Activate tethering on Softbank iPhone

A friend of mine, @kuriburi, just sent me this to publish for him, so here you go:

So it was the news of the day: Someone managed to activate tethering on an AT&T iPhone 3G by means of a “carrier support file”, a.k.a. “ipcc”. Here in Japan, the story was a bit more tricky : Softbank declared that they would not support tethering on their network and had no plans to do so in the future either.

softbank-tethered

Nice! So, with those brand new Macbook Pro without any pc express card slot, how are we supposed to use Softbank’s data cards? This bothered me to no end thus I went on a search for a Softbank carrier support file that I could modify somehow. I stumbled onto this very interesting post on a Japanese blog that talked about the same thing, but with a beta version of the iPhone OS 3.0.

OK, well, doesn’t hurt to try with the official release, right?

Now I need to get my hands on that damn file. Turns out, it was right on my hard drive at work since August 2008. So I went to work and modified the file (which incidentally is just a bundle in a zip archive with a special extension) and tried to update my iPhone with it. The steps are simple :

  1. in the Terminal, execute defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE
    on windows, execute C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1 in a DOS window
  2. plug your iPhone to your computer via the USB cable
  3. in iTunes, display the summary page of your iPhone
  4. while pressing the “alt” (option) key, click on the “check for update” button
  5. you will be presented with a finder window. Locate the Softbank_jp.ipcc file, select it
  6. iTunes will now update your iPhone with the modified carrier settings
  7. Once finished, unplug the iPhone, go see into Settings>General>Network, and voilà! screenshot

Oh, before I forget, if Apple or Softbank issues an update through iTunes, wait a bit before updating… you never know…

Update: I updated the link with the latest file from @kuriburi that activates both tethering and MMS. よろしく！

Update: This IPCC file does not work with 3.1 update. If you value your tethering, do not upgrade yet.

377 thoughts on “Activate tethering on Softbank iPhone”

  1. there is a way to get around the 3.1 update, but you have to have the thethering running when you do the update and it will stay there, but this has been done in the USA from what I know and it works, but not sure if it would work with softbank, if anyone has an extra one could be worth a try

  2. natedog:

    kurisu may have tried that already. Read couple of posts up. He said he upgraded his firmware but when he went to use it, the feature disappears. That is how I read it.

  3. yep, but looks like he did it without the teathering running, meaning without it functioning and then when he went to try it out it did not work, what I ment by “ON” is as if you were browing a page from your computer while using the tethering on your iphone, then while having itunes open you run the update, the phone will still be teathering while it updates and that’s how they did it in the usa, not sure if it will work on japan

  4. so i updated my 3gs to 3.1.2 and ran the new version of pwnage to jailbreak my device but i have not found anything that re-enables tethering even with a jailbroken phone.

    any updates?

  6. Sorry, I don’t have a mac. The instructions says it is for a mac only.

    It looks like we have to ssh into the phone and copy the modded file and change the permission? Can’t we do that on a PC aswell?

  8. you also have to cat the files together. there is an exe version of bspatch and the rest is pretty easy.

    i should note that i did try this and it didnt work. when i downloaded a seperate mobileconfig and selected tethering it told me to contact softbank.

    the benM website was updated today to note that he/she is working on an update for 3.1 so it might just be a compatibility issue with 3.0 mobileconfig files…

  9. I have been using MiWi and it works on 3.1. It is awesome. 10 bucks. It makes a wifi spot. It is much easier to use than pdanet and uses less battery. Also, you can leave the app and use other apps. It has a bluebar on the top when you are using it, like when you are in a phone call and you open another app.

  10. I just looked for MiWi on the Japan iTunes Store and couldn’t find it. Is this app. somewhere else?

  11. You won’t find it in appstore but its available in cydia / rock your phone under system category. You must be jailbroken.

    Here is a breif description of this app:

    All users have new 10 day trial!

    Create a WiFi HotSpot with a press of a finger! Wherever you are – you can connect your laptop or other mobile device to your iPhone easily!  You can also use MyWi to enable default USB/Bluetooth Tethering on 3.1!
     Features:
     – Create WiFi Hotspot to connect mutiple laptops or mobile devices to share your iPhone”s internet connection
     – 40 bit and 104 bit WEP Security to prevent others from accessing your WiFi HotSpot
     – Ability to enable USB and Bluetooth Tethering on your iPhone as well
     – Uses less battery and much faster then PdaNet due to native routing
     – Broadcasts the Network Name (SSID) – no need to fuss with creating an adhoc network on your laptop
     – Enable iPhone USB/Bluetooth tethering – even on firmware 3.1!
     – Shows up and down bandwith usage

  12. and does not say if it works on the softbank network either, as far as it looks, works on At&T, but softbank may have a different way of incription, so who kow!

