Tethering the iPhone 3G 3.0

I have an unlocked 16GB white iPhone 3G from Hong Kong. It’s worked quite well on GCI, as well as traveling in the Lower 48. Not really had any problems since I bought it. When the 3.0 firmware was released, I was back home in Ohio for my nephew’s graduation.

I waited a couple of days, but then couldn’t resist the upgrade. The thought of waiting till I got home was painful. But, the idea of bricking my phone while I was away or having other problems made me wait… but only a couple of days.

The upgrade itself went smooth, as it should. But I did run in to problems associated with the jailbreak. Finally after the umpteenth time I had a stable phone. That was back in June, and been using it daily without a hitch.

Other than copy-and-paste and MMS, and a few new features, I didn’t really explore many of the new enhancements. But one thing that peaked my curiosity was tethering. I’ve done that with the Blackberries and several other phones. It has always worked fine, and serves in a pinch when no other connectivity is available.

iPhone 3.0 advertised tethering as one of the enhancements. I searched Google to find out how to configure and saw many blogs and posts, either folks saying it works great, or not at all. But when I looked at my unlocked 3G from HK, I didn’t have the tethering option. I even went to the “3″ site in Hong Kong to see if they had instructions. As a matter of fact they did, but there was a screen option under network settings that didn’t appear on my phone.

I searched high and low, and finally found a way to enable it! It was almost painless, too. Go to help.benm.at on with Safari on your iPhone. You can run the Mobileconfig Generator and as long as you know the APN settings, etc., you will be tethering in no time.

I set it up, but then never used it after that time. So I decided (since I had trouble on the Slope this past week) to give it a work out. This entry is being written while the iPhone is tethered via USB. While Bluetooth tethering is also an option, to me it really doesn’t make sense. While USB involves the cable, it serves to keep the phone charged as well.

After the past half hour or so, it’s working fine. Throughput is similar to (with the upload twice as fast compared to the iPhone itself) and the phone has not gotten warm. (BTW, this is great for EDGE; we don’t have 3G service here…

I’ve noticed email is still received, but voice calls get directed straight to voicemail. I only know this because Laura called me on my other cell phone and said she just tried to call the iPhone, but the call went to VM.

All in all, worth using if there is no other connectivity. I should qualify that; at least here in Alaska, with GCI service. A side note, I “roamed” on AT&T while on the Slope. GCI hasn’t turned up their cell service in Deadhorse yet. When I attempted to tether, AT&T sensed that and actually deleted the tethering option on my phone. I had to download and re-enable the profile. Once I did that, I tried to tether again. This time, I got a message that said I must contact my provider to enable this service. At least AT&T didn’t blow it away the second time.

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