Reverse Tether using Bluetooth PAN to iOS Devices

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3574 for availability options.

As far as wireless tethering goes, the only way I know of doing it is to create an adhoc network between your device and your PC/Mac, then bridge the connections.

Note the following.

Ethernet sharing is supported on virtually all modern devices. If receiving ethernet on one and you want to wireless to [one] other use ADHOC. Note the following for Adhoc on windows. Terminating the connection terminates the ICS - Internet sharing connection - meaning you have to manually restart the service and connection., or reboot, before you can connect again. This applies to both devices.

2nd option is to create a wireless network. Give it a name SSID and a password which should be of at least WPA or WPA2 (ipad required) strength.

Bridge your Ethernet to PC with your outgoing wireless network. There are security considerations in making a bridge in this fashion.

1) Make your Ethernet side of it a Public network (change from private) or work) Note tha on windows machines you cannot make a bridge if one of the connections is a managed network - see your systemnetwork help for details.

2) Ensure your firewall is on and only allowing traffic for the required ports required for apple/itunese/mail/etc See apple support for details or consult the Internet Port Authority [IANA] which has virtually a full listing.

3) If your firewall gives you the ability to set machine connection restrictions then use them - windows firewall on Vista and win7 support this, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc875811.aspx gives full details on setting up. Third party firewalls will have similar ways to achieve the same.

4) Check available services to be shared on your network, internet is shared by default with ICS turned on, and the Windows Firewall service needs to be running, even if the Firewall itself is Off (as in using a third party program such as Norton, Avira, Kaspersky, etc)

Each of these will give you options on how to set port or machine ID sharing options. Make sure you use them since bridge networks with an internet connection are basically open networks, even if you need to establish the network connection to start with. The internet side of the connection is an open network.

5) Make sure all security updates are in place and up to date, and minimise file share and public folder exposure if using this technique.

Regards. Ct

Same issues. No one seems to be answering from Apple. I follow the setup (internet sharing etc) and get as far as having a PAN Network Sevice, but when i go into it it shows a greyed out "No PAN Devices Found" even though my new ipod touch is connected. Ive been ggoling all morning to no avail. I never tried this with Snow Leopard so i dont know if this is a Lion issue. To be clear: tyring to have my ipod use the WIFI on the MB AIr or MB Pro.

I wrote an article about this a few weeks ago: http://kiskeyix.org/articles/552

The funny thing is that I upgraded to Lion and my device would connect to my Mac and I would be able to use arping to send/receive layer2 broadcasts, but no layer 3 traffic would go through! (icmp, tcp, udp, etc...). Essentially, the device sends the information to the Mac, but the Mac never returns (forward) the traffic back to the system. This is extremely odd, especially since my firewall is completely off on both devices.

So I took the "let's start from scratch" approach and removed the PAN device as well as all the Bluetooth devices I had paired with the system. Reboot. And tried to add the "share my network with bluetooth" setting. To my surprise this option is missing on the Bluetooth control panel! Searching online yields no results either.

Now I'm looking for a way to do it manually from the command line. Anybody has an idea?

I was able to get the PAN interface back by simply doing:

1. remove all bluetooth devices and turn it off

2. reboot

3. share my wifi connection (Lion) with Ethernet (only)

4. make the mac discoverable and turn on bluetooth

5. on the other device initiate the pairing (so it finds the Mac as a computer that shares its network)

6. the Network control panel shows PAN now. back to internet sharing enable the PAN interface

After that I get the same result, arping the IP of the Mac shows the Mac receives the information but does not reply. Tried a combination of firewall on and off, etc...

In Linux you could simply tell the kernel to forward packets, but I do not know how to do this on the Mac. Anybody?

I was able to get the PAN interface but Internet Sharing does not work.

OSX Lion, No firewalls, Share connection from Ethernet to computers using Bluetooth PAN, Internet Sharing On, but from iPad I cannot surf the web.

Anyone resolved this issue?

Same problem here - trying to do exactly what AppleSJ511606 wants to do....

I purchased an external wifi signal booster from bearextender.com - to use with my MacBook Air as the hotel I frequent in Mexico has a very weak WiFi signal. The antenna solves the WiFi problem for my MBA, but there are apps and what not that I want to use on my iphone - and Id like to share that boosted signal that my MBA is now receiving.

Ive been looking for hours on how to accomplish this - no luck. Looks like we've all hit a dead end as of now?

Same problem here, Montepulciano, Italy - trying to do the same.

