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Tethering Is Exhilarating (With the Nexus One)
timothy found this link (hat-tip to Tim O'Reilly) to a paean to the joys of tethering. "In a short post, Steve Souders explores the current state of tethering 3G connections via iPhone (on which he basically gives up, for the perfectly decent reason of not wanting to jailbreak his iPhone) and the Nexus One, with which he has great success. His writeup serves as a micro-tutorial ('use PdaNet's Android app') as well as an endorsement."
I'm not sure which is more boring - the article or the website its on. Seriously, how is this interesting enough to make it here?
Android is a vastly more open platform. Tethering on WinMo is also effortless, over both bluetooth and USB. I was under the impression that some iPhone carriers allowed tethering ... do they make it difficult to use?
Well, it's true that there are only about 1500 fart apps for android as opposed to the iPhones 7000, but many people are willing to make that sacrifice. I noticed the misleading article on the screen was posted today on Wired ... but it's still misleading.
His writeup serves as a micro-tutorial ("use PdaNet's Android app") as well as an endorsement.
I don't think I have every seen a summary admit it is an endorsement before. It even has timothy and kdawson's names on it. Is this some sort of alternate reality?
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
Tethering on webOS is also very simple. In Europe, it's enabled by default and on Verizon you have the built-in hotspot app. On Sprint, though, you'll need one of the homebrew solutions.
Author of Enyo: Up and Running from O'Reilly Media
...on which he basically gives up, for the perfectly decent reason of not wanting to jailbreak his iPhone
Did he buy the special-ed version of the iPhone? The iPhone offers tethering. Easy and effortless. Without jailbreaking.
Not to mention that article was one of the biggest wastes of my time and I'm sitting in Iron Forge waiting for my dungeon queue to pop...
We bother because we are not gay mac fanboys like you ac.
I'm with Fido in Canada. I have the 6GB/mo plan for $30, and no problems tethering whatsoever.
blah, blah, blah...
Tethering is awesome, as many non-iPhone smartphone users have known for years.
I used to tether my Sprint Treo with PDANet, when I swore I'd never pay Comcast another red cent. My sister uses PDANet on her G1 to avoid signing up for an internet connection she doesn't use much, and I used my rooted G1 to look up geocaches on the road from my g/f's laptop. The rooting process is pretty painless now, so I'd imagine that it's just a matter of time before the telcos start clamping down with usage caps.
"In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
iProxy works pretty well on an iPhone :
http://wiki.github.com/tcurdt/iProxy/
You have to be a developer to compile and run it on your phone. He has a helpful setup guide for phone and laptop.
I don't see why people dismiss jailbreaking so readily. There are basically no downsides to it, other than sometimes if you want the latest update you have to wait some time.
Not a particularly interesting article, but I'm eating dinner and my brain is sizzled, so why not?
Then it all came crashing down. iPhone 3.1 came out. I had to choose between visual voicemail and tethering or consider jailbreaking my iPhone.
A search on Google points one to the website which holds mobileconfigs for most global cellular providers. Downloading and installing the appropriate profile enables whatever support is needed. (It's also how one enables T-Mobile's MMS and Internet support rapidly.)
I’m gearing up for some travel so revisited the topic of tethering. I was stunned when I spoke to AT&T tech support two days ago and they told me they support tethering. How did I miss this?! Then the guy said I had to jailbreak my iPhone. It seems weird to have tech support recommend jailbreaking. I guess that’s a result of the AT&T/Apple love/hate relationship.
They shouldn't be telling people that because (a) that doesn't require a jailbreak and (b) jailbreaking is technically a contractual violation. That could get that CSR in trouble. NOTE: I'm all for jailbreaking; my iPhone certainly is. I'm just being pedantic.
I tested it last night at home, but the real test was this morning. I stopped for coffee at Peets, booted up Windows, tethered my Nexus One, opened a ssh session, and drove to work. At every stoplight I verified my ssh session session was still active. I was reading email, surfing the Web.
Reading mail and surfing the web WHILE DRIVING? That almost sounds responsible. ALMOST.
