How to Convert Palm Pre into Wifi Router, Tether for 3G Internet – Easy Steps

Palm Pre is Open developer’s Playground. Officially, Palm doesn’t itnerfere with what develoepr’s want to do with it. Palm had stated that they are free and open to any kinds of Experiment on their platform. That Proves it’s WebOS is the most open Platform.

Now, a developer has played around with Palm pre to develop an application called My Tether, that allows you to convert your Palm Pre into a Wifi router, with tethering enabled, to share Internet (3G) connection with any number of Wi-fi enabled device.

It’s by no means official but its possible to do it  but one Palm Pre tweaker offers up a step-by-step guide to switching the smartphone into a 3G-fed, open access Wi-Fi hotspot.

The process involves downloading his custom build software, applying patches with root access to the Pre’s OS, and a few other steps one should pay pretty close attention to. That said, the end result is Wi-Fi access for any number of devices you feel comfortable splitting a cellular connection between.

Here are the 8 Easy Steps –

1. Install Java JRE 6 and Virtual Box.

2. Next, you need Pre SDK. If you don’t already have it, Register & Download Pre SDK from Palm.com

3. Download novaterm1.zip and unzip it into your sdk/bin directory.  For Windows, C:\Program Files\Palm\SDK\bin.

4. In Palm Pre Type “upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart” in the Launcher area where you can see all the apps. Once you do that, you will see a Developer Mode Enabler menu pop up like this: (on right)

Tap and enable it, and the pre will ask to reset the phone, say yes when prompted and wait till it resets.

5. Now open Novaterm that you downloaded in step 3

Novaterm uses files from Palm Pre SDK. Open windows command prompt i.e. RUN >cmd and change directory to C:\Program Files\Palm\SDK\bin or equivalent in your case.

Now, connect your phone to your computer to USB. When connected, execute this:

novacom -t open tty://

This opens a Telnet session to your Palm Pre. As a result, you should get a terminal prompt: root@castle:/#

Now you have the root access to your Palm Pre Linux OS 🙂

6. Next, Execute the command:

wget -qO- http://mytether.net/install.php | /bin/sh

What is that? This is a simple linux command that will automate task of download and installation of MyTether. This should take around a minute or two, depending n your internet connection. When done, it will return back to the original prompt.

7. Now, My Tether is installed and should be available in the Launcher. Launch the app and Enable tethering by clicking the top-right button to ON. After it is switched ON, App will ask you if you want DHCP to be turned on – Choose yes.

8. You are almost done. Now all you have to do is to goto your PC/other Wifi enabled Gadgets and try to connect to Wi-Fi router with SSID “AoNet”.

Don’t hesitate in connecting multiple devices at the same time, it will work. 🙂

Enjoy your Tethered 3G services while on the move. Share it with others.

Check this video from palmprehacks.com