about:stuff

The following walkthrough details how to set up the Netshare program (no longer available as of this post) from the App store to work as a tether for a Windows Vista computer for wireless access to the internet over the AT&T EDGE or 3G networks. It has been compiled and simplified by myself through forum posts over at Macrumors.com. I cannot take credit for authorship but I did edit and simplify (hopefully) the procedure.

• Create an Ad-Hoc Network:

1. Right click your wireless connection next to your clock in the taskbar or Start–> right click ‘Network’ –> Properties
2. Select Connect to a network
3. Select Setup a connection or network –> Setup an ad-hoc network
4. Create your ad-hoc network and name it something unique (I named mine Netshare)

• On your iPhone:

1. Open Settings –> WiFi and select any wifi connection you’re on and ‘Forget’ it.
2. Select ‘Netshare’ (or whatever you named yours)
3. Select Netsharer’s little arrow
4. Keep it on DHCP
5. Note your IP Address, mine normally is 169.254.129.3
6. Note the subnet mask (usually 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0)

• Open your Network and Sharing Center

1. On the left it says Manage Network Connections
2. Right click Wireless Network Connection, hit Properties
3. Left click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties
4. Go to ‘Alternate Configuration’
5. Type 169.254.129.2 (notice the last octet is one less than your phone’s IP address)
6. Type 255.255.255.0 (or 255.255.0.0, whichever you’ve noted from your phone) as the subnet mask

Using the Alternate Configuration saves you from having to change everything back

• On your iPhone

1. Open NetShare
2. Your Proxy IP will say 169.254.129.3, Proxy Port 1080
3. CONNECTIONS MAY SAY 0 with 0 In/Out but this changes every time you utilize the network on the computer side

Last but not least, the computer side proxy. This is the most crucial part of the step as you may need to download a specific proxy program and configure it correctly to get this to work! The following 2 methods have been confirmed to work:

• Firefox

1. Open Firefox
2. Type about:config in the address bar to bring up the configuration controls
3. Find: network.proxy.socks_remote_dns (on false) (you can narrow it down with keywwords at the top)
4. Double click that line to change it to true

• Proxifier (free trial, but costs $$ after 31 days but there are alternatives to this, but I’m not condoning those practices here)

1. Settings –> Add –> Address: 169.254.129.3 Port 1080 Type: SOCKS 5
2. Make sure this proxy is checked so it knows to use it
3. Click OK until you’re back at the main screen, this also closes to the system tray

If there are any errors please leave feedback!

(courtesty mostly of Bourne Perfecti, SimplyBlue, muckymuck, as well as others in the HOW TO over at Macrumors.com)

P.S. Some tips that I’ve kept in mind to make it easier to understand the process:

• Your computer is connecting through your phone via proxy, so use the IP address your phone creates when it connects to your ad-hoc network. This is found in the Wifi settings (the little arrow link on the network you’re connected to) and simply subtract one from the last octet (the last .XX number of the IP)
• To make it easier I also just use the same subnet mask that was generated for me in the wifi settings of the iPhone, which for me is 255.255.0.0 in the TCP/IP settings on my laptop end
• Network and Sharing Center will ALWAYS show a broken (red x) link between the network and Internet sections of the connection. This does NOT mean you are ‘offline’.
• Netshare must always remain open and active (i.e. no sleep mode on iPhone while connected) in order for it to continue to work. So be sure to keep that sync cable connected as your battery will get hammered.

Feel free to use this guide in whatever way you wish but if you’re copying it and republishing it please credit the original authors! (including those I’ve listed above)

Update (08/06/08): I found myself in a situation that called for Netshare but I was stuck on getting it to work. I struggled for hours, retracing my steps, redoing the setups and being generally stumped. All my settings were correct and Proxifier testing came back successful. After hours of trying everything over and over again I decided to hit the ‘‘Reset Settings’ button on the toolbar for Proxifier and entered the same information I just had in there. After that I was magically in business, browsing the internet on AT&T’s network.

It’s anyone’s guess as to why this happened, maybe the Norton update/install interefered with the settings in Proxifier but let it serve as a warning to any other Vista users out there.

Update (08/13/08): I just had an issue where I could not connect no matter what. All of my settings were correct because I had just used the connection hours earlier. After redoing everything once over and still being stumped I remembered several posts on the Macrumors boards about needing the Edge/3G icon showing instead of thw Wifi one on the iPhone for the connection to work. So I closed Netshare and hit the Safari browser and while it was loading the page my icon changed from the Wifi to the Edge network. I closed Safari, opened up Netshare, hit refresh on the browser on my laptop and presto! I was online.