iPad USB tethering problems

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Level 1

15 points

iPad USB tethering problems

Hello,

I have a problem that is driving me crazy.

I can tether my Macbook to my iPad through WiFi or Bluetooth but not through USB. Thethering through an iPhone USB doesn't give any problems.

I am running Os X 10.8.4 and on the iPad iOs 6.1.2 (it's an iPad 4th generation)

When I connect the MacBook to the iPad through an usb cable I get the personal Hotspot blue bar telling that I have one connection. On the Mac side though in "network preferences" I get a yellow "iPad USB" with a no IP address. That is making me think that the problem is with the iPad not releasing an IP address to the Macbook.

Any idea on how I can troubleshoot this problem? I already tried to reinstall iTunes (version 11.0.4) but this didn't solve the problem.

Cheers

Luca

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, 15" retina display 2.3Ghz i7, 8Gb

Posted on Aug 9, 2013 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 9, 2013 2:28 PM in response to S_eye

How are you connecting the USB cable to the iPad?

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Answer 2

S_eye Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 9, 2013 10:55 PM in response to Allan Eckert

It's a lightning cable (I tried to use different cables to rule out a faulty one). there are very few ways to connect a USB cable to an iPad :-)

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Answer 3

Aug 10, 2013 6:14 AM in response to S_eye

As you have discovered the lightning connector does not have ethernet. So that doesn't work.

Allan

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Answer 4

S_eye Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 10, 2013 8:37 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Allan,

Thanks for your answer and for the time you took to prepare it.

I don't want to break this to you, but we don't have here any physical Ethernet interfaces.

What we have is the mac and the ipad communicating through a virtual network port using private ip addresses (the ipad will receive a public IP address on the wireless network side). In all this the USB/lightening connectors are just providing a physical layer.

If these things are obscure to you or you don't want to offer a constructive answer, please do not participate to the discussion.

Regards

Luca

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Answer 5

Aug 10, 2013 10:28 AM in response to S_eye

It is clear to me and the USB/lightning connector are not capable of offer a physical layer for ethernet acording to the specs for lightning.

Allan

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Answer 6

S_eye Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 10, 2013 12:55 PM in response to Allan Eckert

Hi Allan,

I am not sure why you are mentioning Ethernet.

As long as you have the suitable layer 2 encapsulation protocol you can transport IP packets over any kind of physical layers including SDH, ATM, FireWire, Ethernet and yes USB.

Please have a look at:

http://wikee.iphwn.org/usb:usbmux

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encapsulation_(networking)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_over_USB

Let me know if you need more explanations.

Regards

Luca

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