Steve Harris

I’ve been playing with the idea of getting a mobile broadband USB key for my laptop on a network other than Vodafone. I was opting for Three networks 5GB for £15 1 month contract but figured I would first try the iphone internet tethering on O2. Same money a month, although 3GB not 5GB and the same 1 month notice period.

Internet Tethering by sdharris, on flickr

I have no idea how much data I will use so I do not know if that 2GB will be missed but at least this way I can try it for the next couple of months and find out. It also means I do not have to carry a USB key with me or install more software and I save £9.99 by not having to buy the USB key. Plus I read yesterday Three are going to sale advertising space on their broadband software

After waiting a bit longer than the 24 hours O2 stated tethering was enabled today so I tried it out, the connection was not great even in the middle of Bristol but it worked well enough. Will try it for the next couple of months.

It is a shame that you have to jump through a series of menus to get to the internet tethering option though, and you must remember to turn it off!

Reset BT Openzone MAC Address

Originally uploaded by sdharris

BT Openzone and most likely the Cloud use the MAC address of your iPhone to grant or deny access to their network. This is setup the first time you connect by entering your mobile phone number in to a branded O2 page on the Openzone hotspot.

If you have had an iPhone previously and used that iPhone on an Openzone hotspot you will not be able to connect with your new handset. Each time you attempt to do so and supply your mobile number you’ll receive an internal server error.

I spoke with O2 today and was told all you need to do is text wifi to 2121 as pictured and within an hour the MAC address will be cleared and you should be able to connect to BT Openzone networks.