I really don't see what all the fuzz is about in regards to jailbreaking iPhones. Doing so doesn't seem to cause substantial harm to daily operation. In fact, it enhances usability even more since it allows applications that would never make the App Store, but are incredibly useful, to get installed (ex. SBSettings, which makes toggling all sorts of stuff dummy-proof and FAST, MobileTerminal, Veency for remote control, OpenSSH for obvious reasons, etc. et al). It's not hard at all to do (though it does make upgrading more cumbersome; hardly a disadvantage, though --- wait, isn't jailbreaking an iPhone easier than rooting Android?).
We crazy Canucks have had iPhone tethering on the (stock/non-jailbreaked) iPhone since the 3Gs models came out. You can tether through Bluetooth or USB. I've used it a few times before, but not too much, since I only have a 6GB/mo data plan. This is on the Rogers network; I don't know if Bell or Telus offer tethering. Can anyone confirm that?
I think AT&T must be pressuring Apple to leave the feature disabled, as there poor network is already strained pretty badly, from what I hear.
I've been using it since I got my Droid last year. It works great, it is frequently updated, and allows me to surf the web on an actual laptop while (riding) in a car on the freeway. I use it for everything short of gaming, and who knows, maybe it would even work for that! Best of all, Verizon still hasn't freaked out about data usage, and I go through a LOT in a month.
Bluetooth File Sharing Induces Orgasm (With the Nexus One)
Justify it any way you want, fanbois, but Apple is the kings of lock in.
No apps. Crappy screen. Violates dozens of Apple patents. OS based on Lin-sux. Why bother?
I always knew that my general distaste for Apple Computer and its afficionados was based in fact. Thank you for the confirmation.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Droid tethering with PDAnet and MacBook Pro on Verizon network works great. Speed is actually better than my work DSL!
I have 6GB Fido as well. You can also Bluetooth tethering to a laptop. I have a netbook (no way I'm installing iTunes on this slow little thing), but works tethering wireless via bluetooth is great. I keep my iPhone in my pocket, and walk around with my netbook fully connected. I even did a skype video chat over 3G - just as good as my LAN connection.
I wouldn't call is "Exhilarating" or anything, but it is pretty cool to video chat in a moving car (as a passenger) or on a boat. :)
tethering works great on the iPhone, usb or bluetooth, can't be easier.
on Rogers I get 100 KBps down sustained, latency is just good enough for ssh.
I the got the iPhone 3G on 02 in the UK when it come out. I finished my contract, well it was canceled for non payment, for been three week late with a payment, which I payed off the following week, effectively early terminating, costing me £280.
So 02 offers an unlock, So I put in my IMEI number in there web system and nothing, I try again still nothing. So I ring up customer service which is awful, and ask them to unlock it, they say I have to go to the shop where I bought it. So I go and ask, they say I have to ring customer services. By now I am fuming with rage.
I ring up customer service and asked for an unlock, they say I am not in the system, I give account details and three months later still not unlock.
I believe that when my contract was closed, My IMEI number was removed from the system.
I keep ringing customer service and I have to keep explain my situation.
This is Apple’s and 02’s fault for there stupid unlock system which can not be done locally (Some would say that’s a good system)
Now I am on T-mobile and I can not use the iPhone’s, inbuilt tethering.
Because my phone is not unlocked and requires signed setting from the carrier, which i don’t think T-mobile provide.
Basically getting anything done on the iPhone has become so much trouble that I am done with it and I am getting a N900.
It is 2010 tethering should not be this much of a problem, data is data. It is simple greed.
A big shout out to all the people behind the jailbraking and unlocking tools.
With out you guys my phone would be an over priced paper weight.
No apps. Crappy screen. Violates dozens of Apple patents. OS based on Lin-sux. Why bother?
I always knew that my general distaste for Apple Computer and its afficionados was based in fact. Thank you for the confirmation.
Thanks for the trollmod, fanboy.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
and it's virtually impossible to break/brick your iPhone in a way that it won't be restorable. In the rare event you manage to brick it, the only danger is losing the (in most cases useless) warranty. But that doesn't really matter because Apple support will check the humidity sensors and if they are not triggered, Apple will give you a replacement. They will not bother discovering whether the device was jailbroken or not. It costs Apple more to determine an unknown problem than to give you a refurbished or even new iPhone.
