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Unofficial Guide – Enable iPhone 3G 3.0 Free Tethering on ATT from Safari [Step by Step]

18 June 2009 31 Comments

We saw the release of iPhone 3.0 firmware, a remarkable release in the iPhone history though without tethering support for some countries (US-AT&T being the BIG one!). Well, folks at BenM.at have achieved a feat that enables you to experience a seamless iPhone tethering experience! Seriously, this couldn’t have been easier/simpler!

Before you start :

1) Make sure you download and install iPhone firmware 3.0 from iTunes 8.2.

2) Make sure not to exploit this service thereby alarming ATT and giving them a chance to slap you with a hefty monthly bill, we don’t want that to happen!

3) I tested this on an iPhone 3G 3.0 which took me less than 2 minutes for the whole process!

Step by step instructions :

1) ATT customers, launch MobileSafari and visit http://help.benm.at/usa.php


IMG_0062

2) Touch on ATT and you will see the following screen

IMG_0063

3) Touch on Install followed by touching on Install Now on the prompt that displays

IMG_0064

4) Press the home button and navigate to Settings -> General -> Network. Touch on Internet Tethering

IMG_0065

5) Choose either USB or Bluetooth. I chose USB to start with. (Please note USB tethering speeds can be twice that of Bluetooth’s)

IMG_0066

6) Choose Internet Tethering ‘On’

IMG_0067

7) Now, connect the iPhone 3G to your Mac (PC should be no different) using the USB cable provided. You should see the following prompt

screenshot 8

8) Click on ‘Network Preferences’ and you should see a new N/W interface at the end (Ethernet 4 or en4 or the like). Hit the Apply button. Make sure you disable WiFi on your Mac as well as iPhone 3G to test tethering. The Network window should now show the following settings

screenshot 11

9) Launch your favorite browser and start browsing! I got decent speeds for browsing on the go.

screenshot 10
IMG_0069

Few Observations/Facts :

1) The iPhone got warmer as I used the tethering service. Not so PDANet like-warm but warm!
2) I wrote this post on my Macbook Pro which is connected to the iPhone via USB exploiting tethering feature which ATT is not ready to offer yet! All the images in this post are uploaded using this service too, not bad upload speeds either.
3) Don’t use this service unless you really need to! You don’t want to alarm ATT in the process!
4) There were no hiccups in the hour long ‘tethering’ experience!

Enjoy the temporary fix and post a comment if you have a fact to share or help to offer/devour!

31 Comments »

  • Atrain said:

    Does your voicemail work?

  • someone said:

    My Visual Voicemail did NOT work.. had to restore.

  • kkiran said:

    As long as it works!

    Sent from my iPhone

  • Vic said:

    It asked me for a passcode…..

  • AK D. said:

    do you have a passcode on your phone? I do with mine and I just entered it and it worked just fine.

  • kkiran said:

    No I don't! Voicemail passcode : yes but not for the phone!

  • Frustrating_til_Bob said:

    Mine would not work until I blanked out the DNS settings…then it worked!

  • kkiran said:

    Thanks for the tip!

    Sent from my iPhone

  • Daniel said:

    i activated the tethering on my iphone 3G… from help.benm.at/help.php … if i use this service will it add money to my bill… im on ATT in the US

  • kkiran said:

    Yeah, try not to use it excessively … Once they start offering the service, they may charge for sure…

    Sent from my iPhone

  • Daniel said:

    oh alright thanks

  • Alex said:

    I got the profile installed and the Ethernet port shows up in network preferences, however it doesn’t come up as active. Has AT&T found a way to block this?

  • Peter said:

    everything works besides that for some reason my iphone wont pair up with my new mac book pro. Is this happening to anyone else?

  • kkiran said:

    Are you referring to the bluetooth tether?

    I recommend the cable tether since that gives longer battery life for both Macbook and the iPhone.

  • Peter said:

    the bluetooth wont work. when i use usb it does work

  • Drakker said:

    Worked perfectly, but will be monitoring my bill for the first month, thanks again

  • kkiran said:

    Yep, we don't want a huge surprise from ATT!

  • Boing said:

    On my 3gs on AT&T when I click "Set Up Internet Tethering" it shows a popup which says "To enable tethering on this account contact AT&T". 🙁 Maybe post jailbreak I'll have more options. 🙂

  • Boing said:

    🙂 went to Rest/Reset Network settings. Rebooted and now I can tether! No idea why but 🙂

  • kkiran said:

    I am glad it worked for you! Enjoy!

  • Chris Green said:

    Does anyone know how to remove this setting file without doing a full factory restore? I changed phones and the tether options went to my new phone. I would like to go back to defaults without losing all my application data!

  • Kiran said:

    Try Settings -> General -> Reset network settings

  • Jek said:

    The Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings thing does work. My tethering is working perfecly.

  • Jek said:

    And that just fixes the voicemail+mms, but keeps the features. To remove it, just reset network settings via iTunes (on your computer).

  • Mike Carambat said:

    Worked fine first time.

    No problems with Visual Voicemail. Maybe he altered the profile on his website?

  • kkiran said:

    I never had an issue with voicemail using this method! Not sure why I don’t experience these weird issues like WiFi, Voicemail, 3G issues…! Probably because I use a Mac? Not sure!

  • Don said:

    Mine does not work, where do I blank out the DNS numbers on my iphone.

  • Jason said:

    Anybody have success with Vista?

  • jessica said:

    I was able to install the config but when I went to settings > general > newtwork I don't get the "Internet Tethering" option. It's just not there. I tried rebooting my phone and no luck. Got any ideas?

  • iLikeMyiPhone said:

    What firmware are you on?

  • Reggie said:

    It says personal hotspot. That is the same right?
    Does anybody know if you can use this for xbox live?

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