Bill Tabor
EF5
I know it is possible to use the Iphone as a modem and wireless wifi router to your notebook. I have plans to possibly do this soon as a backup to my Millenicom card. Have any of you done this yet, and if so how well does it work?
Anyone Jailbreak Iphone for Chase Data?
- Thread starter Bill Tabor
- Start date
Darren Addy
EF5
No personal experience, but I'd have a hard time rationalizing doing it "as a backup" to your Millenicom card. Is there some flakiness to Millenicom cards that makes you suspect it will fail? I suppose that I would be tempted if I had a iPhone 3G and lived in 3G territory (which is limited to the "metro" areas of Omaha and Lincoln in my state).
Gizmodo had some advice on this about 6 weeks ago if you decide to give it a go.
Gizmodo had some advice on this about 6 weeks ago if you decide to give it a go.
Scott Hammel
EF4
I had jailbroken my iPhone last year (keep in mind it was a first gen phone) and went through quite a few steps to enable it to tether to my laptop. The results were awful. It was very unreliable and worked rarely. I suppose if it's as a last resort for backup, it would suffice but you might have better luck just pulling up radar on the phone's Safari application instead. I know AT&T's 3G coverage is really only in metro areas and I can attest to the fact their Edge coverage out on the plains is pretty poor as well. I can't really speak on the newer generation of phones that have 3G but I guess with a cell amp, you might get by. The amount of effort just to set up the connection, jailbreak the phone (which always has the potential to "brick" the phone) and get connected to me isn't worth the effort especially for a connection that worked only about 10% of the time. Anyway, that was my experience with tethering a tinkered iPhone last year. Hope that helps 
Darren Addy
EF5
If/when you decide to try this, make sure you know what your firmware version is and make sure that all of the pieces of software in the jailbreak "chain" are compatible with that version. I'd recommend NOT upgrading the iPhone firmware past the version that the software can jailbreak. (This is an endless game of cat 'n mouse)
Jerry Prsha
EF4
Bill,
The iPhone OS should be updated in June to version 3.0. Supposedly, it will finally offer tethering as an option. ...If you can wait that long? <grin>
Bill Tabor
EF5
No, the Millenicom card works very well...at least it did when I used it last year. It was utilizing Sprint's network then. Now they claim to utilize all networks, but the card they are using Pantech Um175 is a Verizon network card. There are holes in any network and believe me I can find them. AT&T is a good backup because they often have data (albeit typically slower) in areas that are dead spots for other carriers. So, it is that - a backup.
Bill Tabor
EF5
Yep, true. I just verified your story. The tethering is available in 3.0 in June assuming your carrier supports it. So, will At&t support it? My guess is probably otherwise it seems Apple wouldn't include it in the Iphone though I suppose it could be for international markets.
I did read online where folks were already playing with the tethering using the Beta program for OS 3. Cost for a developer is $99 unless you can get a developer to give you a free copy. One dude was getting 600mbps on download using something like Speedtest. Not EVDO speed, but not bad. I'll take even 56kbps to no signal at all. I used to live with 4800 baud on old analog and it wasn't all that long ago. We've made some big gains in recent years with such technology.
Jeff Snyder
EF5
I just had to pick up a new phone... My old HTC/Cingular 2125 was beginning to go out (keyboard was beginning to fail, etc), so I looked into several options -- namely, the Blackberry Bold, Pantech Matrix Pro, Motorola Q Global, iPhone, and a few others. I ended up settling on the Samsung Blackjack II. Really, it came down to the iPhone, BB Bold, and Blackjack II, and I liked the option of sticking with Windows Mobile 6.1 since I'm familiar with it, and WinMo has easy-to-use tethering capabiility (called "internet sharing" in WinMo 6.1). I dig the idea of the AppStore (which may be one of the iPhone greatest assets), but I really wanted easy tethering. And, the BJII was the cheapest of the bunch... I'd really like to have WiFi, though, but I can just use my wife's Axim X51v PDA for wifi axis if I need it (and if I don't want to use my laptop to get access).
FWIW, I just signed up w/ Millenicom last week, and I got the Franklin CDU 680. I've heard that they are moving to the Pantech, but I've also heard that the Pantech card only works on Verizon ... Then again, there is no (or very little) native Verizon coverage in the OKC area, so perhaps they sent me the older card because I AM in native Sprint territory. Note sure of the accuracy of any of this, though. Between the Millenicom device and my AT&T tethered phone, I hope to have coverage through most of the Plains... Not really answering Bill's original question that's the focus of this thread, but it's pertitent to some of the comments made after Bill's original post.
FWIW, I just signed up w/ Millenicom last week, and I got the Franklin CDU 680. I've heard that they are moving to the Pantech, but I've also heard that the Pantech card only works on Verizon ... Then again, there is no (or very little) native Verizon coverage in the OKC area, so perhaps they sent me the older card because I AM in native Sprint territory. Note sure of the accuracy of any of this, though. Between the Millenicom device and my AT&T tethered phone, I hope to have coverage through most of the Plains... Not really answering Bill's original question that's the focus of this thread, but it's pertitent to some of the comments made after Bill's original post.
Bill Tabor
EF5
Interesting Millenicom is doing that. I wonder how well my Pantech will work in OK?
Bill Tabor
EF5
Also I wanted to add that another reason to have the AT&T Iphone tethering or wifi as a backup to Millenicom is because I only have Millenicom up a few months of the year, but the Iphone is on year round. That means that even in off season I will be able to get data for my notebook for the $30/month Iphone data plan. That said, once OS 3.0 is out AT&T may charge additional for tethered access in addition to the Iphone plan - not sure.
Trey Atterbury
EF0
I have jailbroken my iphone and it works great connecting to the internet on my laptop. I use pdanet with my iphone connected with the usb cable.
Bill Tabor
EF5
What's your recommended procedure for doing this Trey? Also what are the ramifications? Can you un-jailbreak a phone in case you have to take it in for service or repair?
Jeff Snyder
EF5
The normal PDA data plan (includes smartphones and other devices that, generally, have a QWERTY keyboard) on AT&T costs $30. If you want to "legally" do tethering (at least per the ToS), you need to have a valid data plan that includes tethering. It just so happens that such plans are $60, the same rate as the "unlimited" data plan available for USB data cards (i.e. DataConnect). Of course, in a business sense, this makes sense, since one is likely to consume much more data/bandwidth using a laptop than using a standard PDA or "regular" cell phone (data plans for which top out at $15 for non-tethering). I liken it to buffet pricing that charges children a lower price than adults. Adults are likely to eat more food compared to children, so, rightfully, the buffet should cost more for them, even if both the children and adult pricing is for an "all you can eat" buffet.