"(on which he basically gives up, for the perfectly decent reason of not wanting to jailbreak his iPhone)"
You know how a non-jailbroken iPhone works and looks like after being jailbroken? Exactly the same. So instead of this app store you go to this other app store. Only difference. I really wonder why some are so afraid of doing something so simple.
Yes it does, but that's it.
It amounts to half a page of an anecdote about the guy having a hard time getting it working on his iPhone, but downloading an app and it working fine on his N1...
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Tethering is built into the n900. I had no trouble providing internet for my home network via 3G during snowmaggedon last month, when my internet went down. I use Ubuntu, but I'm sure it would have been about as easy with Windows or Mac.
Property law should use #'EQ, not #'EQUAL.
Some guy owns an Android and tried tethering. He says he likes it.
You probably got modded Troll because nobody could accidentally fall for the obvious flamebait comment that the GP wrote.
Thus, you are less obviously trolling an obvious troll.
I guess I don't keep up with iPhone news outside the US...but is this really something that is done outside the US. If that's the case I now think even less of Att, didn't know that was possible!!!
Those who can, do.
Well, it's true that there are only about 1500 fart apps for android as opposed to the iPhones 7000, but many people are willing to make that sacrifice. I noticed the misleading article on the screen was posted today on Wired ... but it's still misleading.
Games, games games. A lot of high profile game development companies are either not bothering with Android or have scaled back their release schedule for Android due to low sales compared with the iPhone app store even relative to the install base on each platform.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Thanks for the trollmod, fanboy.
Hate begets fanboyism.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I always knew that my general distaste for Apple Computer and its afficionados was based in fact. Thank you for the confirmation.
So you admit prejudice then? Why do you care so much?
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
That doesn't really sound like an appropriate descriptor - unless you happen to get giddy with excitement whenever you get a low-speed internet connection.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Thanks for the trollmod, fanboy.
Hate begets fanboyism.
How did you go from "general distaste" to "hate"?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Tethering in Palm Linux WebOS on Sprint is easy as pie. Just load MyTether and off you go- no "jailbreaking" (there is no such thing on WebOS, since there is no need) and in minutes you are able to tether with USB, Bluetooth, and multi-client WiFi as a real access point with optional WPA. 3G goodness @ 2Mb/s+ :) Of course, it is under the table and should be used responsibly (especially since if you go over your 5GB "unlimited" data plan, Sprint may come a knocking on your door).
How did you go from "general distaste" to "hate"?
Thanks for the trollmod, fanboy.
Was it your expectation that you wouldn't get some sort of reply from that? That it'd shut him up?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Cut to a beach, a guy is using his iphone engaged in a futile struggle trying to get it to tether to his laptop. He scratches his head, tears out his hair and collapses as the product fights off his every effort.
THEN from a shimmering background in slow motion a guy reaches into his pants and pulls out the T1, it gleams in the sunlight momentarily and he types in the commands to tether it to a laptop. The MOMENT he does this, he orgasms in the SHEER EXHILARATION of it's awesomeness.
Then we see him surfing the marketing companys website, smoking a cigarette.
Stupid fucks.
...connects via a USB cable to my Lenovo X200t running Ubuntu and it charges while I use the cellular network. Why are there so many advertisements on /. and what's so elusive about tethering? Why do I need 'apps' when I have a fully-functional web browser? Nonsense.
This is not a flamebait, but a serious question.
I have a Xperia and I can connect my desktop/laptop without any additional application straight to my mobile (linux or windows) using bluetooth/wifi/usb. Why would I write a story "oh I can connect my laptop to my phone"???
I have been able to do this for a while using Fedora/Centos/ubuntu/xp/2000 with my current and previous phone.
to code or not to code, that is the question.
Not to mention the 10,000 that turn your iPhone into a flashlight. ... aww shucks... I am really missing out on the other 9,000 flashlight apps.
