Tethering has always been a bit of a touchy subject both officially from carriers and even in our forums. The legalities are sketchy for most. Thankfully, for Canadian Pre users, things got a bit easier.

Recently, we’re not sure of the specific date, all of Bell Mobility’s smartphone plans changed. Now, every smartphone data plan has tethering added. For example, the $50 plan now says,

"500 MB of data for personal email, Internet browsing, instant messaging, and tethering"

Pricing goes up from there, with the largest plan at $100 offering a 3GB monthly allotment.  However, as it says, the data amount is shared, so tethering Canadians will need to be aware of bandwith used.

With that in mind, it’s worth reminding fellow Canadians that the homebrew app Netstat is amazing for keeping track of bandwidth used. As for tethering apps, the most convenient one is the paid app MyTether, and lately we’ve been hearing successful stories of Bell users using the free Mobile Hotspot.

Since legality is becoming less of an issue for tethering, it’s not surprising there are rumblings others may be creating competing tethering apps as well.

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MyTether, the sometimes controversial webOS tethering app, has been updated to version 2.1.0 and this is definitely an update worth checking out.

Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals worked with the developer to improve the installation process for MyTether, giving advice on how to ensure that it wouldn’t interfere with other functionality of webOS. Version 2.1.0 will now be installable and uninstallable via WebOS Quick Install and Preware.

Better still, with this version of MyTether, there’s no more wifi driver replacement. It now harnesses the Mobile Hotspot Linux daemon present in all webOS devices to get the Mobile Hotspot-like results in MyTether.  As Palm is unlikely to kill their own Mobile Hotspot app, this route will likely, in turn, make MyTether lasting and reliable.

However, there may be dark cloud on the horizon as evidenced by this tweet from MyTether, where the developer writes "Palm, Inc. claims to PayPal that I’m infringing upon their intellectual property.. what IP did I infringe?" We can’t speak to that issue, but we do know that using any third party tethering app is always risky business – your carrier could notice the use and do anything from charging you significantly more on your next bill to shutting your account down for violating their tiny-font terms of service.

If the use-at-your-own-risk caveats don’t scare you, MyTether can be bought from its official website as donationware for a donation of $14.95.

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So you’re all sorts of bummed that the leaked version of webOS 1.2 has new WiFi drivers that bust the mobile hotspot functionality of MyTether? Fear not, for homebrew developers aren’t the type to let a little code change keep them down. Even though webOS 1.2 hasn’t even been officially released, let alone announced, MyTether has received an update to version 2.0.1 that fixes the issue. The new version is available through donation only right now, though it also comes with a hand installer that gets around the whole rooting your Pre thing. Version 2.0.1 also adds in support for dashboard notifications, the ability to share your phone’s WiFi connection via USB tethering, and some more little niceties.

Thanks to Herb for the tip!

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