How to use your iPhone as a modem for your PC or Mac

Mon, Sep 15, 2008

Apple iPhone, Apple iPhone 3G, Apps, News

iphone modem iphone modem 2

Addition released their application iPhoneModem Saturday through the MMi Cydia source. They describe it as “an application for the iPhone that aims at making it really easy to use the iPhone’s internet connection on your computer,” and they deliver.

iPhoneModem makes tethering a 10 second process.

For those of you running OS X Leopard (iPhoneModem is actively working on the desktop client for MacOS 10.4 and Microsoft Windows, as well as a 1.x iPhone version of the app), you simply install their Leopard app (200kb .dmg direct download), open it, and press connect. This will automatically create an ad-hoc network named iPhoneModem on your Mac.

This app does NOT create secure networks for your iPhone, so be careful when using passwords etc.

Get it for your jailbroken iPhone from http://www.iphonemodem.com/ via [modmyi.com]

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59 Comments For This Post

  1. denise Says:

    I have iphone 3g and windows xp service pack 3 and i am trying to connect addition’s iphone modem 2.

    I downloaded the software on the computer and it does connect.
    I jailbroke my phone and downloaded the software for the iphone.

    the computer says it is connected.
    the iphone says i get edge and wifi connection, but i do not get the connect option.

    i can’t connect the iphone to the computer to get internet access.

    can you please help?

  2. Ryan Says:

    I have the same problem. The status on my iphone says, “open iphonemodem on Mac/PC. Is that what yours says?

  3. Chris Says:

    Yes I have the same problem with “open iphonemodem on Mac/PC” in windows xp. Help anyone?

  4. Sebastian Says:

    Same problem here, anybody who can help??

  5. jerry ray Says:

    mine did the same but then it worked perfectly out of no where and now it does the same again.

  6. paul Says:

    make sure you have got the latest version of 2.2 for iPhone…

    but I will say, this app is very temperamental, and I’m sure its to do with your router setup more than anything or any other wireless settings you may have previously installed on your machine.

    It’s really difficult to make work, and I’ve given up!

  7. axelstudios Says:

    Exact same problem here… PC helper program reports that it’s Connected, but the iPhone never gets past the “open iphonemodem on mac/pc” status…

    Hope they fix that

  8. Liuk Says:

    Same here. Let me know when it’s fixed, i will buy then…

  9. Vanni Says:

    I have been using the previous version or the app and I had no problems at all, it worked perfectly. Now I changed my iPhone to 16gb and installed the new version of iPhone Modem2 , the same on my macbook and now there is no way to let it work….. the status on the phone keeps saying “opening iphomemodem on mac/pc” I really don’t figure out which is the problem. Anyone find a way to fix it?? I must contact the Addition’s staff to let it go.

  10. Alice Says:

    Ditto – help anyone!!

  11. Santos Says:

    I get the same proble “open iphonemodem on mac/pc” i see a lot of people are having problems. I think we should get our money back.

  12. vabeachkevin Says:

    Same problem here. Just does not want to work. I’d be happy to pay the ten bucks if it worked.

  13. AnotherUser Says:

    Guess what. Yup, that’s right, I too have the “Open iPhoneModem on Mac/PC” message and nothing else. PC says connected but it seems the phone doesnt know it.

    Bugs bugs and more bugs. Luckily I didnt buy the app, I only have the unregistered version and I can safely say I wont be buying the registered version if this is all it can do :-(

  14. LittleTechGirl Says:

    I am having the same exact problem. I emailed support a couple of days ago and have not heard back. I do recall testing this and getting it working ok the first version. At some point I updated the app and now it does not work.

  15. bfenberg Says:

    Ditto!!! I have sent two requests for help to addition. No reply yet. I’ve noticed that in the “log report” on the iphone, there’s an entry that says: “MAC/PC:NO”. When I had the previous version of iphonemodem installed, the log always said “MAC/PC:YES”. I’m thinking that there’s a setting (hidden somehwere?) on the iphone that is prevents a complete connect.

  16. simon Says:

    Same problem, I bought the iphonemodem 2 and iphone says: open iphonemodem on your computer but the computer is waiting for the iphone… sucks! what to do?

  17. Parker Says:

    Same issue, phone says to open on mac/PC. Paid for the app, thought this would fix the issue… did not

  18. vladyo Says:

    Same issue

    I’ve remarked that i can ping iphone’s IP when iphonemodem is running with status: open modem on iphone
    Once i launch the app on iphone, ping is time out

    Has anyone ever downloaded a bit via this app???

