Vodafone/Airtel India Free iPhone Tethering & Internet access

Well i had to figure this one out cauz it was giving be a lot of grief. It was easy but i somehow didn't put 2 n 2 together for couple days. I think it should work on all cell operators which let you access internet via the phone. I am using it on the iPhone with a Vodafone Sim. Earlier there used to be a hack which will let you access the internet free of cost but i think both vodafone & airtel have patched those holes. Vodafone India offers a 2 GB plan for ₹ 95. If you have an unlocked phone you must have TetherMe from CYDIA or MyWi. Also if the APN Editing is enabled you can directly enter the settings below our use the iPhoneConfiguration utility to create a ".mobileconfig" file with the APN settings and connect your iPhone and install the mobileconfig profile. The settings are below. Now all you need to do is to enable tethering on iPhone and connect it to your PC. After connecting go to the proxy settings of your browser on your computer and enter the following in the proxy address & port

Proxy Address - 10.10.1.100
Port - 9401

The only catch though is that you will only be able to access WEB. VPN, IMAP, POP etc i.e. anything other than Web might have a problem because its blocked by Vodafone/Airtel unless you subscribe to the VMC i.e VM Connect for all that and for that you will have to pay extra which is rediculous.. However i must say that if you have a SSL VPN system like CISCO AnyConnect, that will work with this setup. Also all other protocols will work once you are into VPN. You will have to change the Proxy to your work proxy for everything else to work once in VPN.

Below is the XML generated by iPhoneConfiguration utility as a .mobileconfig. You can copy paste the XML and rename the file to a .mobileconfig and install on your iPhone as well.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PayloadContent</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>PayloadContent</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>DefaultsData</key>
<dict>
<key>apns</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>apn</key>
<string>portalnmms</string>
<key>proxy</key>
<string>10.10.1.100</string>
<key>proxyPort</key>
<integer>9401</integer>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
<key>DefaultsDomainName</key>
<string>com.apple.managedCarrier</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>PayloadDescription</key>
<string>Provides customization of carrier Access Point Name.</string>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>Advanced Settings</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>vodafone.apn.in.apn1</string>
<key>PayloadOrganization</key>
<string>Vodafone</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.apn.managed</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>CF9B2C59-5EC1-42D5-93FC-5B4999599946</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</array>
<key>PayloadDescription</key>
<string>Vodafone India APN</string>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>Vodafone IN</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>vodafone.apn.in</string>
<key>PayloadOrganization</key>
<string>Vodafone</string>
<key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key>
<false/>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>Configuration</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>45D0FE6C-94C1-44CD-9863-E366CDB4B02F</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>