goggle lesson from you to your friend might be in order.

Anyway, your friend is lucky to have a friend like you.

Good luck.
 
I downgraded to 3.0 this afternoon. This worked perfectly. Not sure when or if I will JB it or not. I can personally attest to MUCH better battery life with 3.0. I am not even on 3g yet. (suppose to be turned on oct 30th)
 
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