  14. Easy Tethering for 3.1.2

    You can tether 3.1.2. Today I upgraded to 3.1.2 with iTunes and used Blackra1n RC3 to jailbreak (Win7).
    – After that use cydia and search for iphone-notes.de
    – Add the Repo
    – Search for tethering 3g – 3.12 (or 3gs)
    – Install and Reboot
    – Then install carrier settings
    – Got the info from here http://freeek.jp/blog/iphone/1256/

  16. sno00bysnacks:
    Would I still need to use blackra1n if I use a custom firmware on 3.1.2 that is JB already? Can I just install tethering for 3G and install the carrier settings?

    No issue with your phone after a reboot? The tethering menu is still there and you don’t lose wifi as I have read on the net?

    Thanks.

  17. I must have really been lucky then. I updated to 3.1.2 with itunes, and then used blackra1n (the regular one with no RC) to jailbreak my iphone 3g. I didn’t loose any tethering settings or network carrier entry settings…

  18. dagodsha:
    If you updated instead of restore, you may have been lucky. Is it still there after a cycle of the on/off button?

  19. Hi people!

    I’m in Musashino and bought 3GS a couple days ago. Now I have two softbank iPhone, the new 32Gig and the 3G I bought last year from softbank. I’d like to use MyWi to tether the 3G for some games, and also my laptop when I’m at starbucks working on my book.

    It seems that PDAnet users have stayed under the radar for months, but has everyone been using MyWi successfully under 3.1.2 without huge bills? Thanks :)

  20. Well, I followed sn00by’s instructions and I couldn’t get the thing to work. Gave up and started using PDAnet again (^_^) Would love to get back the old carrier settings hack, though…

  21. Hi this is my first post here. I got an iphone last week and Jailbroke it yesterday. I bought for the sole reason of connecting it up to my hpmini 1000. Put on PDAnet today and it all works fine, can someone say what the big difference is between tethering which this iphone has no screen for and the pdanet software that seems to do the same thing? Im new to all this, so be a bit patient with me.

    I had no idea until I started reading these posts that we werent supposed to be doing this tethering with softbank, Im a bit pissed about it really because as I said thats a big reason why I wanted the iphone.

    Anybody been hit with a massive bill? Should have known the 6,000 yen unlimited internet use maximum charge was too good to be true !!!

  23. i got it working!!! it was actually a cleaver little hack i pieced together from various sources. long story short — the hack works by using the files from mywi to enable teathering then manually deleting mywi leaving the options in place.

    im typing now on 3.1.2 tethered to my ubuntu 9.10 netbook via bluetooth with no problems what so ever

    Step 1: Goto Cydia, search for “MyWi” app and install it. MyWi will also install “RockApp” as a part of its package. Install RockApp manually if it isn’t installed automatically with MyWi app.
    Step 2: Now start RockApp and create a free Rock ID for yourself.
    Step 3: Sign in using this ID in RockApp and you should now see an update to MyWi app. Restart your iPhone once the update has been successfully installed.
    Step 4: Start MyWi app and turn on the option for USB/Bluetooth tethering.
    Step 5: Now simply navigate to Settings->General->Network->Internet Tethering on your iPhone and turn on the toggle for Internet Tethering.
    Step 6: open terminal
    Step 7: type su and enter password. if you changed your root password (you DID change your root password RIGHT?) put that in, otherwise, for the retarded, type alpine. a finger swipe south west will tab-complete. id highly recommend typing passwd and changing your root after you login. new iphone worms get around by jailbroken iphones with unchanged root passwords.
    Step 8: cd /private/var/stash/Applications
    Step 9: rm -rf Rock.app and rm -rf MyWi.app
    Step 10: hard restart your Iphone.
    if you blacksn0w-ed your jailbreak you will need to rerun the break. if you are smart, and did the pwnage jailbreak, your free to go.

    dont contact me about problems if you cannot get this working. im a busy man and dont have time to respond to people who hack their phones but cannot run rm. sorry. for those of you who can follow this, it works fantastically.

  25. you need to have the terminal application installed to make this hack work. search cydia.

    I also recommend running MyWi on the free trial just to make sure everything is good to go. Although it is a paid app, it’s a pretty damn awesome app, so if you can spare the dollars i say just stick with MyWi.

