Whoopy ti-yi-yo, tether your iPhone

The new Apple iPhone 3GS. Photo / Manu Fernandez

There's a lot of to-do about iPhone tethering overseas so I assumed it would be a similar drama over here. Not so - Vodafone NZ supports tethering. It's free. It's easy. And it's super useful!

What is tethering? It's using your iPhone (or other cell phone) as a modem for your computer when you're away from your broadband connection, so it's particularly relevant to, but not exclusive to, laptops.

It's not new technology, or exclusive to Apple, by any means. In fact, tethering goes back at least 5000 years to ancient times, with the Mesopotamians and Egyptians using it to stop their domesticated donkeys and horses from getting away. These people also had apples, and even windows, of a sort.

OK, I realise I am being an overly clever hoofed mammal of the horse family with a braying call. I used Bluetooth tethering with an Ericsson phone already about eight years ago, so I could get online when I was out with my old Mac PowerBook, but it was such a mission I only did it twice. Besides, it was painfully slow.

Tethering is possible with many other phones and other computers, so long as they have Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology, or some other method of connection.

The reason it's a big deal now is that 3G puts cellular networks up to speeds similar to low-end broadband. That's quite fast enough for downloading emails and some browsing.

The usual way to get online like this before with a laptop was using a Vodem, in Vodafone's case, or the T-stick in Telecom's, both of which require separate account plans. Plus you need to buy a Vodem or T-stick itself, of course, a little USB thing that acts like ... a tethered cell phone.

The beauty of tethering your existing iPhone is that you already have a data plan for it, and that it tethers using Bluetooth so you don't have to plug anything into your laptop. If you're anything like me, you haven't even come close to using your data cap, (mine's 250MB), mostly thanks to doing the most serious downloading either inside my wireless network or to my Mac before transferring data (songs, apps, audiobooks) to my iPhone when I plug it in for charging.

Note that you can check how much data you're using easily: on the iPhone, open Settings, touch General, touch Usage. (I reset this data at the end of every month when my plan ticks over so I know how many calls I can make.)

If you have installed OS 3 on your iPhone (tethering won't work with the iPod touch as it's not a phone), now you can go online whenever you're in cell reception. That's most places in New Zealand.

Here's how:

First, turn on Bluetooth. On a Mac, open System Preferences (from the Dock or Apple Menu), click Bluetooth, check the On box. On a Windows PC, gee I dunno. Call support or something. (Yes, I'm being facetious. I'm sure it's easy. There there.)

On your iPhone, turn Bluetooth on too: open Settings, touch General, touch Bluetooth, turn it on. (By the way, if it's on and you're not using it, you may as well turn it off for a bit more battery life.)

OK, now click General at top left of your iPhone's screen to go back one. Touch Network. Scroll down a bit if you need to but you should see 'Internet Tethering'. Touch that, turn it on and you'll see the following instructions:

To connect with USB

1 Plug iPhone into your computer.
2 Choose iPhone from the list of services in your settings.

To connect over Bluetooth

1 Pair iPhone with your computer
2 on iPhone, tap Accept or enter the code displayed on your computer
3 Connect iPhone to computer.

Those instructions are a little sparse. To pair your iPhone with your computer, you need to open Bluetooth Setup Assistant. This hides away in Core Services in your System's library but you can access it easily by putting the Bluetooth menu up on the right of your monitor - just turn the 'Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar' option on in the Bluetooth system preferences.

Now, from that menu, choose 'Set up Bluetooth device'. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant walks you through the pairing process. On the next frame, I find it better to choose 'Any Device' (covers all bases) but 'Mobile Phone' works too. Press Continue; it will 'find' your iPhone (presuming it's within 10 metres and Bluetooth is on) and '__'s iPhone' should appear in the list. Select it and choose Continue.

Your Mac will figure out stuff about it, so press Continue again when it becomes active.

Now a passkey is generated that you'll have to enter on your iPhone. (You only have about 30 seconds before it times out, but you can redo it.)

So on the iPhone, type in the number and touch 'Connect'. Now on your Mac, you'll get the 'Use device as network port' option - make sure this is ticked and press Continue.

All going well, you will have created a PAN - a Personal Area Network. You're nearly there.

Now, in that Bluetooth menu we put at top right of your Mac, go to Devices and choose the 'your name' iPhone and choose Connect to Network from the pop-out. The Bluetooth icon will change shape to show you're connected, and you're online.

As long as Bluetooth is on for both devices, you should be able to connect from this menu now at any time. Cool, huh?

It's easy to test. Make sure AirPort is off, and your broadband ethernet cable is not plugged in, and try and open a web page or check email. I've done it on two different MacBook Pros, and it's great.

- Mark Webster mac.nz

Pictured above: The new Apple iPhone 3GS. Photo / Manu Fernandez