Iphone

So it was the news of the day: Someone managed to activate tethering on an AT&T iPhone 3G by means of a “carrier support file”, a.k.a. “ipcc”. Here in Japan, the story was a bit more tricky : Softbank declared that they would not support tethering on their network and had no plans to do so in the future either.

Nice! So, with those brand new Macbook Pro without any pc express card slot, how are we supposed to use Softbank’s data cards? This bothered me to no end thus I went on a search for a Softbank carrier support file that I could modify somehow. I stumbled onto this very interesting post on a Japanese blog that talked about the same thing, but with a beta version of the iPhone OS 3.0.

OK, well, doesn’t hurt to try with the official release, right?

Now I need to get my hands on that damn file. Turns out, it was right on my hard drive at work since August 2008. So I went to work and modified the file (which incidentally is just a bundle in a zip archive with a special extension) and tried to update my iPhone with it. The steps are simple :

1. for Mac OSX in the Terminal, execute defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE
   forwindows, execute C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1 in a DOS window
   
2. plug your iPhone to your computer via the USB cable
3. in iTunes, display the summary page of your iPhone
4. while pressing the “alt” (option) key, click on the “check for update” button
5. you will be presented with a finder window. Locate the Softbank_jp.ipcc file, select it
6. iTunes will now update your iPhone with the modified carrier settings
7. Once finished, unplug the iPhone, go see into Settings>General>Network, and voilà!

Oh, before I forget, if Apple or Softbank issues an update through iTunes, wait a bit before updating… you never know…

For Windows just turn on tethering and connect your Iphone using USB cable or bluetooth, and enjoy the tethering.

Linux

Use your bluetooth only to enjoy tethering using Iphone

Use “blueman” application and configure using “Network Manager”

To install blueman

# apt-get install blueman bluez bluez-compat

Using blueman, search, add, bond to interface, trust and activate network access point. Then “bnep0″ interface will come out

Don’t forget to connect to device from Iphone

Use dhclient to get IP address from Iphone

Enjoy tethering

ps: for ubuntu user use blueman package and upgrade bluez package from this site:

• deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
• add key using command :

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 951DC1E2

References

• http://w00kie.com/2009/06/18/activate-tethering-on-softbank-iphone/
• http://xn--9bi.net/2009/06/17/tethering-iphone-3-0-to-ubuntu-9-04/
• deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• The Linux Phone
• iPhone Wireless Sync with Linux