Palm Pre data tethering is a go, Sprint be damned
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jun 15th 2009 2:46PM
posted Jun 15th 2009 2:46PM
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Pooned!
OH Snoop!
Haha... when there's a will, there's gonna be a way; like it or not =D
I just tried this on my pre and it actually worked! Hopefully them make it a bit easier because its kinda a paint to go through all those steps each time.
Yeah, I hate when I get it all over my clothes and it doesn't come off.
thats what she said
I don't know why they always warn about usage. I know that I have been tethering my iPhone for almost a year now and use it all the time. I have never had a single overcharge from ATT... Why would it matter if if browsing on the phone or watchign youtube on the phone vs my laptop. It takes the same ammount of bandwidth either way. Considering its piping through the iPhone anyways they can't tell a difference between the traffic.
Finally, took long enough.
...
In 6 months you're going to hear a conversation that goes like this
Guy 1: "What iPhone is that?"
Guy 2: "This isn't the iPhone THIS is the Palm Pre!"
Guy 1: "I've never heard of the Palm Pre."
Guy 2: "That's because the iPhone 3GS came out before anyone heard of the Pre"
Guy 1: "Do you like it"
Guy 2:"ehh, I would rather have the 3GS but I bought into the hype that everyone was making about the Pre"
Guy 1: "Isn't that what you did with the Blackberry Storm too?"
Guy 2:"Don't remind me"
@murmermer: it wasn't funny the first time.
@ mur
Well, I actually thought both were quite compelling, and decided that I'd rather keep $720 in my pocket over the two year contract as opposed to getting raped by ATT. I'll use that to buy a nice 42" HDTV on black friday, TYVM
waiting for caps on bandwidth..hehe
Done and done.
now hack it and install a full sized keyboard.
I'm sold. Now I need to find one. ASAP.
all of the stores i called gave me the waiting list answer. when I told them that I was switching from verizon, the answer changed from waiting list to " come in and we'll have one ready for you"
I'm switching from AT&T. I'm sure they'll be accommodating. Where did you find it...Sprint store or 3rd party?
I got the waiting list answer on monday afternoon and Tuesday morning they call me telling me they got them in stock ready to pick up. Three of them to boot :D
Hopefully they're just keeping an eye on the Pré accounts.
I still occasionally use my hacked 755p for casual tethering to the lappy.
Doubt they are watching to closely or at least AT&T isn't. I have been tethering on the $30 personal PDA data plan for over a year without issue on a Tilt. $60 PDA person + tethering plan be DAMNED!
Please. No acute accent on Pre.
Thanks.
Yeah, that would make it a "Pray" instead of the "Pree" that it is, coincidentally making you look like a tool.
or 'Prey' even
Silly Americans with their silly networks and silly cheap high end phones...wait.
Woooord.
LULZ!
So sad. My phone does right now tethering, yep, not Pre :)
But hope that Pre will come in my lifetime to Europe, WOHOOO!
...how old are you exactly?
...sorry for his English not first language.
Too old, damn booze, excuse me->
@OneLove
That's right sir. Well noticed.
Coming to Europe sooner than you think: http://bit.ly/ecQ44
ok, i didnt do the hack but was able to pair up with my laptop and received the error message on the phone but the tethering is working, i'm writing this while tethered....WTF?
I'm waiting for the, "Whoops, that was WiFi, n/m."
no wifi, made sure to turn airport off first
You sure you're using a Pre?
Yes, it is a pre!!! I know, suprised me too...it worked the other day no problem, only thing different today was the error message on the phone and then i refreshed the browser and it worked....i didnt do anything!!!
Need irrefutable video evidence please...
Put the bong away. Drink some water. Eat some Cheetos.
yup I just did this with my laptop and pre....not that extraneous way either just a simple bluetooth connection and I'm in there.
the mandatory update should fix that
You should be able to clone your NAI to the data profile's NAI settings using QPST...if you have the MSL of the phone Sprint.
Oh well, Nilay! Why? Why did you use expressions like Palm "forbidding" and "threatening to shut down" PreDevWiki (see first post)? Palm "politely cautioned them" not to discuss tethering publicly or it might get Sprint to complain, in which case PALM would be forced to do something .... see: no discussion, no complain, Palm won't do anything, keeping one (or both) eye shut .... they aren't "pretty aggro for a company that needs to court all the developer support it can" .... So why does Nilay twist the facts as if Palm was aggro, forbidding and threatening? And if anything tethering gets shut down ... Palm thought by cautioning people to keep a low profile users could benefit from tethering despite Sprints objections ... well thanks ENGADGET for contributing however small part to make it EVEN more public ... Good job, Nilay! Don't want Palm users to have tethering, don't we?
It's a neat hack and all, but I definitely wouldn't use this in anything other than an emergency, since you have to reconfigure every internet application you want to use to use the SOCKS proxy.
Hopefully there will be a cleaner solution soon, tethering can be nice during long train rides and that sort of thing.
Actually, if you're using a Mac you can set the SOCKS proxy under the Network Settings (if you're using a network connection) so all the traffic is routed through there. Did that when I set up a SOCKS proxy through SSH to my desktop at home, worked fine.
