PdaNet is not a new app, nor are apps for tethering new. I even wrote about and downloaded PdaNet back in Sept.  Story here. I never did have a use for it, nor did I expect I ever would, till today.  I took a 2 mile walk to starbucks (need the exercise) expecting to have a coffee and do some geeking. The wireless was down!!  WT??  Great.  Then I remembered PdaNet.  I tried to set it up once when it was netshare and had little luck with it.  Well, now that I had time on my hands, I gave it another try.

Wow.  It worked!  Ok, the setup was not perfect, had to redo this and that, but I got it going after dropping the firewall. I was really impressed how quick it was. Sure, its 3G, and I was just surfing and doing a bit of SSH, but still, as a back up, this was great!  Course, the happiness did not last forever.  Two things messed it up.  When mail came in, it broke the connection for some reason. And then 3G… Feh.. 3G. Just plain spotty.

Still, get this app.  Do it!  You need to jailbreak, but given that this is the travel season, having back up internet access is sweet!