    OTHERWISE —>

    after you have successfully installed and TESTED MyWi

    open terminal
    type the following
    su — enter your password. if you haven’t changed your root password, you will type in “alpine” — if you HAVE changed your password, type that in now.
    !!!!!——–!!!!
    if you havent changed your password, type
    passwd
    and change “alpine” to something different.
    !!!!!——–!!!!
    cd /private/var/stash/Applications
    rm -rf Rock.app
    rm -rf MyWi.app

    hard reboot your phone. you should still have tethering listed under network. enjoy!

  26. Guys, just download MyWi from Rock after you jailbreak your phone, and you can either try it for free for 10 days or you can go a head and pay for it, a one time payment of 916 Yen, according to the rate of exchange of today which is equivelant to $9.99.

    A money (if you can call 916yen in Japan money) well spent.

    Good luck, and let me know if anyone needs help.

  27. Brian,

    thanks for the extra info. I’m going to try it when I get home tonight (haven’t got my netbook with me now).

    I want to try this because I have used pdanet a number of times and it worked, but the last time I lost all data access on the ip address. I thought for a few scary hours that Softbank had cut me off but after a phonecall they told me to just reset network preferences (I checked everywhere on the phone but didnt scroll down so missed that)

  28. This worked great!! I can connect via bluetooth now. Havent worked out the setting on win 7 to do USB yet but I prefer the bluetooth anyway.

    I removed the apps you mentioned but not with the terminal as it kept returning with an unknown file error. I actually used another program that I have (sorry I forgot the name Im at work now) for connecting to the iPhone via ssh. I went in an just deleted those 2 shown in the exporer type window after finding them under private/var/stash/Applications(there were some other numbers here)

    Rock.app was titled RockApp.app in mine

    It seemed to still work fine. Those apps are gone and the bluetooth/usb/wifi options remain in the settings pane.

    I was using it most of last night, works great,

    Thanks for this, really appreciate it.

  29. I finally restored to 3.1.2 on my 3G and have enabled native tethering. Here is my method on how I got it to work.
    Note: I used a custom 3.1.2 firmware; thus, I didn’t have to run blackra1n etc… But, I don’t think it matters. You will need to have a jailbroken phone, however.

    You will need this mobileconfig file.
    http://www.mediafire.com/?nuyyyztmdtt

    Tethering on 3.1.2

    -Upload the file ‘jp_softbank_iphonepacket_usims.mobileconfig’ to your iphone email account. (You will need this file later)
    -Run Cydia
    -Install iphone-notes.de repo (located in cydia tab; more package sources)
    -Search for ‘tethering 3XX-3.1.2 (xx depends if you have G or GS)
    -Install app and reboot phone.
    -On your phone goto to your email account where you upload the mobileconfig file and double click on the file.
    -Click install
    -Goto settings, general,network and click on the tethering tab. If all is good you will have a new tab that says ‘Internet Tethering’ much like the one that was on 3.0.1.
    -You should be good to go.

  30. Hey Duc,
    I am assuming that after doing all of this and you have to restore your phone to 3.1.2 once again you will lose the ability to do tethering?

  31. I am still using 3.0.1 with Tethering and no way in hell I am moving to 3.1 until there’s a more Permanent fix, is anyone else out there still on 3.0.1? any new charges since you been using after they release the update to 3.1? would be nice to know, thanks!!!

  33. Hi natedog, yea, like you, I’m still running 3.0.1 and haven’t found anything unusual about my monthly bills. Everything is remaining stable. (^o~)

  34. Ive been using mine quite a bit over the last couple of days. I rang softbank to ask about my bill and they say its under 4,000 yen at the momment (thats including the price of the iphone) so it seems its not showing up on softbank.

    The MyFi way works perfectly on my 3.1. All you have to do is just install Mifi the just delete it from the system and it will leave behind the tethering. It’s very very simple. It’s so good Ive chucked the PDAnet already (I like being able to see the transfers info left behind from the MyFi.

    I havent worked out which is faster , to do it by Usb or bluetooth, Ill get to that this weekend.

    I initially only went over to the iphone for the tethering but I must admit Im loving this phone! The free skype over 3g back to England and friends in Greece is amazing.

    The USB Drive app (though slow to copy to and from) makes the iphone perfect for me now.

  35. Yeah I had a jailbreak failure and had to restore and rejailbreak and did just that this time….removing mywi after enabling tethering. Works great.