"This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the
beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying
for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and
you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color,
without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals."
Let's hope that sprint just enables tethering on their own. No fees etc.. I've been able to tether with my touch diamond since i got it and can't understand how this is any different. Not to mention all the phones that can use PDAnet. If Sprint had free tethering they'd be getting tons new subscribers..
AMAZING! Now someone, PLEASE make a Palm Pre tethering app that uses Ad-Hoc (with an SSID and Encryption key you can set on the fly from the phone) and a SHCP server... PLEASE!
Kudos to whoever did this though. :-D
"We've got a feeling Sprint's watching Pre accounts with an eagle eye.We've got a feeling Sprint's watching Pre accounts with an eagle eye."
Right, just like Sprint has been watching WM accounts since it's 100x easier to hack it for tethering than the Pre...
hehehe, silly american carriers, they give you unlimited data transfer, but they don't allow it to be used for tethering :)
LOL, ain't nothing sacred on the intratubes.
I think that this is going to be a major class action lawsuit. It's crap when you pay for unlimited data plans and have a phone with the capability to connect via usb or bluetooth and the phone company chooses to disable this function. Thus, turning your smartphone into a dumbphone for profit. Forcing you to pay double for data services just so that you may connect to your laptop is robbery.
Data Plan $39.00 / month
Tethering Data Plan $79.00 / month
damn, that is robbery
do you at least get free data transfer when you pay for tethering or do you have to pay $120 per month to have both?
i get tethering for free because my carrier doesn't consider it a function different from data transfer (because it's not)
Jesus. For that price, I'd just buy an air card.
What I don't get is why Sprint is lax on tethering for some phones, and others not. Example one of the big selling points for our company moving to Sprint from Verizon was Sprint allowed blackberries to tether for free, whereas Verizon wanted $15 per line per month for blackberry tethering.
To the people assuming Sprint is just going to "shut down" accounts for tethering, I don't think they're going to turn out to be quite the nazi's that Verizon are about unlocking/uncrippling features. I could be wrong but that's not the vibe I get.
A SOCKS proxy != tethering. It won't do you a damn bit of good with many applications. What we want is layer 2 tethering, i.e. wired or Bluetooth DUN (dial-up-networking). That is guaranteed to work with anything you throw at it, no special configuration required.
I love my Pre... and this gives me even more reason to love it!
My girlfriend is a programmer and has been waiting on this phone for a while now. Too bad they are locked in with Sprint (we have verizon). She has a ton of old Palm programs and still carries around a palm from 4 or 5 years ago (I dont think they make it anymore). She doesnt want the Centrino because according to her it has half the processing speed. I cannot wait for this to drop for other carriers so I can get this for her. She would love to dig into this phone.
Centro fail
It does seem like a horrible choice on palms part, they base of costumers would be much larger if they went with someone like att or Verizon. I'm sure att and have loved having 2 high profile phones, seems like apple may have held the iphone contract over their heads to stop them from buying the pre one.
Sprint has historically been Palm's launch partner dating back to the Handspring Treo 300 and Treo 600. They're willing to take the chance on these leading-edge devices whereas VZW is extremely gun-shy about any unproven devices. The BB Storm is the exception, but they were desperate for an iPhone competitor (note I did not say "killer").
Sprint has much better data plans than anyone else in the business. Combine that with generous 25% employer discounts (check with your employer) or even a 10% discount for credit union members (mutually exclusive w/ emp discount), and it works out to much less $$ than AT&T or VZW.
Why the hell did Sprint disable tethering on the Pre? I thought it was a problem with the Pre that was the limitation.
Sprint allows tethering on a wide variety of phones, so why not this one?
Sprint Allows tethering if you pay for the service. You get the message if you aren't paying the additional fee. The workarounds are for tethering without having you account enabled for it.
On a side note anyone notice how much data the Pre uses. Idk how they are going to tell. I don't surf any more than my old HTC touch which I would use under 10 mb a month. On my account usage page I have used over 400Mb since the launch day. I also would like to note I use wifi at work and home where I use it the most. The OTA update to 1.0.2 was done over wifi so that 400mb doesn't include that 70mb download.
Android FTW. Using PDANet (http://www.junefabrics.com/android/index.php) it couldn't be easier:
1. Install PDANet on laptop
2. Connect USB cable to G1
3. Surf, check email, etc etc
Works great. No root needed.
I will admit though, I was at the local Sprint store this weekend playing around with their demo Pre. It's a pretty slick phone / webOS.
Sprint - your company is dying. The Pre is a good but possibly final chance to save yourself. Why piss off customers!?
Suggestion: avoid torrent seeding.
of course they allow it. they can watch all they want. how many people are actually gonna tether their laptop to their phone. you bought the smartphone so you don't have to carry a laptop. i have been able to tether my blackberry to my laptop for a while. it isn't that great. enjoy tethering, i guess.
nilay, any of you guys plan on trying it out and displaying a video of your own?
free?
Not bad
what it going on.wait for gsm pre.
