Although AT&T will eventually offer an iPhone tethering plan so that you can use your iPhone's data plan on your laptop (yay!), there's one major catch: They're also planning to charge your an extra $30/month to do it (boo!). That may be worth it if you plan on doing a lot of tethering (and still use under 5GB of data transfer), but if you just need occasional internet access on your laptop and don't feel like ponying up $360 a year to do it, you've got other options.We've looked at several other iPhone tethering methods in the past, but the app we're going to use today—called PdaNet—stands head-and-shoulders above the competition both in ease-of-use and functionality. NOTE: As soon as AT&T begins to sell the wireless tethering service, they may or may not start cracking down on unofficial tethering. For my part, I have tethered a few times (just to test, I promise!) and have never seen an extra charge on my bill. On the other hand, I doubt my meager usage attracted much attention. Either way, proceed at your own risk. UPDATE: It appears that the latest version of PdaNet for the iPhone has a trial period, after which it remains free for HTTP use (i.e., most web browsing), but costs $29 for a full license that will handle all the rest of your traffic. If you don't plan to do much more than regular web browsing, you probably won't notice much of a difference. Either way, a one-time fee of $30 is still better than $30/month.
What You'll Need
To get started, you need just a few things. Most importantly, you'll need a jailbroken iPhone (2G or 3G) with a data plan. If you've haven't already jailbroken your iPhone, grab a copy of the PwnageTool or WinPwn and follow the simple jailbreaking wizards. (If you want a little hand-holding, we've got a guide for PwnageTool here and one for WinPwn here.) All jailbroken? Good. Now assuming you've got a laptop, let's get this party started.
Install PdaNet
Fire up your jailbroken iPhone and launch the Cydia application from your homescreen. Tap the search tab, then do a quick search for PdaNet. Once you find it, tap the Install button on the top right of the screen (mine says Modify because it's already installed on my iPhone). Follow the install dialog and you're done.
Create an Ad-Hoc Network
This is the most complex sounding part of the setup, but it's actually very simple. Your laptop is capable of creating an ad-hoc wireless network that allows data to pass between it and the device that connects to it. In this case, we're going to create an ad-hoc network between your laptop and your iPhone so that your laptop can use your iPhone's data connection. Simple enough, right? Setting up the ad-hoc network varies depending on what operating system you're using. On OS X, it's a breeze:
Just click on Create Network... on your Airport drop-down.
Give your ad-hoc network a name and set up a password if you like.
That's all there is to it. It's a little more complicated if you're on a Windows laptop, so here's how to set up an ad-hoc network in XP and here's how to do it in Vista.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Tethering
Once you've set up your ad-hoc network, tethering your iPhone to your laptop is abreeze. Just open your iPhone Settings, tap Wi-Fi, and select your newly created network.
Then head back to your home screen, launch PdaNet, and flip the WiFi Router switch at the bottom of the screen.
What Else Do You Need to Know?
PdaNet stands out among its competition because—unlike the other methods we've seen—once you're rolling with PdaNet, every application on your computer has full access to the internet. Most other methods set up a SOCKS proxy, so only applications supporting that proxy will work. PdaNet runs in the background, so you can leave the application running and do other multi-tasking on your phone if you need to. The one thing you need to be particularly aware of when using PdaNet is your battery. While running, PdaNet will suck the energy from your battery with the vigor of an aggressive teenage makeout session. Even with my phone plugged in and charging, I still see a net battery drain overall. So plug in your iPhone while you're tethering or your phone will die quickly. Other than that, PdaNet works like a charm. I called this method the easiest setup, and although the steps may look fairly involved, once you learn to set up the ad-hoc network on your laptop, it takes under a minute to get your tether on. Whether you've been using PdaNet or another tethering method, let's hear more about your experience in the comments.via[lifehacker]
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