Internet tethering allows you to use the iPhone as a modem and share the Internet connection with laptop. It’s a great feature come with iPhone. However, for certain reasons, not every carrier supports the tethering feature. If your carrier does not support tethering for iPhone, that’s another good reason for jailbreaking.

Recently, cirdan and sbingner have developed a hack called TetherMe that enables tethering on jailbroken iPhone even your carrier does not officially support the feature. As claimed, the hack should work with any carriers and supports all iPhones with iPhone OS from 3.0 to 4.0.1.

TetherMe has been tested to work on all iOS versions from 3.0 to 4.0.1 and works by telling the iPhone to allow tethering on any APN that is used for iPhone data. As a result, you should not be charged extra from your phone company as all tethering data appears to come from the phone itself.

TetherMe also bypasses signature checking and allows you to edit your carrier bundle manually if you so desire. This is required to enable MMS functionality on T-Mobile. TetherMe does NOT enable the loading of APN configurations from .mobileconfig profiles at this time.

The hack is available on cydia for US$1.99 only. To use the hack, you can simply launch cydia and search for “TetherMe”. After installation, reboot your iPhone to effectuate the change. There is no icon for this hack. Once rebooted, you can go to Settings -> General -> Network to turn on Internet Tethering. Alternatively, you can also install Tethering Toggle for SBSettings.

For now, TetherMe can only support tethering on iPhone. If you are using iPad 3G, please don’t install it as TetherMe does not work with it yet.

Other than TetherMe, you can also check out MyWi app that can also share the iPhone’s Internet connection with other devices (e.g. iPad).

As always, feel free to leave us comment and share your thought.

In May 2009, Novatel Wireless introduced a brand-new type of wireless access solution called MiFi for use in laptop and other mobile devices. Not all mobile devices are come with the support of 3G internet connection. But nearly all of them will come with the WiFi support. MiFi is actually a portable wireless router that lets you create a WiFi hotspot and allows your WiFi-enabled devices (e.g. laptop) to gain 3G access anywhere. With MiFi, you no longer need to hunt for WiFi hotspot or Internet cafe to connect to the Internet. Various carriers such as Verizon Wireless, 3UK, Vodafone are already offering MiFi solutions with different data plans.

With a basic understanding of MiFi, here is a great application I am going to introduce to you — MyWi. In brief, the MyWi app can easily turn your iPhone into a wireless hotspot just like what MiFi does. The app supports jailbroken iPhone only running iPhone OS 3.0 or up. It is now available via Cydia or Rock App for US$9.9.

How to Turn Your iPhone into a WiFi Hotspot

Though the app is available via Cydia, the best is install it using the Rock App. I have tried to install the app using cydia. It just doesn’t work for me. So, the below procedures will walk you through the installation process via Rock App. If you already installed Rock App on your iPhone, go straight to step 3.

1. Launch cydia and search for “Rock App”. Tap “Install” to install the app.

2. Once installed, go back to home screen. Tap “Rock” icon to launch Rock app.

3. If this is the first time you use Rock app, you will be prompted to sign up a Rock account. Simply follow the instruction and apply the account. It’s completely free.

4. Under “Rock” tab, click “MyWi” and then tap “Trial” , followed by “Confirm” button to install the application.

5. It just takes a while to complete. When done, you will be prompted to soft restart your iPhone. Tap “OK” to continue.

6. Okay, now you should have the MyWi installed on your iPhone. Tap on the “MyWi” icon to launch it.

7. When launched, accept the agreement and the MyWi notice.

8. That’s it. You are now ready to turn your iPhone into WiFi hotspot. But before that, I suggest you to enable “WEP Security” and fill in the “WEP key”. You can think of the WEP key as the password for accessing this WiFi hotspot. This can prevent unknown users to use your hotspot for accessing the Internet.

9. After that, switch the “WiFi Tethering” to ON. MyWi will then automatically initiate your iPhone as hotspot.

Note: When MyWi is enabled, it will increase the battery consumption. So, please take note.

That’s it. Now you are ready to use your iPhone as 3G modem to share the Internet connection with other WiFi devices. Say, if you have a WiFi version of iPad, you can now connect your iPad to the “Simon MyWi” WiFi network and gain Internet access via iPhone’s 3G network.