Tethering is probably one of the iPhone's most useful on-the-go features.
Tethering is a very popular function of the iPhone. It's something that allows you to have an internet connection for your Wi-Fi devices no matter where you go. If you can get a 3G or Edge signal on your iPhone, then you can get Wi-Fi on your computer, or other Wi-Fi device. Unauthorized tethering is frowned upon on cellular service providers, so if you use this, we ask that you use this with care. This is our disclaimer to you: unauthorized tethering is a violation of your cellular service contract and your cellular service provider has the right to pursue you for damages involved with breaking your terms of service. Modmyi is offering you some outlook as to how you can tether for free, but we will not be held accountable if your cellular service provider finds you tethering without paying for it legitimately. Actions taken beyond reading this review are completely of your business and will be treated as such.
My-Wi is a popular tethering platform for jailbroken iDevices. But since iOS 4, Apple has included a built-in tethering option in the Settings app that allows you to use your iPhone as a wireless modem. Since that option has been released, developer Sam Bingner has been able to circumvent that system so that you can use the native tethering function that is already built into iOS. The application is called TetherMe, and it will not install any applications on your iDevice, it will simply unlock the native tethering that's already built into the capabilities of your iPhone which usually can only be unlocked on your cellular service provider. This means, you get to use the built-in personal hotspot function after you install this jailbreak tweak.
How does it work?
It works like this. After you install the tweak from Cydia, you can go into the TetherMe settings in your Settings app and enable the personal hotspot feature:
After you do that, in the Settings app in the section where you can pick a Wi-Fi network, enter airplane mode, and do those sorts of things, you will see a section called Personal Hotspot. Tapping on that will bring up these settings:
As you can see, you can enter whatever you want your password to be. That password is a WPA2 encrypted password that acts as any password that you would use on a traditional wireless router. You also see the switch to turn the device's personal hotspot feature on and off. Below that, you see some of your options. You can use your iPhone as a hotspot by connection via USB. This means that your 3G or Edge connection will be hardwired to your computer via a USB connection. A wired connection is faster and more secure than the wireless options. So if security and speed are your taste, then use the wired option. Alternatively, you can use Bluetooth to tether. What this means is that when you turn Bluetooth on, your 3G or Edge connection will be shared with a wireless device via Bluetooth. Bluetooth is slower, but since it's a short-range radio signal, it will offer some security to you because only so many devices will be able to reach the Bluetooth signal. If you want a wireless connection that is a little on the safe side, use Bluetooth. If you want to be able to let a myriad of devices connect to your iPhone, then use the Wi-Fi option. This means that your 3G or Edge connection will be broadcasted as if your iPhone was a wireless router. This function will travel great distances; about the distance of a traditional wireless router. Albeit faster than Bluetooth, this means that more people can pick it up and also means less security. It will also be slower than the wired connection because there is more radio interference to be picked up when you are connecting to a wireless signal. The interference will affect your speed in both the Bluetooth option and the Wi-Fi option.
As you can see from the first image in this review, connecting to the hotspot will put a blue bar at the top of the lock screen. When you use your iPhone, the Springboard will look like this, showing you how many connections are using your personal hotspot:
TetherMe is an awesome tweak from Cydia to get if you need to get internet on your laptop from far from home without any Wi-Fi near you. It's also fully compatible with Apple's new iOS 5.
Name: TetherMe
Price: $4.99
Version: 2.2-30
Repo: BigBoss
Developer: Sam Bingner
Editor's Rating: 5/5
I was able to talk to Sam Bingner via email and ask him some questions about himself and also why he made the tweak:
Anthony: In about a paragraph, introduce yourself to the Modmyi readers!
Sam: I'm not sure what to say about myself, but I have been programming on and off since 1994. I helped build the dhs.org web interface, and was one of the key programmers in hacking the PhatBox (which is no longer sold). I actually avoided Apple until my sister (the apple-crack dealer) got me hooked by loaning me an iPhone 3G to play with for a couple days...
Anthony: What was it that made you come up with the idea to make TetherMe?
Sam: I actually used a competing product on 3.X, but when 4.0 was released they doubled their price for the update and required me to pay again. I did not like that, so I wrote TetherMe as a less expensive alternative.
Anthony: Are you planning any major updates to TetherMe?
Sam: There are always a lot of things I am looking into adding, but because it is designed to be as small and possible and use apple functionality, it is often difficult to realize some of updates. It does have a new method to obfuscate tethered traffic to some extent, but iOS does not have the support for what I want. If such support is added to iOS in the future, or I am able to find another way, I would like to provide an option reassemble all packets on the iDevice.
Anthony: What other things have you previously made for iDevices?
Sam: I also wrote Subscriber Artificial Module (SAM), MiddleWhat, and a number of supporting programs for SAM.
Anthony: Are you working on anything special at this point in time?
Sam: I've been spending quite a bit of time trying to expand the capabilities of SAM and the framework of programs I wrote to support it.
TetherMe is a very high quality application that unlocks the Apple-native personal hotspot feature of the iPhone. It does obscure your data in a way that can help hide that you are tethering from your cellular service provider; but it's not fool-proof. It's a great application to use if you want to use your own data freely and how you want to. As always, thanks for the excellent application, Sam!
The Giveaway!
Sam was gracious enough to give away FIVE copies of TetherMe.
Here's how to win:
Follow me @BouchardAnthony
Follow ModMyi @modmyi
Retweet this article with your Cydia number in the tweet; if you do not have the Cydia number in your tweet, you will be disqualified from the drawing. Within the tweet you must also mention @BouchardAnthony so that I can easily see who has entered the drawing. If you don't mention me, you will also be disqualified. The tweet must include the following text, "I entered a contest to win TetherMe for free iPhone tethering!"
Winners will be announced on Monday, November 21. Good luck to all of you!
Sources: Sam Bingner
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