Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution - MacRumors

Took me about 15 minutes to get it working. It's fairly complicated but I am currently posting this from my MacBook Pro using the 4G AT&T connection on my iPhone 4S using Tether and it only cost me $15 for the first year instead of $30 a month!

Been waiting for this for a long time!

-Michael
 
Michael,

After the initial setup is it quick and easy to connect? Thx

Sean
 
Michael,

After the initial setup is it quick and easy to connect? Thx

Sean

Actually, it's a bit of a pain. You have to launch the Tether app on your Mac and it goes through this crazy script to set up an ad-hoc network, then you got to a website on your iPhone and login and then you go to settings Wi-Fi and select the ad-hoc network your Mac created, then it often says, trying to connect, attempt 1, attempt 2, and you have to close everything out and start over. I'm sure it will get better and perhaps it's a matter of following the instructions precisely the first time. I may have missed something.

-Michael
 
This is pretty smart. Gets around Apple and wireless carriers.

I'm not so sure about that... The carriers, well AT&T and T-Mobile, are already screaming foul. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. If they can make it work, it may open the door for other means of tethering without jumping through so many hoops. When it comes down to it, a gateway/router/hotspot app is super-simple to make and there would be a bazillion of them on the app store for free if they wouldn't violate the carrier terms of service and put Apple in a bind. This Tether app is pretty screwy and has to jump through so many hoops to try and avoid carrier restrictions. In the end, I don't even think it does...

Will be interesting to see how long it lasts.
 
Michael, this looks awesome, thanks for the heads up. Also, Jeff, point very well taken. I think this likely has a half-life of 'not very long' but from what I can tell, if you managed to snag the 15 dollar iOS app back on November 29th, it's still working for people. I'm going to give it a go, while considering the 30 bucks a gamble.
 
I'm not so sure about that... The carriers, well AT&T and T-Mobile, are already screaming foul. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. If they can make it work, it may open the door for other means of tethering without jumping through so many hoops. When it comes down to it, a gateway/router/hotspot app is super-simple to make and there would be a bazillion of them on the app store for free if they wouldn't violate the carrier terms of service and put Apple in a bind. This Tether app is pretty screwy and has to jump through so many hoops to try and avoid carrier restrictions. In the end, I don't even think it does...

Will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

So what's the legal status on this? Can AT&T specifically target this app and shut it (or us) down? AT&T is already throttling us early adopters with unlimited plans (thanks for the loyalty AT&T) so what's the difference?

I just want to occasionally go online to check something, order something, get a boarding pass or whatever, without having to strain my eyes at the phone or pay a big fee to some hotel or convention center for the privilege.
 
Got it up and running yesterday in Mac OSX 10.7.latest and Win7(though with a firewall issue). You download a program to setup the Ad Hoc wifi network on your computer, then access a website on your phone, and with correct settings, you're good to go. Other than Verizon, AT&T, etc. blocking www.tether.com, or Apple taking the socket magic out of iOS (the HTML 5 stuff that's allowing the phone to shuffle bits back and forth to your computer) it should remain working. But they can certainly clamp down on it if any of these parties want.

While using Tether, you can't let your phone sleep or leave the Safari browser. If you do, for a phone call or something, it will stop tethering until you return to safari and refresh the page. Not that awesome, but credit where credits due, they're jumping through a lot of hoops with this.

If you just want it for occasional use Michael, it might be perfect for you. I was really skeptical but it works.

Question for anyone using Win7 with Tether: Has anyone gotten it to work with Windows Firewall's default settings? I had to disable the firewall while testing for it to work right. I just need to track down the ports it's accessing I believe (which I'm hoping are static). I ask because their support forums are a bit of a nightmare.

edit: Also, it works with a computer and a phone, that's it. You can't have it feed a Wifi only iPad for example.
 
Back
Top