PdaNet – iPhone Tethering Application

Available In: Cydia       Price: Free  

PdaNetI finally got some time to go on vacation so I thought I would try out PdaNet. It’s an application that shares your cellular internet connection to your laptop via Wifi. Note that I’m on a PC running Windows XP. I’m not sure the process for Vista or Mac.

First, install the app from Cydia. Then change your wifi connection on your laptop to adhoc. To do this right click on your wireless connection in the task bar down by the clock, then select “View Available Wireless Connections”. Then on the left click “Change Advanced Settings”. Another window will open; select the “Wireless Networks” tab and then the “Advanced” button. Here you will change to adhoc connection. This will allow you to connect your iPhone’s wifi directly to your laptop without a router.

Now you will need to go to your iPhone’s Settings application and connect to your computer’s wifi called “NETSHARE”. Once this is connected all you need to do is open the PdaNet application and the connection should be established.

If you close the application you will lose your connection. There is a way around this by using the backrounder app. I’m using it and it’s working great!

Warning: This will drain your battery fast! I had it plugged into my laptop and it still had trouble keeping my battery above 20%. Since I was traveling in a RV I was also trying to use GPS every once and a while which drained the battery even faster. I also had my brightness turned all the way down. I’m sure running the wifi, EDGE and GPS at the same time is very power draining. 3G would be worse.

Tethering your iPhone may be against your contract with your carrier. Please check with them before using this application.

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Comments

  1. what does tethering mean?

  2. Hi Douglas,

    I tested and wrote about PDAnet before and I really like it. Unlike you though, I can close the application and even lock my iPhone without losing the connection.

    I have an older version installed though, so it might be the reason why.

    Sebastien

  3. digitalentity says

    love this app…used it and it was a life saver. faster conn on edge then i thought. i think it was much faster then the phone actually uses it!!! would highly recommend it

    • I’ve felt the SAME thing. Browsing on the computer is much faster than on the phone with the same data connection.

  4. This app is by far the best one out there. Netshare and others make you configure your computer in all sorts of annoying ways. PdaNet works without any “proxy” dealings. It’s awesome.

    Tip to mac users. If you are nervous about AT&T finding you out.

    1. Be responsible. Don’t do more with your laptop than you’d do withy our phone. Don’t upload anything big.

    2. Enable Develop mode in Safari and tell it to be an “iphone”. This should make it harder for them to notice what you are doing. Or I might just be kidding myself. :-p

    I think tethering is only a problem if you abuse it, but it’s great to have when you really need it.

  5. Man, i’M like so ready to upgrade from 1.14!!! iWould, but i’M not really iNto playin’ games and what not on my iPhone…q:-/

    • Still on 1.1.4.. That’s oldschool man..
      The only thing I miss is video ringtones.. And i’m waiting for it to be ported for ages now

    • dude, my recommendation is to stay on 1.1.4. i upgraded bout a month or so ago and iPhone is slugglish now on 2.1 keyboard is less responsive and drags behind your typing. its froze a few times. eh, stay with 1.1.4 your not missing out on anything and will loose a couple cool apps like SysInfo (damm!)

  6. I had this app for a while and it’s amazing, just don’t abuse it!

  7. It works great in a pinch, but Edge on my 2g is painfully slow.

  8. It does work great. By far the simplest of them all to setup. I think the only thing that could make it easier is if the iPhone created the ad-hoc network and you just had to connect a laptop to it (laptops on a Domain cannot initiate ad-hocs).

    I also just wanted to say it DOES run in the background, as well as when the iPhone screen blanks:
    …from their website: http://www.junefabrics.com/iphone
    +PdaNet runs in the background so you can still use other iPhone features when PdaNet is connected. But when you are done with them, go back to PdaNet to prevent the phone from entering idle and drops your connection.
    +Version 1.3 has a built-in “insomnia” feature so you can turn off the phone when PdaNet is in the foreground and it won’t drop your active connection. This will conserve battery.

  9. there is another software but they haven’t developed iphone version one i used to use it on my nokia n95 and its work great with data plan especially when you have 3g phone
    it is joikuspot

  10. this may be a stupid question, but will dis work wit the iPod touch???

