mguhlin

Tethering Your SmartPhone – Whatever that means

Tethering…a term unknown to me. I know what it means to “tether” something but what did it mean in terms of my mobile device? Apparently, it can be defined in this way:

Using an application that allows your PC to take advantage of your Smartphone’s data plan, allowing you to access the Internet on your laptop/netbook anywhere there is cellular coverage.
Source: Adapted from the Tether Blackberry site

Wow, what a neat idea! So, obviously, you can use the Tether Blackberry program to accomplish that on a Blackberry, but I have an Android and many others have iPhones. How do you tether on other machines?

Image Source: http://androidguys.com/wp-content/uploads/tether_g1.png

On Android, I found one app called “EasyTether.” It’s also available for Mac.

EasyTether turns your BlackBerry smartphone into an Internet access point for an Apple computer. With this app you can tether your BlackBerry to a Mac. EasyTether implements Bluetooth PAN profile.

  • Standard Bluetooth PAN support
  • Requires only a basic data plan
  • Simple setup without any custom desktop software
  • Free lifetime upgrades
  • 3G grade speeds with Bluetooth 2.0+EDRdevices
  • USB support and Bluetooth DUN are under development

EasyTether is also available for Android phones and Windows (Vista,7,XP) users. Another alternative for Android phones is PDAnet.

PdaNet allows your computer to go online through the Android phone’s data connection. Supports USB Tether and Bluetooth DUN. No root access needed. Works on ALL Android phones. Mac&PC.

Update: PDanet works great on Macintosh, but I haven’t tried it on Windows yet (or on UbuntuLinux running WINE).

Be sure to read this short tutorial…or this one for Windows.

For iPhone users, you may want to read these possibilities….

What solutions are you using on your smartphone? Gizmodo has a fascinating article on tethering Android G1 and iPhone that appears to have it all worked out.

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4 comments

  1. Tethering to the iPhone has been an OS-supported feature since the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 last summer. The options exist to tether with both the iPhone 3G and 3GS models, either via USB cable or Bluetooth. Instructions can be found at:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3574Note, however, that the ability to tether also needs to be supported by your cellular provider. Here in Canada, Rogers has supported tethering from almost the get-go release of the 3.0 OS. In the States, however, tethering via AT&T took a bit longer, but is supported now. All told, there's great magic to be found in getting your notebook online using your cell. I'll never forget the first time I participated in an Elluminate session using an iPhone connection from a parking garage. Suddenly, ubiquitous takes on a whole new meaning.

    Reply

  2. Tethering to the iPhone has been an OS-supported feature since the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 last summer. The options exist to tether with both the iPhone 3G and 3GS models, either via USB cable or Bluetooth. Instructions can be found at:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3574Note, however, that the ability to tether also needs to be supported by your cellular provider. Here in Canada, Rogers has supported tethering from almost the get-go release of the 3.0 OS. In the States, however, tethering via AT&T took a bit longer, but is supported now. All told, there's great magic to be found in getting your notebook online using your cell. I'll never forget the first time I participated in an Elluminate session using an iPhone connection from a parking garage. Suddenly, ubiquitous takes on a whole new meaning.

    Reply

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