    There was another app that ran smoothly, will remember its name and post it here

  19. MeMyselfandI Says:

    Yeah Was working fine the last days. And today just no way of getting it up and running. Damn, shelled out 10 bucks for this crap and now the Support wont even return emails.

  20. MeMyselfandI Says:

    Ok Got a solution for you guys:

    For some bizarr reason – everything you need is already running on the iphone – you just need to start the stupid Iphonemodem application on the laptop. Then if your application wont connect. You will have to go into the settings of your Iphonemodem Connection, and change the IP adresses that are entered there. The where configured to 169.254.254.254 – wont work. Take the WiFi Ip adress that is assigned. I presume it is 169.254.118.95 (it was in my case, check if it is the same in yours..)

    Then in the proxy / DNS settings of your IphoneConnection just enter the correct ip, and voilá working pleasure. It is abit strange that the iphone app on the iphone is saying “open iphonemodem on mac/pc” and the traffic counter is counting. But what the heck. works for me

  21. admin Says:

    Great job! :)

  22. TJFree Says:

    Where at the settings you are talking about? Cannot find where to change the ip address.

  23. NoahFence Says:

    Still not working for me… I’ve messed around with the ip address in the iPhone and the network settings on the Macbook… nothing!

  24. dumb it down Says:

    @ MeMyselfandI or someone else who has had success with this workaround:

    Can you give us dummies a step by step?

    Thanks so much in advance!

  25. bfenberg Says:

    Second post …

    I too have tried to tweek the internet setting on my computer to gain a working internet connection. Thus far, I have not be able to troubleshoot the problem.

    Step-by-step … I open the helper app on my computer and click connect. Before I open the modem app on my iPhone, I first verify that the iphonemodem network appears as an available network on the iphone Settings / WIFI settings screen. (((Note: I have tried to connect either by 1) first selecting the iphonemodem network on the WIFI settings screen AND BY 2) just simply let the iphonemoden app automatically select the iphonemodem network. Either way, I am unable to “fully” connect to the internet!!!))) Then I open the iphonemodem app on my iPhone and let it do the rest! In the end, my iPhone still reads “Open iphonemodem on Mac/PC” while the helper app reads “Connected.” The computer says its connected and the iPhone says its connected. It’s as if THERE IS A CONNECTION but no internet access.

    There are two settings areas that I have tried to tweek:

    1)”Wireless Network Connection Properties” – see Control Panel / Network Connection / General Tab / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) – setting for “Use the following IP address” indicates the iPhone’s IP address for Default gateway. All else is blank. (Note: when the iPhone is disconnected, this setting normally appears blank and “obtain an IP address automatically” is normally selected.)

    2) “Internet Options” – see Control Panel / Internet Options / Connections Tab / LAN settings – under Proxy Server, select “Use a proxy server for you LAN”. Click Advance – HTTP, Secure, and Socks all indicate the iPhone’s IP address. !!!!!!CAN SOMEONE PLEASE VERIFY THE PORT SETTINGS FOR ME!!!!!!! When the iPhone is disconnected, “Use a proxy server for your LAN” normally is selected and the advance settings for HTTP, Secure, and Socks normally appear blank.

    As I have indicated in my previous post:

    I’ve noticed that in the “log report” generated by the iphone, there’s an line entry that says: “MAC/PC:NO”. When I had the previous version of iphonemodem installed, the log always said “MAC/PC:YES” and everything worked perfectly.

    As for the little icons that light up on the iPhone and on the helper app, everyone of them lights up sequentually and as expected except for the third and last icon appearing on the iphone (the little square box).

    I’m not sure how else to better explain my problem and what I have investigated in my attempts to get the iphonemodem application to work properly.

    I have now attempted to contact the folks at addition SIX TIMES without any response!!! I suppose they don’t want to help troubleshoot or help us with our problem. If I could REVIEW their problem online, I would be very critical. All I want is to use my iPhone as a modem!!!!

    Help … Help … Please Help!!!!

    Thanks!!!

  26. Marc Says:

    I’ve been trying to get this application to work for about to weeks now. I found this website and saw that memyselfandI posed with some I.P. addresses.

    I tried both of the ones that HE/SHE offered. For me the I>P> address 169.254.254.254 worked for me.

    I’m currently right outside of philadelphia. I;m not sure if thaat could be the reason it worked or not but its worth a shot. I hope I atleast helped someone

    once again. Thanks MemyselfandI

  27. JHCCP Says:

    Same for me, i played around trying to match ip addresses on my mac, but it still says open iphonemodem on Mac/PC
    could someone help ??
    thank you very much

  28. timothy Says:

    Same problem here ( open etc…..)

