Internet on iPhone 3gs without wifi or data plan?

This kid at school said that there was some code you could put on it that enabled wireless Internet without paying for a data plan. This is probably bs but I sure as hell hope not.

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I think the kids are blowing smoke up your butt. It tickles, but that's about all it's good for.

Think about it... Without using wifi, that leaves you getting data through your 3G or Edge connection. The amount of data throughput an iPhone can generate is going to ring bells with AT&T. You'll find a data plan added to your bill in short order.

3g just means third generation

Originally Posted by dagarrity

3g just means third generation

Yup. But like most things in IT, there's a lot more to it than that. To oversimplify for a moment, if you're using an internet connection on your device, that data has to come from somewhere. On an iPhone, that's one of three places: Wi-Fi, 3G, or EDGE.

Wi-Fi is a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology based on the IEEE 802.11 standards set. You'd pick that connection up from your home network, at a coffee shop, at work, or wherever. AT&T has nothing to do with it. Although AT&T does maintain a network of Wi-Fi hotspots in Starbucks and McDonalds restaraunts. Use of those is included in your iPhone plan.

3G is the common name for a family of standards defined under the IMT-2000 standards set. It includes GSM-EDGE, as well as a raft of other standards for voice, video, and data communications in a mobile environment.

GSM-EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) is an extension of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard. It's part of the 3G standards set, but can be implemented separately from the rest of those standards. In which case, you'd have an EDGE connection without 3G.

On an iPhone, it's really simple to determine your network connection type. In the top bar of your screen, at left, you'll see: Signal strength bars, carrier name, and connection type. E for EDGE, 3G for 3G, and that funky, stylized radio wave for Wi-Fi.



Now, here's where they catch you out: Internet connection is a packet-switched technology using a standard called (appropriately) the Internet Protocol (IP, for short). Each packet carries (among lots of other things) a field in the header that identifies the protocol being used. As the packet passes through AT&T's (or any other carrier's) network, the header is read and the packet is identified as to type and payload. That's one way that the carrier can see whether you're using voice or data, and how much. When the network starts seeing data throughput in tens or hundreds of megabytes on your account without a data plan, flags will be raised. Shortly thereafter, you can expect a data plan to be added to your account, whether you wanted it or not.

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Here's the technical facts on iPhone connectivity:

Original iPhone:
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (3GS: 2.1 + EDR)
USB 2.0/Dock connector
Quad band GSM 850 900 1800 1900 MHz GPRS/EDGE

3G also includes:
A-GPS; Tri band UMTS/HSDPA 850, 1900, 2100 MHz

3GS also supports:
7.2 Mbps HSDPA

Sure, if you find an open hotspot or know the wifi password it's "free".