Tether the iPhone to use its EDGE network from your laptop to surf the internet

Ever been in a situation where you had wished that your mobile phone could double up as a modem so that you can surf the internet in a place where Wi-Fi or internet connectivity is not available, then you will love this iPhone hack.

iPhone hacking legend Jonathan “NerveGas” Zdziarski has figured out an easier and more robust way to tether the iPhone to get internet access with AT&T's EDGE network from your laptop.

Zdziarski has been able to achieve this by porting BIND 9.4.2 to iPhone which as per him "allows you to service DNS when ad-hoc networking to your iPhone, so that tools without SOCKS support for DNS can use the connection."

BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is the most commonly used DNS server on the Internet, especially on Unix-like systems, where it is a de facto standard. (courtesy Wiki)

If you're just using Firefox for browsing, you can just setting network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to true will allow access.

However, like all iPhone hacks you will need to first jailbreak your iPhone for this one as well. If you do not already have a jailbroken iPhone then you can checkout this post: Step-By-Step Guide to JailBreak iPhone Firmware 1.1.4 using ZiPhone.

Please note that before you try out this iPhone hack it would be a good idea to also check out your mobile carrier's terms of service as some mobile service providers consider it a violation of their terms of service to tether.

Once you have a jailbroken iPhone, you will then need to follow the step-by-step guide provided by Zdziarski here (on his Mac running Leopard). However, for the not so technically inclined do remember that when I said easier; it was in relative terms based on previous methods we have seen to achieve tethering on the iPhone like the one here.

If you have got this to work it will be great to know your experience/feedback or if you have a tip for fellow readers on the latest iPhone hack in the comments.

 

 

Top iPhone Hacks Categories:

Hacks
iPhone Applications
Unlock iPhone
JailBreak iPhone
iPhone Tips & Tricks
iPhone Games
iPhone News 

 

What next?

Comments

[douceswild]

like all the apps, this one is cool, but Edge is slow enough on the iPhone. I would not want to tether it to laptop. You might not even get GSM speed.

[hideNsneek]

Jonathan is a genius and im going to share this Hack with my friends!!

[Elwood]

I can't get past the login and password. I'm trying dottie and apline, but don't know the login. What am I doing wrong?

[T. Payne]

Ok I am going to assume your total N00b:
To tether Your iPhone in windows (I am using XP) I assume this will work for all versions.

First get these Programs:

ZiPhone - Used to Jailbreak, Unlock, etc
- Version 3.0

PuTTY - SSH and SOCKS telnet client.
- Version 0.60

Thats All the Software.

Heres what to do:

1. Run ZiPhone - Select the 'Do It All' Option.
2. Create a a Wireless p2p or Ad-Hoc network.
3. Connect to it with iphone.
4. Assign iPhone a static IP:
--I am using 198.162.0.2 - 255.255.255.0
5. Assign your PC a static IP.
--I am using 198.162.0.1 - 255.255.255.0
6. In your Installer.app add the source:
-http://bitspinn.org/apptapp/
--Under 'Networking' install XSrelay
---Install Boss Prefrences
----Under 'Utilities' install Boss Prefs for XSrelay
7. On your home Screen open Boss Prefs and make sure WiFi, SSH, and XSrelay are on

YOUR iPhone is Setup!

I am using the firefox Browser to route through the proxy.

Configure Firefox.

1. Tools>Options - Advanced Button>Network Tab
-Connection>Settings

Maunal Proxy Configuration:
Socks Host: 192.168.0.2
Port: 1080

APPLY

In the address bar 'about:config'
Use the filter bar to search 'Socks'
network.proxy.socks_remote_dns is the one we are looking for double click to make the value TRUE
ok your done...

Open PuTTY connect to IP 192.168.0.2 use thier default port 22
once in login:'root' and password:'alpine'
(note the 1st login will take about a minute to validate)

You should be surfing the net.