The dev group better get something going where they can block these auto-updates from Palm before they rain on the tethering parade.
i have never met anyone that tethers their smartphone to their computer. for dorks that need to have everything even though they use it once in a while then fine. get excited. complain because you don't have it. i have never met anyone that is that desperate to get their computer hooked up to the internet that they have to tether their phone to their laptop. once or twice a year it would be necessary, maybe, but not really. who cares. your smartphone should be capable enough to do the things you need to do with the network you are on. my phone is in my pocket, my laptop is in my office or hotel room. if you need tethering then you are among the few that will actually use it. get excited because sprint has allowed this for a while. unlike the other service providers.
I tether my kaiser at least once a week.
I think Sprint would have a hard time defending in court their ability to tell you what you can do with your data. What if I download an image on my phone and then bluetooth it to my computer? Is that okay? Now what if I write a program that lets me do that in an automated fashion? That's tethering...
I might see Sprint's point if their data plan was unlimited, but it's actually only 5 gigs ("unlimited" is latin for "5 gigabytes" I think). So you pay for five gigs - who cares how you use it. Whether it's your phone or your computer, Sprint has budgeted 5gb to your account. Their excuse that computer's use too much data is bunk.
Hey Jake you re tard, people do it all the time. Maybe you've never been to an airport or something. People who don't want to pay $10 for an hour of Wi-Fi tether and they do it via bluetooth with the phone still in their pocket. So you can't really observe the process.
It's much better than carrying a laptop card and having that crap stick out the side of your laptop.
While its quite ok that you told off jake, do try not to epically fail in the reply system yourself when calling someone else a "re tard".
^^^ No moron, the filter filters out the whole post if I don't space out the word.
ROFL. Those are my EXACT feelings towards AT&T.
@sr
call me a re tard all you want. if you use that method all the time then good for you. i agree with everything you said. except the re tard part. if you need tethering then get a phone and a service that allows it. that would be sprint service with a number of different phones they offer. my palm 700p did it, my blackberry curve did it. are you calling me a re tard because you want the palm pre with that feature or just because you aren't looking at me directly. say what you want, but a re tard i am not.
if you are complaining about the $10 an hour for wifi in the airport then get a tethering plan. it's cheaper. or switch to sprint and use your phone. re tard.
No moron, because you said this:
"i have never met anyone that tethers their smartphone to their computer."
Only a certifiable moron would say something like that. It is done commonly and I've done it with many unlocked phones before. In fact every Nokia and Motorola in the last 9 years have supported it in case you didn't know. Before that phones supported CSD (go look it up), that was in the late 90s. So really this all may be new to you, but it isn't to me.
Tethering should be a 100% allowable activity. What kind of rudeness motivates a carrier to do this.
#1 rule for myself is if the phone or account wont support it, then i wont buy it.
If i'm paying for the phone and the data then what right does a carrier have to dictate how i use that data.
Its rediculous to have 2 modems for the same purpose. What about the land fill ATT... What say you? Hm? fairly un-environmental, maybe we should set the environmental lobby dogs on you? Any one got Al G's number?
I thought you said 'Ali G'. That would be funny...
"Why is it that everything you fund is so crap?"
Trust me I have that for AT&T also.
Sprint Executives are a bunch of greedy pigs. Unlimited data ...... means Unlimited data. The nerve of those bastards to say that unlimited data is now limited. We should start a class action lawsuit for false advertising .and for punitive damages. As a matter of fact. I am going to start one. Ill be calling my lawyer in the morning. Who is going to join me?
Ehh no thanks. Maybe another time.
OK. My lawyer is taking the case. Ill be putting up a website with more information on how to join us. Feel free to email me at gf44t5fgfd4e32@gmail.com for more information.. I think it time we put an end to this charade.
Since you have network connectivity over the USB connection (using what i assume is the cdc_ether driver that most phones use for ethernet over usb) Its trivial to get full layer 2 connectivity, just enable ip forwarding on the pre with (as root): echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward, and then add a SNAT/MASQUERADE rule in the Pre's iptables (if it doesnt already have iptables, you can use the Debian arm binary) and the appropriate rule in the forward rule to allow traffic from your bluetooth/wifi/usb interface to go out on its hsdpa interface (probably ppp0 or something). Then just set a static ip on each end (pre and host computer, and you're done.
Isn't Linux great?
My mistake, i meant evdo not hsdpa, forgot you use that over there. Also, what i described is actually layer 3; routing between a private network on usb/wifi/bluetooth to its public connection using NAT to make the other machine seem to have the same IP as the Pre. Layer 2 would be if you somehow bridged the evdo and the private interface, which I don't believe can be done. (There is such as thing as PPP bridging, called BCP, but it is not implemented in the current Linux kernel)
You can't compare one phone with another, based solely on your shit US networks. I've got unlimited data and tethering on my Blackberry - same as I had on WinMo before that. Your telecoms is slow, outdated and overpriced... you can't blame Apple or Palm for that.
I've had PDANet on 3 different palm phones on Sprint..
Why wouldn't I be able t 'upgrade' to the PRE?
Could someone break the tethering process down into plain english for a tech simpleton?