Need WiFi for Skype on iPhone? Share It From a Mac in < 5 Minutes
This morning James and I got a chance to test out the new Skype for iPhone client. My impressions are that Skype nailed the implementation for voice. I’m wondering if Skype’s newest in-house audio codec has much to do with the voice quality. No matter how they did it, the sound quality is very impressive. Of course, the main limitation right now is that you can only do voice calls over WiFi and not on 3G. For our call this morning, I shared the Internet connection from my Mac to my first-gen iPhone by setting up a WiFi network. It’s drop-dead simple and since I’ve already received a few emails asking how to do this, here are the simple steps on a Mac. I don’t have a PC with me so I can’t detail exactly how to do this in Windows, but it’s not any more difficult on that platform. Here are the steps:
- In System Preferences, open the Sharing Folder.
- Click the Internet Sharing service (not the checkbox in front of it) and configure the options on the right. Here you simply pick the connection you want to share (Ethernet, 3G, etc…) and make sure the AirPort option is checked.
- Click the AirPort Options button to name your network and add a password.
- Check the Intenet Sharing service.
If you keep the AirPort icon in your Mac Menubar, you’ll see it change to indicate that it’s now sharing your connection over the custom WiFi network.- On your iPhone, simply connect to the WiFi network you created on the Mac. That’s it!
This easy process shouldn’t take more than three minutes, but I’m allowing you two extra ones just in case. 
This is also illustrates why I’m not the ideal customer for a 3G router. Using software, I can easily replicate the same functionality and create a wireless hotspot to share a 3G connection. Yes, my computer has to be on for this to work; that’s not required for a hardware-based router, but my computer is nearly always on to begin with. For me, this is a better solution and far less expensive since those routers can cost $200 or more. Plus, I don’t have to carry an additional device.
Wanna know what’s funny about this? I do this all the time and it just hit me- this is actually tethering the phone to the laptop, not the other way around.
now thats one very roundabout way of doing it.
all thanks to income paranoid carriers…
BTW, if your phone is jailbroken you can use voipover3g to trick applications so they believed they are on wifi.
I tested edge / 3G call this morning and even on Edge call are good quality. (skype to skype, didn’t tell international call yet)
And here it is for Windows…
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/adhoc.mspx#1
Now if we could just get free WiFi service everywhere then we can finally drop those greedy mobile phone companies once and for all.
You know what I can’t figure out is why the carriers themselves won’t let you use VoIP directly on your device. I mean you can ALWAYS do this to use Skype on any phone that has it and Wifi. Their networks are GOING to carry Skype and other VoIP client packets anyway. They should embrace it as it could actually GENERATE sales of their more expensive data plans.
i guess they (like the cable tv companies) fear the idea of becoming just another isp.
this with the end result of taking all the infrastructure costs, while the service providing companies like google take all the credit.
thing is that the isps and similar have gotten themselves is a bit of a jam.
while they sell flat rate to the end user, they themselves have pay by traffic og tit for tat agreements with each other for borderline traffic.
and for most end user isp’s the traffic is one way, as the user consumes vast amounts of inbound traffic via web, streams and similar. this makes tit for tat agreements hard to uphold, resulting in pay for use at one end of the network, and flat rate at the other.
this leaves the isp with two options:
1. drop flat rate at the user end (watch the blog posts explode in rants)
2. introduce all kinds of limits…
I can’t get this to work with my Nokia 5800, It just doesn’t show up on my wifi list. Anyone have any help with the Nokia 5800?