  11. SeijinZero says

    I can’t get the network to show up on the wireless list in my iphone. any idea what I’m missing? I’ve been dying to get a program like this and it’s killing me that I can’t getting it to work. I’m trying to set it up with a brand new acer aspire one, if that means something.

    • digitalentity says

      means your not broadcasting ad-hoc from the laptop. make sure that you have the network up on the laptop, then try to connect to it.

      hope this helps

      btw… what os?

    • oh, sorry, the XP version. I DID follow the directions and select the ad hoc network, but I think I’m missing a step somewhere, something they don’t mention in the official PDANET instructions. After I switched to ad hoc, it still listed my router as an available network connection. There’s not some totally obvious to everyone but me wifi thing that is left out of the instructions? BTW, I also tried disabling the firewall. Is it possible that the hardware doesn’t support it? I don’t see how hardware would matter, but I’m not sure.

    • SeijinZero says

      UPDATE! NOTICE TO ANYONE HAVING TROUBLE CONNECTING:
      I figured out what I was doing wrong. the directions in this post say to modify an existing connection, but the ones on the official PDAnet page say to create a new connection by clicking “add” under “preferred networks” in the same “wireless networks” tab as described above. then give it a name and set to to be ad hoc. ALSO!!!!!! in the “advanced” tab next to “wireless networks”, you need to turn on internet sharing. NO ONE ELSE MENTIONS THAT. Then it finally worked for me….. kinda. I loaded one page, then lost the connection and can’t seem to get them to connect again. the iphone says it’s connected, but the laptop says it’s looking and can’t find it. weird! oh, well! I got it working once, I can do it again.

  12. I’ve been using it on the train most days to London and back. My iPhone jumps from 2G to 3G with no problems. I have sold my USB stick that I used to use. Great program

    John

  13. this sounds great! What I dont understand is why you would get into trouble? Or is it only if you are with a contract carrier? What about phones that you bought cash, with no specific data plans?

    • I don’t understand. If your phone does not have a data plan, then there is no point in tethering. This is so that you can use your phone’s data plan with your laptop. The reason some may get in trouble is because a few companies do not allow this. If you want to tether, you have to pay an extra amount for that. In the case of AT&T and the iphone, you are not supposed to tether AND there is no option to upgrade to a plan where you can.

      That being said. The phone itself uses as much bandwidth as a laptop would ( if you behave yourself ) so the rules are a little stupid.

    • thx. Niw i get it.

  14. I’ve had this app since it came out in Cydia. its a great app

    1. this app CAN RUN IN THE BACKGROUND without the need of brackgrounder.app

    i use this app almost daily its great, NO NEED FOR BACKGROUNDER!!!

  15. Is it completely free or just a demo? PDAnet is not free on other platforms and I’d be surprised it’s free only for iphone.

  16. i had a problem with connecting to the wifi net on the iphone, even thought i followed every instruction on this website, but then i saw that there where instructions in the PdaNet application! they are a little different, but they really work well, and now my wifi is up and running :) you should write the other instructions here too, so everyone can see them :) ( btw, im using XP)

  17. this is no doubt the best app to do the job
    used it to get around blocks on my school laptops (can’t block my internet connection lol) plus my laptop didn’t log my search results because i wasn’t logged in to the school network
    iphone network goes faster than my school network too! lol

    be responsible

  18. Works like a charm on XP and others, but some (including myself) still have unresolved issues with Vista 64-bit Home Prem. The problem seems to occur early: connecting with the ad-hock network. The iPhone sees and connects ok, but Vista 64-bit never recognizes the iPhone connection. It seems like it’s a Vista 64-bit HP problem and not PDANet — but nothing is absolutely sure until the problem is resolved. I’ve had easy success with XPSP3, Vista32bit, and MacOS 10,4,11 …. but not this darn Toshiba Vista 64 M305D-4829. PDANet support was great and suggested changing the WiFi channel #. But, not possible on this system.

