It all started around 1 year ago, when the $10 NetShare app appeared on the App Store. It was a SOCKS proxy that linked an ad-hoc WiFi network to the iPhone’s 3G or EDGE connection. Users of the iPhone 3G have wanted to use the handset’s high-speed connection with a laptop or desktop for a while, and developer Nullriver created an application to fill that need. The application, NetShare, was pulled, returned, and then finally banished from the App Store, apparently because it violated AT&T’s terms of service…Such users may have “jailbroken” their iPhone in order to use one of the multiple versions of this SSH tethering trick floating around that would share the 3G internet connection through WiFi.

Many rejoiced when in iPhone OS 3 beta the tethering appeared as a standard feature, only to remain disappointed when it was removed again in beta 5, to never reappear in the iPhone OS 3 Golden Master and final versions.

A new hack is now available to enable this feature without the need of going through the jailbreak procedure. You can easily find many sources now that report the procedure with a simple Google Search.