Well, it looks like Windows Phone 7 devices can tether after all but it only appears to work with Samsung smartphones and it does take a few jumping through hoops.
We initially thought tethering would be supported in Windows Phone 7 but the carriers would determine if this is possible and how much extra it would cost per month. That’s pretty much standard nowadays with smartphones.
But then Microsoft clearly said Windows Phone 7 would not support tethering. The software giant was very definitive about this and many expected this feature to come with future versions of the software.
The good folks over at Mobility Digest weren’t content to listen to Microsoft and they were able to get their Samsung Focus to tether with a laptop. Try this at your own risk but the instructions go as follows:
1) open your phone and dial ##634# then press call. You’ll go into the Diagnosis Menu (going forward this icon appears in your programs so you don’t need to dal that again). This is just a phone dialer with a little icon and note on top.
2) In diagnosis mode (phone dialer) dial *#7284# and a dialogue will pop up letting you change the settings from Zune to modem or “Modem, USB dialog.”. You want to go with “Modem, Tethered Call”. It will restart you phone after a few seconds. [UPDATE: I forgot to mention that you need Zune installed on the PC or else the driver install won’t go correctly. If the drivers fail, add Zune, reconnect the phone and they’ll be fixed. Also, if the drivers don’t work try the drivers here (from Long Zheng of istartedsomething)] Once it restarts, connect to your PC over USB and drivers will be installed on your computer. Now go to your connections on your PC and you’ll see that a Samsung modem was added.
3) on your PC you need to change the setting for the Samsung modem. If you set it to prompt for user name you’ll be able to put in the login info. This is all it is:
number: *99***1#
user name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
password: CINGULAR1
Go to connect and BAM. You’re tethered.
Give it a go if you’re brave enough and let us know what you think. In the mean time, check out our hands-on video of the Samsung Focus.
[Via Mobility Digest]