iPhone 3.0 tethering/MMS on AT&T without jailbreak

Absentee

[H]F Junkie
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Aug 27, 2004
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I just got tethering and MMS working on my iPhone on the AT&T network without jailbreaking it.

tethering is cake, MMS is a little harder, but heres a guide to do both at the same time:
gizmodo article: http://gizmodo.com/5295053/how-to-enable-tethering-and-mms-on-iphone-30-a-duet
guide: http://www.krillr.com/blog/3DPQHBZ3/i-have-tethering-and-mms-on-my-iphone-and-yes-im-on-att
note: when I tried downloading the ipcc file to update it, my mac automatically extracted it to a folder called 'payload,' if this happens you need to compress that folder back into a zip file and rename it ATT_US.ipcc

LIES: I still haven't been able to tether over bluetooth, but USB works fine, for some reason my phone won't connect to my computer over bluetooth.
^disregard that, I suck cocks. bluetooth tethering works perfect if you do it right lol (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756)
Some people have been saying this can affect your visual voicemail, but it works fine for me, so YMMV.

notes on enabling MMS:
you need a second AT&T phone to do it, just the phone, not a sim card or plan for it.
you basically need to trick at&t into thinking your no longer using the iPhone, for me it was easy since I'm on a family plan and that eliminates half the steps, but it's doable for anyone with decent social engineering skills :p

to mods: apologies if this is a no-no, I know hacks kind of walk a thin line in the apple world, but I don't really see anything wrong with this, considering it's AT&T, not apple, blocking it for "technical reasons" when it works perfectly fine ;)
 
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It's a lot of fiddling about for nothing.

Shortly after you get it working you will find it gets disabled again. AT&T run a periodic sweep and when it shows up that you are using an iPhone it will disable your MMS provision on your account again.

Sometimes you might have it working for an hour and you'll get nailed, sometimes a day or two. But once it gets picked up, you are very unlikely to persuade AT&T to switch it back.

Additionally AT&T have also taken steps internally to prevent/dissuade their customer service representatives from making the switch over on accounts that have iPhones on them right now anyway.
 
I enabled tethering on my iphone a few days ago, just browse to http://help.benm.at/ on your phone and follow the directions.

Once enabled i only tested it for a few minutes on my netbook (waiting to see if ATT is going to be able to detect it and charge people for it) speedtst.net showed 1.1 meg down and something like .25 up
 
I have been using tething on my iPhone daily since the 3.0 release. I will be intrested to see what AT&T does about it.

1) how can they charge for a "feature" that is not released
2) read you contract, it only says that AT&T can cancel / void your contract without warning for violating their ToS... this means I could start a new contract and get a 8gb iphone for $99 again, sell my iPhone on ebay for some ridiculously inflated price .... profit.
3) even if they do charge for it, how much could it really be? $30? $50? to me its worth it either way.
 
I have been using tething on my iPhone daily since the 3.0 release. I will be intrested to see what AT&T does about it.

1) how can they charge for a "feature" that is not released
2) read you contract, it only says that AT&T can cancel / void your contract without warning for violating their ToS... this means I could start a new contract and get a 8gb iphone for $99 again, sell my iPhone on ebay for some ridiculously inflated price .... profit.
3) even if they do charge for it, how much could it really be? $30? $50? to me its worth it either way.

Its not worth it to me, especially when I could jailbreak my phone 2 days later and use pdanet like i always have and know I wont be charged. Plus my download speed is almost twice as fast using pdanet
 
Its not worth it to me, especially when I could jailbreak my phone 2 days later and use pdanet like i always have and know I wont be charged. Plus my download speed is almost twice as fast using pdanet

They can still detect what you're doing, regardless of the method you do it with. If AT&T sends bills out to everyone who's tethering without a plan, you'll be hit as well.
 
PS, AT&T disables the tethering occasionally for my phone, just re up the preferences and tethering works fine. Infact I'm typing this over a tethered connection from work, over my iPhone 3GS.
 
FYI tethering does not work on a 2G at all. Shame, I'd have liked to keep it around for in case I end up with no internet at all for some time.

Oh well, I'll stick to PDANet.
 
Shortly after you get it working you will find it gets disabled again. AT&T run a periodic sweep and when it shows up that you are using an iPhone it will disable your MMS provision on your account again.
Unreal. I don't seem to recall reading anything in my contract to the effect that AT&T would disable certain services if I should happen to find a way to utilize them unofficially.
 
Is this still working? Looking for tethering ability with a 3GS.
 
are you jailbroken? if so, just look up "tethering" in cydia

if not, I'm not 100% sure if this still works or not.

No, not until the warranty runs out in July at least. Which is why I bumped this thread specifically :p
 
Wow this is old, unless your still using 3.0 or 3.0.1 tethering without j/b is out of the question. With 3.1 and 3.1.2 you need to j/b and modify some files (either through a patch in Cydia, blacksn0w or manually, but still requires a download plug-in) and then add with MyWy, benm files or ipss files. With 3.1.3, I am not aware of how to tether since I stuck with 3.1.2 and I wish I would of stuck with 3.0.1.
 
If using 3.1.3, your best bet is to jailbreak and use the MyWi app. There was a free way in 3.1.2 that I used but since, my phone bricked, which forced me into 3.1.3 because I never saved me ECID.
 
No, not until the warranty runs out in July at least. Which is why I bumped this thread specifically :p

oh, I wouldn't bother waiting honestly. Nothing will happen to your phone that cannot be fixed with a sinple restore :) Trust me, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it once you jailbreak it.
 
oh, I wouldn't bother waiting honestly. Nothing will happen to your phone that cannot be fixed with a sinple restore :) Trust me, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it once you jailbreak it.

Every time I jailbreak my phone I restore it and wonder why I even bothered to jailbreak it
 
Every time I jailbreak my phone I restore it and wonder why I even bothered to jailbreak it

why? do you not use to much outside of it's stock capabilities?


After using a jailbroken iphone for so long, I don't think I could function without it. Hell, it's worth it for backgrounder alone IMO (I listen to XM/Pandora online at work, but like to be able to browse the web/check email without closing the application), let alone tethering, call blacklisting and file system access/downloading
 
why? do you not use to much outside of it's stock capabilities?


After using a jailbroken iphone for so long, I don't think I could function without it. Hell, it's worth it for backgrounder alone IMO (I listen to XM/Pandora online at work, but like to be able to browse the web/check email without closing the application), let alone tethering, call blacklisting and file system access/downloading


I have a squeezebox boom at work to listen to xm/pandora on, I have 3 computers on my desk at work for browsing the web why would I browse it on a phone. I have no need for tethering simply because almost everywhere I've ever had to go and use a laptop had free wifi, I dont get unwanted calls on my phone, no need for blacklisting.

Not everyone needs to jailbreak their phone, it was neat and geeky the first few times, I just dont need it
 
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