  29. bfenberg Says:

    This is my third post to this forum.

    It’s a straightforward question with a straightforward answer. For those of you who are ABLE to use the iphonemodem to work properly (with internet), it would be HELPFUL if you could verify the following IP address settings and any associated port definitions (please respond to the following):

    1) ”Wireless Network Connection Properties” – see Control Panel / Network Connection / General Tab / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) – there are five boxes there, three for IP addesses and two DNS server addresses. Question: Can you PLEASE VERIFY each of settings? If any of these settings are blank, please say so.

    2) “Internet Options” – see Control Panel / Internet Options / Connections Tab / LAN settings / Proxy Servers (also see Advanced to see additional proxy settings including port definitions). Question: Can you PLEASE VERIFY each of these settings? If any of these settings are blank, please say so.

    Thank You!!!

  30. iPhoneUserGuide Says:

    Hi Everyone,

    we’ve had a number of issues with version 1 as well, however version 2, seems to be very stable, we recommend upgrading to iPhone Modem V2, and your problems should go away.

    Have fun…

  31. Olddoc Says:

    I solved the problem in my wofe’s portable and her iphone with windows Vista by quite a staraightforward solution:

    Opening the connection in the wifi network configuration and changing the GATEWAY to that number specified on the iphone screen. I just assumed since the network was there (could ping the iphone) and could not reach the internet though, that there was something odd with the gateway leading out. Worked fine.

    The problem is I cannot reproduce it now on my windows XP portable with my iphone… I’ll have to check the ip adresses on that one and see if the network is created by pinging thmy iphone. Not tonight though…

    It seems it could be that not only the ip adresses but also the gateway are messed up, probably since the installation of 2.2 on the iphone, don’t know, it used to work fine for me before (changed with 2.2 upgrade? not sure)

    And yes, technichal service is just non existent….

  32. 台灣人 Says:

    i would like to say thank you to all
    becouse
    my iphone modem can’t work in mac mini for2days
    but
    i find the way here is

    it’s so good
    when i chage the ip (169.254.254.254)
    yes
    it’s work
    thank you
    i am from taiwn
    thanks

  33. Kenneth Says:

    Hey buddies!

    I had the same problem and used a lot of time looking for an answer…

    Use iPhoneModem zsrelay instead!! It’s free and easy to use (get it through cydia).
    http://iphonemodem.de/en/index.html

    To bad i paid for iPhoneModem already! :-D

    take care

  34. edd Says:

    i have also just found the last post made by the guy from taiwan to work.

    just change to a static ip address on your iphone of 169.254.254.254 and hey presto it connects and i am able to browse the internet

  35. mista ashraf Says:

    This app is a piece of crap. It works and then it doesn’t work. It’s so unreliable. I’d pay an extra $5 for it to work when I actually need it to work rather than whenever the hell it wants to work.

  36. eparoxysm Says:

    For MAC, iPhoneModem 2.2.0:

    1. Install iPhoneModem 2.2.0 on Mac.
    2. Install iPhoneModem 2.2.0 on iPhone 3G using Cydia.
    3. Open Network settings in System Preferences and select the TCP/IP tab.
    4. Run iPhoneModem 2.2.0 on Mac and click ‘Connect’. iPhoneModem creates an adhoc network on your computer. Select ‘Configure IPv4 Manually’. IPv4 Address reads ’169.254.2.77′ (could vary). Subnet Mask reads ’255.255.0.0′ (could vary).
    5. Select DNS tab. DNS Servers reads ’169.254.156.212′ (could vary).
    6. Select Proxies tab. Protocols configured (checked) read Web Proxy (HTTP), Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS), and SOCKS Proxy. Web Proxy Server setting reads ’169.254.156.212:3128′. Secure Web Proxy Server setting reads the same. SOCKS Proxy Server setting reads ’169.254.156.212:1080′.
    7. Go to WiFi settings on iPhone 3G and turn WiFi on. Select the iPhoneModem network.
    8. Run the Modem application on your iPhone 3G. Everything should connect up just fine. Open Safari and start browsing the internet.

  37. eparoxysm Says:

    Notes:

    In step #3, the manually configured IP and subnet mask address can really be anything.

    For example:

    IPv4 Address: 169.254.1.1
    Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

    Select OK and then Apply if you change these values and iPhoneModem will reset, automatically updating the configuration. Close and re-open the Modem application on your iPhone 3G to reconnect.

    The application should automatically program all the proxy configurations in your computer. If not, use what I posted above, or matching variations of such in all respective fields and you should be fine.

    Eventually you’ll get it to work, you just have to match everything up correctly. The setup/installation isn’t always as automatic as it is supposed to be.

