Turning on iPhone Tethering Even Easier Than We Thought

Pete Mortensen ()

iphonetethering

Remember when Lonnie told you about an easy, fool-proof way to turn on iPhone tethering in the US? Well, there’s a way, way easier method, and it’s much, much more foolproof.

Simply point Mobile Safari to http://help.benm.at, select your country, download the profile for your carrier, and install. The settings menu will add an Internet Tethering toggle in the Network section. Then just pair with your computer over Bluetooth or plug in via USB  and go. No restart required. It’s really that easy.

Performance has been rock-solid in my experience, both for tethering Mac and Windows machines. Performance is terrible on EDGE and very nice on 3G, with battery life not noticeably worse than just browsing on Safari. And maybe a little bitter once the display goes to sleep. But I’m not running BitTorrent through the thing, either.

AT&T should have a killer offering on their hands once this actually ships. It would also be nice if AT&T tweaks the interface so you can turn on tethering without pulling your phone out of your pocket. Honestly, the only complaint I have. Anyone tried it outside the US? Really seems like something that should fly under the radar so long as you’re not downloading the whole Internet over it…

And, it goes without saying, this is use at your own risk and Apple will laugh at you if you brick your phone.

DON'T MISS

(And yes, I know we’re late, but I never recommend running something risky on your hardware if I haven’t done it myself. This is as close to safe as it gets.)

Richard Lai via Engadget

21 comments »

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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Posted in Hardware Hacks, iPhone, Top stories |

  • Ryyan

    It works in Australia with our FIVE iPhone carriers.

  • S

    Just tried it on o2 here in the UK, works like a dream…well done guys.

  • RyanL

    It works on O2 in the UK. I found the patch a week or so ago and it’s has worked like a charm every time. And unlike so other ‘fixes’ it doesn’t have any adverse effects on Visual Voicemail or MMS etc

  • Bailey Kessing

    Works like a charm in the US. No problems yet.

  • Marian

    Tethering works just fine in my country (Slovakia) without any hacks necessary. On June 17th, my carrier (Orange) delivered their new settings update via iTunes and then it was just a matter of pairing the devices. That being said, they offer free tethering on any cell phone that supports this feature, so if they charged for it on the iPhone, the customers would eat them alive…=D

  • firesign

    i used to tether my blackjack 2 on at&t fairly regularly without incident without a tethering plan. as long as you keep a low profile (as in not sucking a lot of data) the chances of getting noticed are pretty slim. as with any of this kind of stuff, use at your own risk, ymmv, blah blah.

  • Nathan

    I did this, and my experience wasn’t the greatest. My phone really started to get slow. Every application was delayed. Even the keyboard had very slow response times. Finally on Saturday I restored my phone after deleting the profile it added to my phone. After restoring and no longer having the tethering option, my phone returned to working like normal. It was nice having the tethering option, but it made my everday use on the phone unbearable. Just an FYI for those that try this. Do it knowing that you may need to restore the phone. It wasn’t a big deal for me to restore, though. It was worth trying.

  • Hos

    Been using it here in NC for about a week. Its lightning quick (speedtest app has my 3g service here averaging 1.9mb down… Using a new 3GS.

  • CaryMG

    Why doesn’t Apple just make a MacBook with this builtin ?
    MacBook 3G/4G ? I’m in !

    And no — I DON’T want an EVDO dongle hangin’ off of the side.
    I’d rather have the connectivity capability inside.

  • Calvin

    Does this still mess up Visual Voicemail. If so, exactly how, ’cause I’m not willing to lose that…..

  • jazzyl

    Wow thats so easy it took i like this method nice and simple………thanks for the hook up

  • ItsGene

    I ran this hack for a week, happy that it worked without disabling my voicemail… until I discovered a different, bizarre side effect: it disabled geotagging of photos and videos. When I restored my carrier settings back to normal, geotagging returned.

  • Alan Smith

    It doesn’t work for 1st generation iPhones. Bummer. Will have to wait a few months to get my 3GS iPhone. And by then AT&T will charge an arm and leg for tethering. Double bummer.

  • jjauro

    doesn’t work for me. the toggle pops up in settings but when i turn it on it does nothing. also it completely disables my visual voicemail and resetting network settings does nothing. on a 3gs

  • SkyGuy79

    it works on my iPhone 3G. i’m worried i’ll see an additional charge from AT&T but i’m just going to surf the web like normal, no downloading of big files. :)

  • SkyGuy79

    Uh-oh…I’ve noticed a bug using this. After installing the carrier files for some reason the iPhone thinks its charged and won’t accept a charge but will continue to drain but show the plugged-in icon. I had to delete the carrier file and restart the phone twice before it started. I had it plugged into the USB cord tethering and the iPhone up and died. Better not to use this right now guys!

  • David Hornick

    I found that this disables visual voicemail. Removed.

  • William

    I have a 3GS running the new 3.1beta and this hack completely screwed up my 3G, MMS, VV and lots of dropped calls.

  • Rudmer

    Anyone know how to set up the connection on Windows XP? It’s the only OS I have available, atm.

  • Tom

    tried it in Belgium (on BASE network= EDGE) and works like a piece of cake! Turn it on, connect your ac and iphone and boom! The Mac recognizes the iPhone as a new network port and surf/email away!

    ps: probably even better on 3G but my provider doesn’t have a £G network (yet).

    cheers from Belgium,
    Tom

  • Christopher Mirabile

    WHAT ABOUT BACK-UPS & RESTORES???
    I did this and so far, it has worked really well in both the NYC area and Boston areas. Naturally, I did a back-up of my phone before applying the hack. Question: does anyone know if this carrier profile is included in the back-up? Reason I ask is that I don’t want to re-sync now for fear of over-writing my old back-up and not being able to go back to normal. Can I safely sync my phone without worrying about the back-up? If so, just out of curiosity, how do I get rid of this thing off my phone?? Thanks!