Tutorial: Super Simple iPhone Tethering (w/o Jailbreaking)

iPhone TetheringWith my recent purchase of a MacBook Pro, I set out to find a way to tether my iPhone 3G. My primary reasoning is two-fold: I don't have the ability to hook up the MBP to our domain AT&T has drug their feet rolling out their own tethering functionality. Needless to say, I found a solution.

There is 3 steps to setting this up and it can all be done from JUST THE iPHONE! As a disclaimer, I initially had issues with my visual voicemail not working, but after several attempts I'm almost 100% sure I figured out how to keep it from being disabled. I have tried my latest method 7 times and each time it's worked perfectly.

NOTE: This has been tested on a non-jailbroken iPhone that is on the AT&T network.

Step 1: On your iPhone head on over to http://help.benm.at/usa.php (screenshot). From here, simply tap AT&T and then tap "Install" on the following page (screenshot).

Step 2: Again, from your iPhone, go into Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings (screenshot). This will cause your iPhone to restart.

Step 3: After the restart, go to Settings > General > Network. You will now the "Internet Tethering" option. Go ahead and turn it on. (screenshot)

Step 4: VERY IMPORTANT. Now, before you do anything else, go back into Settings > General > Reset Network Settings (screenshot), which will once again restart you phone. If you do not this, the wrong information may get stored for your Visual Voicemail.

That's it! You're done! All you have to do is hook it up via your USB cable and you have internet access. (screenshot)

Removing Tethering: If for some reason you want to remove tethering or you have issues with Visual Voicemail you can restore from a back-up or just go to Settings > General > Profiles and remove the US AT&T profile (screenshot). Upon removing it, go Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings (screenshot).

UPDATE: iPhone firmware 3.1 has killed this hack. I'm working on finding another way to this as we speak. When I do, I'll post it up.

Visitor's picture
jg commented on #11

I lost my tethering option in network settings. I started from scratch and the profile has today's date in the received section so I'm pretty sure it's the one I downloaded.

Cory's picture
Cory commented on #12

Yeah 3.1 has killed this hack unfortunately. Working on finding another way as we speak. When I do, I'll post it up.

Visitor's picture
Visitor commented on #13

Is this deactivated? It no longer works for me.

Visitor's picture
suplementy commented on #14

Hi. I like your blog. well done!

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