  38. s3lynx Says:

    i did the this

    “just change to a static ip address on your iphone of 169.254.254.254 and hey presto it connects and i am able to browse the internet”

    this was a very long and tedious project, but its as simple as that. it will not work with firefox unless u change the proxy setting but will work with safari..

    btw. im using a mac

  39. John Says:

    After the above play-by-play you guys should have no problems. As a matter of fact on PC as long as you have everything set up to automatic IP and automatic DNS you should be golden.

  40. sisint Says:

    I paid 10 bucks. It worked first few days. At sudden, it did not work. I sent request to the co. but got no response. Do anyone know how we can get back the money?

  41. rmac Says:

    OK, it appears to be a problem with a cached DNS setting. You need to get the renewed DNS of your iphone when it’s configured as a modem.

    Here is what I did, step-by-step:

    1) Start the iPhoneModem helper app on your Mac or PC, and click Connect
    2) Select the iPhoneModem network on your iPhone under the Wi-Fi settings
    3) Launch the Modem app on your iPhone and write down the IP address in the last row (WiFi: iPhoneModem (169.254.x.x))
    4) While the iPhoneModem app is running on the computer, open Network Preferences, click Advanced, then go to the DNS tab
    5) In the DNS tab, enter the IP you copied from above
    6) In the Proxies tab, change the checked IP addresses to the same one you entered in (5)
    7) Click OK
    8) Click Apply
    9) Everything should reset on the computer and you should be able to browse as normal.

    Really flaky app…hopefully they get this fixed.

  42. rmac Says:

    By the way, in the post above I forgot to mention to get rid of the DNS entry that is already in there. You should just have one (the one you copied from (5) above) when you’re finished.

  43. L_E_O Says:

    You da man rmac! It’s really just as simple as matching the DNS entries and proxies to the wifi IP on the iPhone… something that the helper apps should be doing on their own.

    Addition… this should be a very easy fix. What’s the hold up?

  44. Yan Says:

    How to setup IphoneModem with Windows Vista.
    Required softwares:
    Iphone side : cydia to install the iPhoneModem zsrelay and open ssh.
    PC side : Proxifier(the latest is 2.8 version but its only 31 days trial).

    Steps to work:
    1. Install open ssh and iPhoneModem zsrelay on your iphone 3G.
    2. Using PC setup an ad-hoc network, give a name (let say ‘test’) then setup a password with WEP or WPA. Set the ip address and subnet mask, but don’t fill in the gateway. Example: 192.168.1.1, 255.255.255.0
    3. Turn on wifi on iphone then connect to the ad-hoc network(test), then set the ip address to static to 192.168.1.2, subnet mask 255.255.255.0
    4. Check the connection between the PC and Iphone, by using PC command prompt. Ping 192.168.1.2. make sure there’s a reply, if not maybe there’s something wrong with the connection. Try do diable/enable wifi at iphone side.
    5. Install Proxifier at PC side. Set the proxy ip address to iphone ip address, use port 1080 and socks5. Example: 192.168.1.2, port 1080
    6. There’s a test button in proxifier to test the connection, if its all ok. Then it will work.
    7. Then you can use the internet. Just make sure you don’t set any proxy on the application.

    email me for more information.
    y4n32@yahoo.com

  45. ty Says:

    help its like the aplication isnt there on the app store its really weird and when i try to dowload that like they give my”direct download” that dosnt work it doesnt reconize the file so i have no clue u guys any help?:(

  46. tjj Says:

    what if my laptop is not a MAC…I have a DEll can I still use my Iphone 3Gs as my modem?

  47. tjj Says:

    I do not have a MAC. Can I still use the above steps to and use my IPhone 3Gs as my laptop modem

  48. Yury Says:

    Still Lost here…..These settings only in the phone? (have mac)

  49. Jacky Says:

    I have Iphone 2G, jailbreak firmware 3.0, I want to use this type of software too, but I not sure does it work on iphone 2G, OS 3? or is there anyway that can make it work? thanks

  50. MarkyMk Says:

    If you are on iPhone 3.0, just use Internet Tethering in Settings on your iPhone.

  51. shahzad Says:

    my handset dost display IPhone modem in the “choose a network manue” how can i use it as modem with Vista laptop

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  55. Kathy Says:

    I did jailbreak and installed iphonemodem and it works great. It however has made me unable to connect my laptop with my router even though I turned off the wifi and disconnected from iphone modem. Why wont my laptop use my router any more? I dont want to have to use the iphone all the time as modem cause it wont work as phone when being used as modem.

    Help Please.

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