Babysteps guide to tethering your Mac to your iPhone using Netshare
What is this about?
This babysteps guide is designed to help you tether your Mac to your iPhone using Netshare. It assumes you are using Leopard 10.5.4 on your Mac, and that you have an iPhone running 2.0 software. No doubt someone smarter than me will draw up instructions from people who want to tether their iPhone to a Windows PC. That is beyond my competence.
Before we start:
What is tethering? Tethering is a way of enabling your Mac to “share” your iPhone’s data connection. It is a way of accessing the Internet from your Mac when you don’t have any other way of connecting to the Internet. Your iPhone in effect takes the place of a wireless modem, enabling you to access the Internet on your computer anywhere you have a mobile signal.
Why would you tether? For most people, tethering makes sense if you need to have access to the Internet from your computer but are away from your usual broadband connection. In my case I will use tethering when I am travelling, as an alternative to the usually outrageous charges that Australian hotels impose for in-room broadband access. You can tether anywhere you have a mobile signal.
Tethering using these instructions should work using either a first generation or 3G iPhone running 2.0 software, although obviously it will be much faster and more useful on a 3G iPhone.
These instructions have been prepared with all care but no responsibility. They worked for me, and should work for you.
First of all:
1 Install Netshare on your iPhone. Netshare is in the App Store and costs $12.99. You can buy Netshare via the App Store button on your iPhone by searching for Netshare. Alternatively you can install Netshare via your Mac by going to iTunes > App Store and searching for Netshare, and then synchronising the application on your iPhone via iTunes.
The next steps all take place on your Mac:
2 Open System Preferences > Network.
3 Click the "+" symbol at the bottom left of the window. On the box that pops up, select "AirPort" as the interface, and type a name for your tethered network alongside "Service Name". In my case I chose "Tether". Click create.
4 Select the drop down arrows alongside “Network Name” and select “Create Network…” A new window should open headed “Create a Computer-to-Computer network.”
5 In the “Name” box, type a name for your new network. I called mine “Tether”.
6 If you want to password protect your new network (recommended), click the “Require Password” box and then type in your chosen password in both the “Password” and “Verify” boxes. Follow the instructions as to the length of the password that appear above the “Password” box. Once you have entered your password in both boxes, click OK. That window should close and return you to the “Network” window.
7 Select “Advanced…” at the bottom right of the Network window.
8 Select “TCP/IP” (second option beneath the heading “Airport”).
9 Make a note of what you see on this screen in case you have troubles later reverting back to your usual network.
10 Select the drop down arrows alongside “Configure IPv4”. Select “Manually”. In the box “IPv4 Address” type an IP address. A number that works is 192.168.10.2. Leave all other settings on this window as they are. Do not click “OK” just yet.
11 Now select “Proxies” which is the seventh option appearing under the heading “Airport”. Make a note of what you see on this screen in case you have troubles later reverting back to your usual network.
12 Select the drop down arrows alongside “Configure Proxies”. Select “Manually”.
13 Under the heading “Select a protocol to configure”, select “SOCKS Proxy”. If necessary, de-select all other options under that heading.
14 In the long box under the heading “SOCKS Proxy Server”, enter an IP address for your iPhone. If you used the number 192.168.10.2 at step 10, then you should now type in the number 192.168.10.1. If you used some other number at step 10, then you should use that number again, but substitute 1 for the final string.
15 In the smaller box underneath the heading “SOCKS Proxy Server”, type 1080. Leave all other options on that window as they are, and select “OK”.
16 You should be taken back to the “Network” window, and you should have a green dot next to “AirPort” and the word “Connected”. If not, you have done something wrong and you should retrace the above steps.
17 You can now close System Preferences.
The next steps all take place on your iPhone:
18 Go to “Settings” on your iPhone. Select “Wi-fi”. Make sure that wi-fi is on by selecting “On” alongside the heading “Wi-Fi”.
19 Under the heading “Choose a Network…” you should see the name you chose at step 5. In my case, the name “Tether” appears. Tap the name. If you chose a password at step 6, enter it now and then tap “Join”.
20 You should now see a tick next to the name of your network. Tap the blue arrow to the right of your network name. It will take you to a new screen.
21 Under the heading “IP Address”, tap “Static”.
22 Tap the “IP Address” field. Delete any number currently in that field, and type in the number you chose as the IP address for your iPhone at step 14. If you have been following my suggestions, that number will be 192.168.10.1. There is no need to fill out any of the other fields; just leave them as they are.
23 Press the home button at the bottom of your iPhone. Now tap the Netshare icon on your iPhone.
And that’s it:
You should now be able to access the Internet from your Mac, using your iPhone’s data connection. Test it by opening Safari and surfing to a website. It may take a few seconds for the initial connection to kick in.
If you are having trouble, try opening Safari on your iPhone and loading a webpage to kickstart a data connection. As soon as the page starts loading, hit the home button at the bottom of your iPhone and then tap the Netshare icon again. Now try surfing to a webpage on your Mac again.
And another tip: if you are using iChat with a Netshare connection, you need to change a setting. Go to iChat > Preferences > Accounts > Server Settings and check the "Connect using proxy" box. There is a similar setting in MSN Messenger > Preferences > Accounts.
Some final things to bear in mind:
24 Tethering only works while Netshare is open on your iPhone. If you receive a call, or tap the Home button, or your iPhone goes to sleep, you will lose your data connection. The connection is easily reinstated just by opening Netshare again. You should not have to take any other steps. If you want to stop your iPhone from going to sleep, tap Settings > General > Auto-Lock > Never.
25 Tethering will quickly run down your iPhone’s battery, so it is recommended to connect your iPhone to your Mac using the USB cable to keep the battery charged.
26 Monitor your data usage to make sure that you do not exceed the allowance on your mobile phone plan. Excess data usage charges in Australia are incredibly high. You can check your data usage on your iPhone by tapping Settings > General > Usage. If you look under the heading “Cellular Network Data” and add up the figures alongside “Sent” and “Received”, you get your total data usage since the date and time that appears underneath the box headed “Reset Statistics”. I recommend you select “Reset Statistics” on the first day of your monthly billing cycle, so that you know how much data you have used during the current month. Note that the numbers under “Cellular Network Data” may differ from those recorded by your carrier (no-one seems to be able to explain why there are discrepancies). The numbers relate only to cellular network data, and do not include data sent or received while connected to the Internet via wi-fi.
27 Do not tether when you are overseas (or use data on your iPhone at all for that matter) unless you are prepared to pay data roaming charges which are truly unbelievable. I strongly recommend you disable data roaming to avoid a very nasty surprise if you go overseas and inadvertently send or receive data. You do this by going on your iPhone to Settings > General >Network and select “Off” alongside the words “Data Roaming”. Do it now!
28 I had some difficulty at first reverting from a tethered connection to my usual home wi-fi network on my Mac. You shouldn't have a problem if you have followed step 3; it should just be a matter of opening System Preferences > Network and then selecting your usual method of connection (usually AirPort if you use wi-fi). If you have trouble, do the following:
- On your Mac, go to System Preferences > Network and select “AirPort” (assuming you are wanting to connect to your usual wi-fi network). Alongside “Network Name” select your normal wi-fi network.
- Select “Advanced”, and then select “TCP/IP” which is the second option under the heading “Airport”.
- Put in the details that you noted down at step 9.
- Now select “Proxies” (seventh option under the heading “Airport”). Put in the details that you noted down at step 11.
- Click “OK”.
- Click “Apply”.
You should now be back on your normal network with Internet access restored.
Hope people find this useful