We only have 84 (as of this writing) on Android market
Don't talk to Kristian Digby about the exhilaration of tethering...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/3398502/TV-host-dies-in-sex-game-gone-wrong
Tethering ("Internet Sharing") via Bluetooth and USB has been a standard feature of Windows Mobile for years now. Tethering over WIFI (ad-hoc + WEP) is available using a free app for a year now too.
No, that he'd draw attention to the obvious fanboy (biased) mod and someone would fix it (and that happened). He has a point because you can't equate "general distaste" to "hate" without seriously embellishing on what the GP wrote.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I am using the free alternative way on my locked/unrooted N1, :)
http://code.google.com/p/azilink/
No, that he'd draw attention to the obvious fanboy (biased) mod and someone would fix it (and that happened).
It was a taunt.
He has a point because you can't equate "general distaste" to "hate" without seriously embellishing on what the GP wrote.
That is a fine rebuttal to something I never said that curiously omits what I did say.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I remember doing this like ten years ago.
I don't see why people dismiss jailbreaking so readily. There are basically no downsides to it, other than sometimes if you want the latest update you have to wait some time.
I know - I just jailbroke my 3GS a few weeks ago using Blackra1n and it couldn't have been easier. You download a 512 KB .exe, run that, then you're jailbroken. No hassle at all and you can always reinstall the firmware / OS if anything goes wrong (you can download older firmware / OS versions easily online). So it's not the default from the factory setting - big deal, it's no more of a hassle than going to the App Store to download an app.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
This will get you up and running with USB tethering - the only downside is that I don't see Cyanogenmod supporting multi-touch: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Full_Update_Guide_-_Nexus_One_Firmware_to_CyanogenMod then custom compile and setup busybox, dropbear, ssh, etc. Not too difficult if you can read man pages and use 'vi'.
games.... wooo hooo.
some of us don't give a flying fuck about games.
if I want to game, I will have a dedicated device that isn't eating my comms device's battery.
In Windows Mobile 6.5 tethering works great.I've been using it for many years. There are even three ways to do it: * usb * bluetooth * wifi (phone becomes acces point) I guess for some people the notability of a phone is in a flashy interface and games in it's app store, rather than in productivity.
Ive been tethering using a Free bluetooth app (yes wireless) with my windows work phone Touch Pro 2. 2 Clicks and my laptop detects, connects, and im on the net. :D, yes i have an android and have used pdanet since they first came out, but still requires to be cabled to your phone.) Ive had the android phone since day 1 (G1), waiting for the nexus 2, keyboard version. Wont ever find my with a lemming iphone.
NOOBS
Start, Internet Sharing, Bluetooth/USB.
Just got back from a quick business trip to Thailand. I brought my many-years-old Nokia phone, a brand-new netbook running Ubuntu, and a USB cable (Bluetooth drains batteries fast).
When I got there I bought a SIM card (DTAC/Happy) for US$1.50 and then paid an additional $4 for 30 hours of online time (could have done one week unlimited 24/7 for $8 but I didn't think I'd use that much).
Stuck in the SIM card, connected the cable, and everything worked straight away. The Ubuntu wireless menu knew the name of the cell company and offered it as option alongside the wifi networks it saw. And that was it. I used it in the airport, on the bus, in taxis, hotels, restaurants, everywhere. Business hotels wanted $10 for one hour's access; I paid less than half that for all I could use in a week.
I used to hunt around for hotels with wifi; I don't think I'll be wasting time on that anymore. Even in expensive countries the mobile access is cheaper, especially when you start including airport wifi charges.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
I can't believe that tethering is (still) an issue. I was doing it in Finland 7 years ago using gprs with a monthly flat rate of something like 20$ (for the monthly flat rate, tethering was just there..) . It's seriously fudged up that you still have to fight for it with some manufacturers/operators. This attitude pretty much the main reason I dislike (well, loathe) Apple.
Also I couldn't get USB tethering to work on Ubuntu ( it appeared as an ndis device but I couldn't get it to work), so that's one very good reason to use wifi tethering.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I want to remind folks here that this seems to be an AT&T/Apple issue, not a technical iPhone issue. Here in Sweden all carriers support tethering and activating it is as simple as pushing a button on the iPhone and pressing an OK button in OSX acknowledging that there's a new network interface active. Slide a slider, attach the cable, press OK. Done.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
My HTC Topaz does tethering without network interaction. I enable connection sharing, plug in the USB cable, and it shows up as a USB NIC to my PC.
