Unofficial Guide – Enable iPhone 3G 3.0 Free Tethering on ATT from Safari [Step by Step]

We saw the release of iPhone 3.0 firmware, a remarkable release in the iPhone history though without tethering support for some countries (US-AT&T being the BIG one!). Well, folks at BenM.at have achieved a feat that enables you to experience a seamless iPhone tethering experience! Seriously, this couldn’t have been easier/simpler!

Before you start :

1) Make sure you download and install iPhone firmware 3.0 from iTunes 8.2.

2) Make sure not to exploit this service thereby alarming ATT and giving them a chance to slap you with a hefty monthly bill, we don’t want that to happen!

3) I tested this on an iPhone 3G 3.0 which took me less than 2 minutes for the whole process!

Step by step instructions :

1) ATT customers, launch MobileSafari and visit http://help.benm.at/usa.php


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2) Touch on ATT and you will see the following screen

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3) Touch on Install followed by touching on Install Now on the prompt that displays

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4) Press the home button and navigate to Settings -> General -> Network. Touch on Internet Tethering

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5) Choose either USB or Bluetooth. I chose USB to start with. (Please note USB tethering speeds can be twice that of Bluetooth’s)

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6) Choose Internet Tethering ‘On’

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7) Now, connect the iPhone 3G to your Mac (PC should be no different) using the USB cable provided. You should see the following prompt

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8) Click on ‘Network Preferences’ and you should see a new N/W interface at the end (Ethernet 4 or en4 or the like). Hit the Apply button. Make sure you disable WiFi on your Mac as well as iPhone 3G to test tethering. The Network window should now show the following settings

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9) Launch your favorite browser and start browsing! I got decent speeds for browsing on the go.

screenshot 10
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Few Observations/Facts :

1) The iPhone got warmer as I used the tethering service. Not so PDANet like-warm but warm!
2) I wrote this post on my Macbook Pro which is connected to the iPhone via USB exploiting tethering feature which ATT is not ready to offer yet! All the images in this post are uploaded using this service too, not bad upload speeds either.
3) Don’t use this service unless you really need to! You don’t want to alarm ATT in the process!
4) There were no hiccups in the hour long ‘tethering’ experience!

Enjoy the temporary fix and post a comment if you have a fact to share or help to offer/devour!

31 Comments

  • Atrain
    Posted June 18, 2009 8:09 am 0Likes

    Does your voicemail work?

  • someone
    Posted June 18, 2009 5:29 pm 0Likes

    My Visual Voicemail did NOT work.. had to restore.

  • Vic
    Posted June 18, 2009 6:33 pm 0Likes

    It asked me for a passcode…..

    • AK D.
      Posted June 20, 2009 7:34 am 0Likes

      do you have a passcode on your phone? I do with mine and I just entered it and it worked just fine.

  • Frustrating_til_Bob
    Posted June 18, 2009 9:05 pm 0Likes

    Mine would not work until I blanked out the DNS settings…then it worked!

  • Daniel
    Posted June 19, 2009 12:28 am 0Likes

    i activated the tethering on my iphone 3G… from help.benm.at/help.php … if i use this service will it add money to my bill… im on ATT in the US

    • kkiran
      Posted June 19, 2009 12:48 am 0Likes

      Yeah, try not to use it excessively … Once they start offering the service, they may charge for sure…

      Sent from my iPhone

  • Alex
    Posted June 19, 2009 2:25 pm 0Likes

    I got the profile installed and the Ethernet port shows up in network preferences, however it doesn’t come up as active. Has AT&T found a way to block this?

  • Peter
    Posted June 21, 2009 12:50 am 0Likes

    everything works besides that for some reason my iphone wont pair up with my new mac book pro. Is this happening to anyone else?

    • kkiran
      Posted June 21, 2009 12:54 am 0Likes

      Are you referring to the bluetooth tether?

      I recommend the cable tether since that gives longer battery life for both Macbook and the iPhone.

  • Peter
    Posted June 21, 2009 12:50 am 0Likes

    the bluetooth wont work. when i use usb it does work

  • Drakker
    Posted June 21, 2009 9:39 am 0Likes

    Worked perfectly, but will be monitoring my bill for the first month, thanks again

  • Boing
    Posted June 26, 2009 8:54 pm 0Likes

    On my 3gs on AT&T when I click "Set Up Internet Tethering" it shows a popup which says "To enable tethering on this account contact AT&T". 🙁 Maybe post jailbreak I'll have more options. 🙂

    • Boing
      Posted June 26, 2009 9:01 pm 0Likes

      🙂 went to Rest/Reset Network settings. Rebooted and now I can tether! No idea why but 🙂

  • Chris Green
    Posted June 28, 2009 3:33 am 0Likes

    Does anyone know how to remove this setting file without doing a full factory restore? I changed phones and the tether options went to my new phone. I would like to go back to defaults without losing all my application data!

    • Kiran
      Posted June 27, 2009 10:40 pm 0Likes

      Try Settings -> General -> Reset network settings

      • Jek
        Posted July 6, 2009 3:20 pm 0Likes

        The Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings thing does work. My tethering is working perfecly.

        • Jek
          Posted July 6, 2009 3:21 pm 0Likes

          And that just fixes the voicemail+mms, but keeps the features. To remove it, just reset network settings via iTunes (on your computer).

  • Mike Carambat
    Posted July 9, 2009 8:30 pm 0Likes

    Worked fine first time.

    No problems with Visual Voicemail. Maybe he altered the profile on his website?

  • kkiran
    Posted July 9, 2009 4:58 pm 0Likes

    I never had an issue with voicemail using this method! Not sure why I don’t experience these weird issues like WiFi, Voicemail, 3G issues…! Probably because I use a Mac? Not sure!

  • Don
    Posted August 21, 2009 5:20 pm 0Likes

    Mine does not work, where do I blank out the DNS numbers on my iphone.

  • Jason
    Posted September 4, 2009 10:17 pm 0Likes

    Anybody have success with Vista?

  • jessica
    Posted October 15, 2009 6:27 pm 0Likes

    I was able to install the config but when I went to settings > general > newtwork I don't get the "Internet Tethering" option. It's just not there. I tried rebooting my phone and no luck. Got any ideas?

  • iLikeMyiPhone
    Posted October 15, 2009 6:28 pm 0Likes

    What firmware are you on?

  • Reggie
    Posted December 4, 2011 2:40 am 0Likes

    It says personal hotspot. That is the same right?
    Does anybody know if you can use this for xbox live?

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