    On which is faster — technically Bluetooth has a max transfer rate of around 3mbps which doesn’t interfere with the speeds I am getting (around 260k/s) BUT I live in the inaka so it might just be my network connection. I’d test USB but I use Linux and don’t feel like messing with it too much. There are no native iPhone drivers so I don’t think it will work.

    I’d be curious to see what others get though!!

  38. you can download them direct from apple with itunes. just look in the cache folder after you do an update. if you want a custom firmware, you need an iphone to boot it. thats why you run pwnage tool to deliver the jailbreak payload and then upload the custom firmware to your now jailbroken iphone. if you dont have a mac, get one, or use the tethered jailbreak known as blackra1n, which doesnt need firmware files.

  39. hi is anyone online, i need advise. i used blackrain and mywi. My bill for the last 2 mos was fine-considering the unlimited plan with sotbank iphone 3g. Today I listened to an auto reponse on *55555 to check on recent bill, it said almost 5K$. Is this possble. My heart is almost so hard that i can harly breathe. I am so worried. Does tethering cost this much?

  41. 500,000 yen? I think it is impossible. Also, softbank have to inform you by email if you spend more than 30,000 yen. I think there is a mistake , stop worrying.

    Ring 157 in the morning and get a live human being to tell you your bill so far this month.

  42. The recent bill you heard through the auto response or check at My Softbank website is only ‘gaisan’ – rough estimate before apply the Teigaku-full discount, right?
    I also use blackrain and mywi.
    Yesterday I receive my 1st bill from Softbank for iphone, total 5,462Y :-)

  43. “natedog

    I am still using 3.0.1 with Tethering and no way in hell I am moving to 3.1 until there’s a more Permanent fix, is anyone else out there still on 3.0.1? any new charges since you been using after they release the update to 3.1? would be nice to know, thanks!!!”

    Mate, this is easy as piss. I even bricked my iPhone, did a fresh install, updated to 3.1.2, re-jailbroke, installed cydia, rock and all the programs I lost and then realized I was missing tethering. I look this site back up and then see the post that Brian has made – go to Rock and download MyWi, worked like a charm!

    I didnt even have to go into SSH! I installed the app, turned on wifi in the settings and it worked.

    It just worked right away. You won’t have anything to worry about. Just make sure you have a current backup of all your apps and data on an EHD and also make sure Cydia has a backup of your SHSH.

    You’re now home and hosed. :)

  44. “natedog

    I am still using 3.0.1 with Tethering and no way in hell I am moving to 3.1 until there’s a more Permanent fix, is anyone else out there still on 3.0.1? any new charges since you been using after they release the update to 3.1? would be nice to know, thanks!!!”

    Mate, this is easy as piss. I even bricked my iPhone, did a fresh install, updated to 3.1.2, re-jailbroke, installed cydia, rock and all the programs I lost and then realized I was missing tethering. I look this site back up and then see the post that Brian has made – go to Rock and download MyWi, worked like a charm!

    I didnt even have to go into SSH! I installed the app, turned on wifi in the settings and it worked.

    It just worked right away. You won’t have anything to worry about. Just make sure you have a current backup of all your apps and data on an EHD and also make sure Cydia has a backup of your SHSH.

  45. Yes zildog, I’m still using 3.0.1 with tethering turned on. I agree – until there is an easier, permanent fix for 3.1.?, I’m going to stay with what I’ve got and not upgrade. I’m not into the idea of jailbreaking my iPhone. I like it pretty much the way it is. If any of you guys find a way of activating tethering WITHOUT jailbreaking, it would be much appreciated!

  47. no edo, as soon as you refresh your packages mywi will see that your trial has expired and revert back to the old settings.

  48. I finally bit the bullet and upgraded my non-jailbroken phone from 3.0.1 (with tethering enabled) to 3.1.2. I needed the latest firmware to run a couple of apps I wanted to buy, and figured I’d sacrifice tethering.

    Lo and behold, tethering is STILL available to me! I’m not sure why, I did a straightforward upgrade to 3.1.2 through iTunes, but the tethering preference is still there in the network settings, and it works.

    I’m curious if anyone else upgrading directly from 3.0.1 to 3.1.2 had the same experience.

  49. Guys,

    I followed your instruction and start tethering using my I phone 3G for about 2 hours. When I checked the bill using my softbank account the packet data cost me about 200000 yen ? Will they charge the packet to me? I’ll be broke if i pay all of it. Anyone with the same experience ?

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