I say my PC, as it works on Windows xp, 7, and Ubuntu 9.10 without any configuration whatsoever.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
If the old iPhone was even remotely in the same league as the amazing Nexus One it might be worth the hassle of wasting time dealing with 'jailbreaking'...
But it isn't.
... and has been for the past 6 months.
Yes, AT&T has fucked up iPhone tethering, but that is only applicable to the US. Elsewhere you just flip a switch and go. And if you are in the US, there is an easy hack you apply to turn it on, which millions of people are using. Many more than own a Nexus One.
So get over yourselves. iPhone was late to the tethering party. To come along 6 months later and act like Nexus One has invented it is just ridiculous.
I was doing this "tethering" thing regularly 10 years ago with my old Nokia and a Palm Pilot. It was even easier to do with my desktop PC (I didn't own a notebook at the time).
Clearly there's a lot of consumers of mobile services out there conditioned to accept being shafted all the time by the telecoms ...
On my unlocked-iphone Tethering works great with Vodafone Carrier.
I have tested it with a Macbook via Bluetooth.
-- Giovanni Daitan Giorgi http://gioorgi.com http://www.siforge.org
Just an FYI, we're the publisher of EasyTether for Android. It's got a 4.5 star rating and at $9.95 is less than half the price of PdaNet:
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/com.mstream.easytether_polyclef/
Retarded linux fanboy hating on retarded Apple fanboy, now that I've seen a troll-virgin-fight my morning is complete!
No apps.
Crappy screen.
Violates dozens of Apple patents.
OS based on Lin-sux.
Why bother?
No freedom.
Crappy network (and screen).
Made by a patent trolling company.
OS made by the magic of Jobs, who works all night inventing wonders for the faithful, you can tell because the light is on all night long in his window high up in the...
Run away!
Sorry folks, AC is having Schizotrollaphrenia today!
Wow, so let me get this straight, i need windows os or a mac and not only that i need to buy the product so i can receive and transmit data on the internet via my cell phone, so no i cant use linux (very stupid), i need to spend 10 dollars on this software (for something to move my data from my computer to the cell phone network via my cell) (really stupid), oh and this simple peice of sofware needs how much memory (really stupid) I going to put this in my mental box labeled (tech articles written by people with more money than brains) and my other box (hey this is one of those people that like paying for everything little thing they want to do with my equipment they have already paid for). REALLY, I already purchased the device to communicate on the cell phone network, I already purchased a cable to move data from my computer to my cell phone, Why the hell would i want to run a 17 megabyte application to move packets from my computer to my cell phone providers network when in reality my os has all the code required to move data between my computer and cell phone). How annoying, it was so annoying i felt i needed to spend 10 minutes writing this instead of reading more useful stuff (REALLY, so i dont have to read more crap like it). Heres a quote from the article. "I’m always wary of new installations bogging down Windows, but PdaNetPC.exe is only 17M of memory and 0% of CPU when not in use, so I’m fine with that running in the background." The very idea of having to run windows or mac os x to network another computer and paying for it is the exact time of moron i dont want to help do anything in this world. He promotes the use of software which causes more problems that it solves. In short, Hes the kind of guy that would buy anything to solve a problem no matter how silly the solution is. I hope his other posts aren't as stupid.
My first computer had 1024 bytes of ram
Retarded linux fanboy hating on retarded Apple fanboy, now that I've seen a troll-virgin-fight my morning is complete!
How did you get that I'm a Linux fanboy? I'm a fan of nothing and nobody. As it happens, at this point in my life I write Windows apps (yeah, I know, but it pays the mortgage.)
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I tried various tethering-apps ever since I got my G1 (dev-phone and therefore rooted). The best one I found is hands down Wifi Tether, which converts the phone into a hotspot. Very cool, especially as it makes it very easy to give other people access (at the same time, no less!). It's free, so I donated a few bucks.