PAN option disappeared. The suggested workaround don't worked for me. Only available options: wifi (the actual connection), ethernet, DUN Bluetooth and Firewire. Then VPN, PPPoE and 4 to 6. A complete weekend only for understanding that there is some bug there.

Came up with this same idea today, disapponted I couldn't get it to work. I can get the Wifi sharing up and going, and that works, but my network engineering team disapproves of individual Wifi networks "cluttering up" their airwaves. I do notice that my Late-2011 MacBook Pro only supports Bluetooth 2.1, but it looks like there's some hot-shot MacBook Air owners with 4.0 with the same problems. This seems technically feasable, but it's frustrating that it doesn't work.

It is very frustrating that this isn't working. As an alternative, is there any way to share the network over the USB cable to the iOS devices? And I don't suppose there's a way to share a WiFi network via another WiFi network. I once had a Windows laptop that let me do that.

Is there any chance you can post step-by-step instructions as to how you got this to work. I must be doing things in the wrong order. I can't even get devices to pair now. Thanks in advance. ~chuck

Can't pair your iPad with the Mac? That sounds like there are other issues.

I could pair it with my Macbook very easily even before 10.7.3 update, just couldn't get Internet connection through BT.

What error message you got when you tried to pair them? Did you turn on the Bluetooth and make it discoverable?

Once you turn on the BT, you should go to Network in System Preference and add Interface "Bluetooth PAN" service. Wait a while and it will show you the IP address of the PAN.

And then you go to Sharing and check the Internet Sharing and select Share your connection from Ethernet and To computers using Bluetooth PAN. You should see a double circle on your iPad's top right hand corner.

The original question of this thread was to reverse tether using a wifi connection. Its already known that this can be accomplished when the Internet source is Ethernet. We want to know how to do this when the Internet source is wifi.

Maybe it's because I'm trying to do this with an iPhone (4S), but the 10.7.3 update doesn't fix it for me. Each time I try to connect from the Mac, whether it's from the Bluetooth pref pane or the Bluetooth PAN interface in the Network pane, I get this error: http://d.pr/n8PM

When I try to connect from the phone, I get an error saying "Connection Unsuccessful, 'name_of_laptop' is not supported."

The odd part is that the devices let me pair them, but they refuse to go any further.

I HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE IT WORK (at least in my case)

So my issue was, my iPad would pair with my MBP, but wouldnt 'connect'. I stumbled upon a way to make it connect though!

(Assuming you have internet sharing with Bluetooth PAN enabled)

1. Pair your iDevice and Mac (Turn Bluetooth on for both devices, setup Bluetooth device, etc.)

2. Now go to Bluetooth Preferences. You should see your iDevice in the list of devices.

3. Click on the iDevice and then click the gear at the bottom of the list (next to + and -). There will be an option called "Update Services."

4. Click "Update Services" option AND press the the "Device" that is your computer on your iPad under the list of devices in SystemPreferences/General/Bluetooth. (Ex. on the iPad, under system preferences/general/bluetooth I have a list of 2 devices, Apple Wireless Keyboard and MBP. I press MBP to attempt to connect using the iPad)

5. For some reason, Updating Services makes the two connect. You'll get the two linked rings in the top left corner next to "iPad" or "iPod" or "iPhone."

Hope this works for you!

iAM_Sheldon wrote:

I HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE IT WORK (at least in my case)

So my issue was, my iPad would pair with my MBP, but wouldnt 'connect'. I stumbled upon a way to make it connect though!

(Assuming you have internet sharing with Bluetooth PAN enabled)

1. Pair your iDevice and Mac (Turn Bluetooth on for both devices, setup Bluetooth device, etc.)

2. Now go to Bluetooth Preferences. You should see your iDevice in the list of devices.

3. Click on the iDevice and then click the gear at the bottom of the list (next to + and -). There will be an option called "Update Services."

4. Click "Update Services" option AND press the the "Device" that is your computer on your iPad under the list of devices in SystemPreferences/General/Bluetooth. (Ex. on the iPad, under system preferences/general/bluetooth I have a list of 2 devices, Apple Wireless Keyboard and MBP. I press MBP to attempt to connect using the iPad)

5. For some reason, Updating Services makes the two connect. You'll get the two linked rings in the top left corner next to "iPad" or "iPod" or "iPhone."

Hope this works for you!

I want to share Wifi Internet connection from MBP via Bluetooth PAN to iPhone 4S.

I get this error on step 4:

And since my only option is to "Forget Device", my MBP disappears!

Is there a specific order for step 4? Do I press both simultaneously?