Hacking the iPhone...
One of my biggest problems with the iPhone has been an inability of it
to tether a laptop to the internet. Everything is in there to do it.
At first, Apple didn't allow it. Then they put tethering support into
OS 3.0 but AT&T won't supported it. It forces you to purchase another
means of accessing the internet from your laptop if you want to get
online while cruising.
Not any more...
Being "stuck" in Charleston has given me time and access to
downloading the few hundred megabytes of files needed to hack the
iPhone. Once downloaded, the "jailbreaking" took about 5 minutes. I
couldn't believe how simple it all was. Back when I was an 18 year
old hacker, I made things much more difficult. Not today's breed of
hacker - they make it all too easy.
Once jailbroken, you're able to load non-Apple-approved software onto
your phone. One program, PDANet, allows you to use the iPhone to get
your laptop online. It connects to your laptop over WiFi - the iPhone
connects to the internet and then acts like a local hotspot on your
boat. From there, any device (one-at-a-time) can connect to that
iPhone hotspot and use it to access the internet. Using this
methodology means no drivers, no software installation, no nothing -
just some minor network connection setup - almost no different than
getting online at a Starbucks.
Here in Charleston, AT&T is giving me a 2,500 mbps connection - that's
faster than Castine DSL. I'm posting this email to T&T on my tethered
Mac using my iPhone right now. It works incredibly well and is giving
me a faster connection than the WiFi on the Megadock here.
The documentation on doing this is quite confusing especially in
regard to un-jailbreaking your iPhone to get it back to normal. This
will be required if there are new OS updates, iTunes updates, etc. A
full article is planned describing all of this with simple step-by-
step instructions. Honestly, it's trivial to do.
By the way, we're not "stuck" at all - we're having a great time here.
---===
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53RPH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine
www.activecaptain.com
The Interactive Cruising Guidebook
Our cruising blog:
http://takingpaws.blogspot.com
Our live tracks:
http://tinyurl.com/ActiveCaptainSPOT
..
It connects to your laptop over WiFi - the iPhone <<
connects to the internet and then acts like a local hotspot on your
boat.<<
Have you tried this, or even tested yet, the Verizon Droid?
John & Cyndi Esch
Carrollton, TX 75006
Fet-Esch,a 48' Chung Hwa Seamaster
Currently "Backward Looping" and lying Anchorage Marina, Baltimore Inner
Harbor
Jeffrey-
I sent you email your email to a buddy with an iphone & got back the
following. You or anyone else have any further thoughts?
"Jailbreaking the iPhone is not a good idea. It exposes it to viruses like
the one recently from Australia. There is also a lot of info hacking and
hijacking going on now with jailbroken iPhones".
Michael Wilkie
Dancin' Dolphin II
Willow Berm Marina, Cal.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeffrey Siegel" jeff@activecaptain.com
To: "Trawlers-and-Trawlering" trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 6:31 AM
Subject: T&T: Hacking the iPhone...
One of my biggest problems with the iPhone has been an inability of it to
tether a laptop to the internet. <snip>.
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
"Jailbreaking the iPhone is not a good idea. It exposes it to viruses like
the one recently from Australia. There is also a lot of info hacking and
hijacking going on now with jailbroken iPhones".
Thirty seconds with Google yielded this:
and this:
The latter link states that risk will be minimized (perhaps
eliminated) if you simply change the root password to something other
than the default. This seems obvious to me.
Anyway, the risk of malware on Windows is demonstrably higher!
Best,
Steve
"Jean & Michael" jdmw@sbcglobal.net writes:
"Jailbreaking the iPhone is not a good idea. It exposes it to viruses like
the one recently from Australia. There is also a lot of info hacking and
hijacking going on now with jailbroken iPhones".
Complete BS. I've run a jailbroken phone for 24 months (we develop iPhone
software and that was the only way to do it in the early days). If you're
smart enough to hack an iPhone, you're smart enough to either (a) not do
stupid stuff or (b) keep a special hacked phone around for fun and games.
The equivalent T&T statement would be "Running 2 micron filters is not a good
idea. They can clog when you drop plastic spouts into your tank. There is
also the risk that your engine might stall when you stop for your mandatory
customs exit inspection in Key West."
Scott Welch
Chief Evangelist, Open Text Social Media Group
www.opentext.com
905 762 6101
"Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn
out." - John Wooden
Have you tried this, or even tested yet, the Verizon Droid?
Because I'm cruising, I haven't even seen a Droid yet. My
understanding is that tethering is an expected feature that hasn't
been implemented yet.
"Jailbreaking the iPhone is not a good idea. It exposes it to
viruses like
the one recently from Australia. There is also a lot of info hacking
and
hijacking going on now with jailbroken iPhones".
The moment you wake up in the morning, you are subjecting yourself to
security issues. In our digital world, it's a good idea to understand
the issues and make reasonable attempts to protect yourself. I'll
certainly talk about that in our how-to article. The reality though
is that the biggest risk you face is having someone physically steal
your iPhone when you aren't looking. Getting all worked up about some
virus or some type of security hole is mostly a waste of time.
---===
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53RPH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine
www.activecaptain.com
The Interactive Cruising Guidebook
Our cruising blog:
http://takingpaws.blogspot.com
Our live tracks:
http://tinyurl.com/ActiveCaptainSPOT
..
I can't speak for "The" Droid, But I traded my much hated Palm Pre for
the Samsung Moment on Sprint. It is an Android phone and after 1 week, I
LOVE IT. The openness of it is amazing. I have to say, considering
Verizon's history in locking down their phones, I am amazed that they
even allow the Droid, but I guess even Big Red can change. Sprint does
not allow tethering on the phone at this point, but I downloaded and
installed PDANet and in five minutes I had a working tethering solution
and as long as I don't use rediculous amounts of data, I'm sure I won't
have any problems from Sprint and it wont cost any extra $. This version
of PDANet is supposed to work on any Android phone also. I think with
Android Google is going to own the smartphone OS market the same way
they own the search engine market.
just my 2 cents worth