Palm Pre How To Guide - Enable Tethering Over Bluetooth!

by Eric on June 15, 2009 · 65 comments

in How To, PDA / Smartphones

Credit goes to fish199902 for this one.  Basically, you setup an SSH tunnel to the Pre, which supports running as a SOCKS proxy.  You then configure your browser to point to this proxy and BAM, you’re tethering away.

First, you must have rooted your Pre and installed/enabled SSH.

Connect to your Pre’s NAP (network access point) via Bluetooth:

Connect to Pre NAP to TetherIgnore this error message on your Pre:

Ignore Pre Tether Error Message

Using PuTTY, configure the following settings under Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels:

  • Source port: 8080
  • Destination: Dynamic and Auto radio buttons
  • Click Add and you’ll see the port in the “Forwarded ports” box

Pre Tether Putty Setup

Then, initiate the SSH connection to your Pre.  Going through Bluetooth and using port 222, your connection window will look like this:

Pre Tether through SSH SOCKS proxy

Once you’re at the login screen, configure your browser’s SOCKS proxy with:

  • Address: localhost
  • Port: 8080

Pre Tether IE7 SOCKS Proxy Setup

Now you’re good to go! Enjoy the tethering capabilities of your Palm Pre.  Here’s proof:

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{ 48 trackbacks }

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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

1 tweak 06.15.09 at 1:48 pm

Baller. Saved in case it dies. Will mirror soon.

2 Joe 06.15.09 at 2:01 pm

It’s neat, but not a ‘real’ solution for many due to the fact you need to reconfigure each application on the PC you want to run to go through the SOCKS proxy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very appreciative, and it’d definitely do in an emergency, but I’m hoping for something cleaner in the future.

3 Deadpan 06.15.09 at 2:55 pm

Give it a little time and someone will make a quickie tethering app using this method…. and charge you thirty bucks for it.

4 Colin 06.15.09 at 3:04 pm

Thanks for the post! Let me know if Palm contacts you about taking it down, I know they already sent an email to the dev team after they posted the wiki: Palm Pre Dev Wiki Warned About Tethering

5 Eric 06.15.09 at 3:49 pm

There’s no way to keep the cat in the bag, or put it back in once it’s out. Palm and Sprint need to just accept that there’s a small but determined percentage of Pre owners who want to do this and will do what it takes to git ‘er done.

6 Craig 06.15.09 at 3:50 pm

What’s the big deal? Sprint encourages me to tether with my blackberry and even provides the software to do it.

7 Davide-NYC 06.15.09 at 4:01 pm

It’s ridiculous that they would try to stop this. Why not just allow it up to a point? Put a data cap on it and call it a day. I could live with 1GB per month.

Tether me baby!

8 PreUserInMaine 06.15.09 at 4:15 pm

Maybe I missed something, but Vista is not letting me connect to my Pre via bluetooth. When I try to pair via Join a Personal Area Network it complains that the Pre doesn’t support it.

9 omar's thoughts 06.15.09 at 6:03 pm

Is there a Putty alternative for the Mac?

10 Colin 06.15.09 at 6:49 pm

Oh I wasn’t saying it shouldn’t be allowed by any means, I’m a proponent of data tethering myself - what end user isn’t? I’m just saying that both Palm and Sprint are now very aware of the situation and seem to be keeping a keen watch on the blogosphere. I don’t want this to be taken down, but I also want Eric to be wary of the potential emails from some certain exec’s that won’t be all too thrilled that their data servers will be really put to the test soon enough. But let’s enjoy it while we can!

11 Phil 06.16.09 at 12:26 am

Can you point us Mac-users to a similar fix?

12 ld 06.16.09 at 2:36 am

> Is there a Putty alternative for the Mac?
For the details, launch a terminal and type “man ssh”. To do on the command line what’s described here with putty:
ssh -D 8080 -p 222 root@10.0.1.10

13 Jan 06.16.09 at 3:24 am

> It’s neat, but not a ‘real’ solution for many due to the fact you need to
> reconfigure each application on the PC you want to run to go through
> the SOCKS proxy.

You don’t have to, just use a tool like Proxfier: http://www.proxifier.com/

14 Jason 06.16.09 at 10:41 am

Hey - do I have to run something on the pre to make this work? Everything is setup, device rooted, ssh session established through putty, but when I set the proxy in my browser to localhost port 8080, no go. Do I have to start a socks proxy on the pre first?

15 Eric 06.16.09 at 11:05 am

I don’t expect Palm or Sprint to be too thrilled. Haven’t gotten any emails from em yet. If I do get some complaints, them I’m pretty sure Precentral.net would as well because that’s where I got the info.

For the Mac users, all you need to do is open a terminal and run the proper SSH command:

SSH Users: Run ’ssh -D 8080 -p 222 preuser@10.1.1.10‘, where preuser is your user name on your phone. (ref)

Jason - Nothing needs to be ran on the Pre. If you’re using Firefox, try using IE7. I had problems trying to configure Firefox to work with the proxy, but IE7 works fine. Make sure to fill in only the SOCKS proxy setting or it may not work.

16 Sparta23 06.16.09 at 5:33 pm

Okay okay! So what about USB? I don’t have Bluetooth on any of my laptops! :(

17 jeff 06.16.09 at 9:25 pm

When setting user in “installed/enabled SSH” I messed up and didn’t change password. What is the default password? I’ve gone through the whole process and can’t log in through telnet on port 23 any longer. Please help

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