REVIEW: TetherBerry for BlackBerry

Justin Cauchon March 12, 2009 8

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A common question BlackBerry users ask is “Can I tether with my BlackBerry?” What is tethering? Tethering allows you to use your phones data on your computer, letting you connect to the Internet anywhere you have data coverage. TetherBerry has released it’s new program that allows user to easily tether their BlackBerry’s to their PC. With TetherBerry you do not need to have the tethering add-on that is sometimes required to tether. This tethering plan often costs upward of $40 extra a month. On the other hand, TetherBerry uses your current BlackBerry data plan to tether.

SETTING UP:

TetherBerry is great for users who want to set up tethering with ease. The first step to getting this program working is installing the software which only takes a few minutes. It will first install TetherBerry then check to see if you have the latest version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager, which is an essential step.

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Once TetherBerry is installed on your computer you need to install it on your BlackBerry. TetherBerry will give you an address that lets you download the program over the air, so you do not even need to plug it into the computer to install the software. Without having it installed on your BlackBerry the program will not work. This step will only take around a minute or two.

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Now that you have it installed on both your computer and your BlackBerry you are ready to begin tethering. You must turn off all the connections on your computer to get TetherBerry to work correctly, this includes Wi-Fi. Next you want to start the program on the computer and it will ask you to connect your Blackberry to the PC.

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Open up the program on your BlackBerry and it will say Please connect your BlackBerry to your PC. Once you connect it to the PC, it will look like this:

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Once you make the connection you will be all set to to tether. The program will tell you how much data has been sent and received so you do not use too much. Make sure to check your contract with your carrier before tethering. Sometimes unlimited data actually means 5GB, so you do not want to go over and be charged heavily. For this reason, it is not a good idea to use tethering as your primary source of Internet


SPEED:

Since we used a BlackBerry Bold we knew our speeds would be higher since it is a 3G enabled phone. We were not able to test a EDGE phone to see those speeds, but you can expect the speed to be much slower than it was with our tests. We found that with our tests, we typically got around 1578 kilobytes per seconds download time and 245 kilobytes per second. However, we often found that our speeds would get as high as 1738 kilobytes per second download time and 275 kilobytes per second upload time.

The speeds were fast enough to use for most things you would do on the internet. We wrote this entire post and uploaded all of the images while tethering with our Bold. We had mixed results when watching YouTube. When we watched in normal quality the video loaded fast enough to watch without having to stop and buffer again. On the other hand, when we turned high quality the video stopped and buffered often making it hard to finish the video.

PERFORMANCE:

We have tested TetherBerry for two days and we have not had one problem with it. When using our 3G BlackBerry Bold, we had no problem receieving text messages and phone calls. However, our emails were held up until we stopped tethering. TetherBerry performed great when we were testing it. We did not get disconnected from the Internet once (except when we answered phone calls). The speeds maintained a pretty fast connection and it was usable for most of our Internet needs. We loved how it told us the packets send and recieved, and the amount of data sent and recieved. This helped us keep track of how much data we used without using too much.

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We really like this program because its ease of use and how reliable it is. We recommend this for all people who need to use the Internet on their computer on the go. The program is very simple making it easy to use for everyone, there are no bells and whistles that will confuse people. We can’t wait for this to come out for Apple computers so we don’t have to keep switching to Windows on BootCamp to tether. We can honestly say that we will use this as our only source of tethering for now on. If you end up trying it and don’t find the same results as us, there is a 30 day money back guarentee so you will be safe no matter what. Try it out for yourself for a one-time fee of $39.99 until Sunday, after Sunday it will go up to $59.99.

TetherBerry Website

8 Comments »

  1. Nick March 12, 2009 at 5:05 PM -

    A great review of what looks like a fantastic product! I wish there was something like this for the iPhone (maybe in 3.0??)

  2. DG April 22, 2009 at 1:07 PM -

    Is this legal? Im sure verizon will not be in agreement with this. What if verizon shuts them down and gets access to all customer records? cann they then come after the end user?

  3. Justin Cauchon April 22, 2009 at 2:24 PM -

    If you are worried about your privacy with TetherBerry, I would take a look at their privacy policy. http://tetherberry.com/privacy-policy

  4. Homer Slice August 16, 2009 at 9:21 PM -

    Word of caution. You may get away with it on some networks IF you have a data plan (commonly 5Gb). Check your use. No data plan = huge bill. It is a blatant violation of Verizon TOS and they don’t take it lightly.

  5. burberry October 3, 2009 at 11:59 AM -

    How do I download it on my pc without current internet on my pc

  6. Angelia December 13, 2009 at 2:19 PM -

    Man. This looks awesome!! We need one for iPhone

  7. Kursy jazdy Wrocław December 25, 2010 at 8:56 PM -

    Merry Christmas!!! 🙂

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