    • Hi Mes,

      I have the same problem. I have HP dv6910US laptop. PDAnet work on the 32bit Vista home till I upgraded to 64bit because I needed for virtualbox. The PDAnet stopped working and I can’t find anyone else with similar issue or feedback.

      Thanks!

  19. how do i get the develope menu opened on a mac osx?

  20. I’ve been using this with one of the new Macbooks and it’s brilliant on 3G. As Doug says it kills your battery, and my iPhone gets a bit too warn but for on the go surfing it’s excellent.

  21. just PERFECT! It does load all pages and everything in your computer works, inclusive the client mail. Before I have manually setup, but some pages, skype, client mail, etc was not working. Now with PdaNet, everything works/load very good.
    I’ll definitely donate!

  22. I close the application, and it still keeps my connection. Also, using 3G uses more battery, but if you connect through your computer usb, it will keep on more time

  23. Hi, I have Windows XP media center edition SP3. The funny part is that I can’t see the Wireless Networks” tab after doing left click on “Change Advanced Settings”. It takes me directly to the “Wireless Network Connection Properties” without giving me any options to create Ad-Hoc connection. Why there is no desktop client of PdaNet to install it on Windows PC to be an alternative solution for people who can’t change their network settings easily? Anyone got any idea of how to fix this issue? Thank you.

  24. Excellent! I was able to get it working on my Win2k3. Nice app! I love it.

  25. I can not find pdanet to download it – does anyone know the scoop?

    thanks

  26. Hi All,
    I started doing a research on using my new iphone 3G as a wireless router this weekend and am still very confused with the whole sequence/procedure of getting the phone set up. I feel so stupid since everyone said it supposed to be a very easy set up.
    I searched around and all I found was instructions on how to set up your computer and lap top but none mentioned the links of cydia, pdanet, pwnage package?? (pardon my ignorant but I googled and couldn’t find the links to download the application).
    my phone is not jailbroken, so is below sequence correct?
    1. jail break the phone?? (could someone provide the link?)
    2. download the “PWnage” package?? (could someone provide the link?)
    3. download cydia?? (could someone provide the link?)
    4. Set up laptop and phone (saw multiple sites that listed this instruction)

    Thank you so much in advance. Have a great one.

  27. Forgive me if i am wrong – but i think it has been pulled – i could not fine it.

    Thanks

  28. how do i get this to work on my mac?

    • First, install PdaNet from Cydia. Then you create a network using your Mac notebook. Here’s how you create a network on your Mac…

      – Go to the wifi status indicator at the top menubar.
      – Select “create network”
      – Make sure you have “Require Password” checked off so no one else can use your connection.
      – Now connect your iPhone to the created network on your Mac.
      – Launch PdaNet and it will tell you once you are connected.
      – Surf on your Mac.

  29. I’ve been using PDANet for iPhone for about a month now and I find it to be pretty good, however sometimes it runs down the iPhone battery even when plugged into power. To my knowledge, there is a 14 day trial period, after which the program will only work for http protocols and other programs will not work tethered. However, it updated after 14 days and I’m unsure if this update also has a trial period or if its the full version without having to pay a dime.

    I have spoken to AT&T sales reps and they say the iPhone 3g has a soft cap of 5gb a month of bandwidth (kind of gives “unlimited” a new name, eh?), so according to them you can go up to that without AT&T ripping you a new one. After that, though its $.45/megabyte so watch out, unless you want to end up in the poor house. You can check how much bandwidth you’ve used at the AT&T site, though so as long as you are torrenting or streaming movies or whatever, you should be alright.

    I personally don’t mind throwing caution to the wind and visiting flash based sites etc, perhaps I’ll feel dire consequences as a result. EEK!

  30. I have had pdanet working on a few other computers(using xp) but on my new computer,(HP 235DX) running vista home premium, the computer is always”waiting for users to connect” much like Mes is experiencing above. Have any of you had this problem and found a solution?

  31. Vijay Agrawal says

    I have just Installed PDA and it working great without doing much configration you just you use net on your PC/Laptop.

    Can somebody tell this is trial version and if we buy then it coast how much.

    thanks to devlopers of PDA

  32. how can i get connection of wire internet of iphone to my laptop