Questions and answers are organized into the following categories:
Q: If I have to re-install TetherBridge MIS on my BlackBerry, say because it is re-flashed, can my license be re-activated?
A: Yes, you can. All you need to do is to follow the procedure for entering the license key as if for a new purchase. If you have forgot your license key, you can request us to re-send your license key to you. If you need us to send the license key to an email address different from what you provided to us at the time of purchase, you have to provide us with additional information we may require to establish your rightful ownership of this license.
Q: I entered my license key into two BlackBerry cellphones but I found that it is activated only on the second phone. Why is that? Can I change to get the first phone activated instead?
A: One license can only be activated on a single BlackBerry. After the activation, the license becomes permanently associated with this particular BlackBerry cellphone. When you enter the license key into a BlackBerry, the activation does not take place right away. If you have a valid license entered into a BlackBerry, every time you connect your PC to the Internet through the BlackBerry, activation attempt will take place automatically as long as it has not been activated yet. If you enter the same key into two phones, whichever made the connection to our license server first will get activated. We cannot transfer your license to another phone because the activation is permanent.
Q: Can I use my license key on multiple BlackBerry cellphones such that at most one BlackBerry is actively used in tethering at anytime?
A: No, you can't. A license will become permanently associated with a single BlackBerry cellphone after activation, which takes place automatically.
Q: If I forget my license key and need to re-enter it into the same BlackBerry phone for some reason (after the phone is repaired for example), can you inform me what my key is?
A: Yes, we can send your license key to the email address you provided originally on purchase. If you need us to send the license key to a different email address, we will require you to provide additional information to establish your rightful ownership to the license.
Q: Do you support non-http applications?
A: Yes, applications that use TCP/IP directly instead of http are supported. Most applications which need Internet access run without any problem.
Q: Is SSL/TLS supported?
A: Yes, SSL/TLS is supported. You can access secure web sites and run other applications with secure Internet access based on SSL/TLS.
Q: Is UDP supported?
A: UDP for DNS queries is supported. UDP transport for IPSec based VPN as well as for L2TP is supported. UDP transport for other types of traffic is not supported with this release. For most users, this is not an issue as most Internet applications use TCP/IP. We may expand our support of UDP transport to cover more types of traffic in subsequent releases.
Q: Is VPN supported?
A: There are a few different types of VPN technologies. We support the following types of VPNs:
Native GRE transport is not supported and as a result PPTP VPN is not supported.
Q: Does your tether solution provide a higher performance than the standard wireless modem?
A: No, it does not but provides identical bandwidth performance. We have heard about such a claim that a server-based tethering solution has a bandwidth 150% higher than the standard BlackBerry modem function provided by RIM. Such a claim is just a myth and making such an unsubstantiated and misleading claim could be due to ignorance or other motivations.
First, measuring bandwidth on cellular networks is a tricky thing. This is due to the way how the air interface is shared by many users in the same area and due to the fact that cellular networks are more likely to be congested than land-line networks. This means the measurement results are less predictable and vary.
Second, there is no reason for a tether application to provide a higher performance than the modem function provided by RIM. As a matter of fact, all tethering applications involve indirectly using the same BlackBerry functionalities which are used by RIM modem. The main difference is with the admission control on setting up a separate tunnel for the modem connection. However, this only affects the initial setup time but not the performance afterwards. In the old days, a wireless modem is more like a real modem with a modem pool in the cellular network. Nowadays, a wireless modem in the cellular network is really a misnomer because it is just another IP tunnel to the Internet gateway with a defined admission control. By the way, tether applications provided by cellular service providers are really just a user interface and underneath they use BlackBerry functionality to set up a modem tunnel. So, essentially they are merely customized user interfaces to the RIM BlackBerry modem functionality.
Third, cellular network operators manage how the regular tunnel for the applications on a cellphone and the modem tunnel are set up through the cellular networks based on their policies and Quality of Service assignment. They could have both types of tunnels go through exactly the same path to the same Internet gateway or different paths to different gateways. In the latter case one path could be more congested than the other at a particular time. It is entirely possible that in one measurement test a tethering application provides a higher performance than the RIM modem. It is even possible that this can be persistently demonstrated on a particular cellular network in a particular area. However, this is in no way proving that the tether application provides a higher performance. It has no bearing on performance on a different cellular network and even for the same cellular network the network operator may reconfigure the network later as part of the traffic management and the picture can become entirely different.
As a whole, any performance claim should be on solid ground and any performance difference claim should be made only on what is made by the application, not by factors outside the application itself.
We have done some comprehensive performance measurements on our tethering solution on different cellular networks in different areas and at different time of the day. Our measurement results indicate that we have identical bandwidth performance with the RIM modem function. However, our solution does have some limitation in terms of the number of simultaneous TCP connections inherited from the limitation of the BlackBerry device today. For most users, this limitation is not an issue in most usage scenarios. In certain strenuous usage scenarios, our tether solution does show weakness compared to the RIM modem. A server based tether solution should have advantage in such cases as a tunnel does not consume much connection resource on the Blackberry. However, as discussed on the Tether Primer page, we decided not to offer a server based solution due to other drawbacks with a server based solution. By far, our choice against a server based solution was made due to our objective of becoming a solution provider but not also a service provider. Being a solution and service provider at the same time is not compatible with the business model of not collecting recurring service fees.
In our future releases, we will adopt more measures to mitigate our limitation on the number of simultaneous TCP connections. This limitation may even go away entirely with future releases of BlackBerry devices and/or BlackBerry OS.
Q: TetherBridge MIS on my laptop failed to connect to TetherBridge MIS-Mobile. What should I do?
A: First verify you have installed Blackberry device manager properly and it is working. The Blackberry device manager is installed as part of the Blackberry desk top manager. You can simply start the Blackberry Desk Top Manager and see if it can connect to the Blackberry device. If not, you need to fix that first.
If the Desk Top Manager can connect to the Blackberry device, you need to make sure you follow the procedure as indicated in the prompts when you run TetherBridge MIS-PC. If you have got a connection failure, it is advisable that you disconnect and then reconnect the USB cable before your next attempt.
Q: My laptop has a 64-bit processor but my operating system is 32-bit Windows XP. Which version of TetherBridge MIS-PC should I install, 32-bit or 64 bit?
A: You should install the 32-bit version of TetherBridge MIS-PC. The selection depends on the version of the operating system, not directly on the processor platform. In your case, the Windows OS only uses the processor as a 32-bit processor even though the processor itself is 64-bit.
Q: Why was I prompted to configure APN while my friend who is also using TetherBridge MIS never got prompted for this configuration?
A: Whether or not you need to configure the APN setting depends on your cellular network. For a cellular network which requires this configuration, not every user needs to explicitly configure this setting. If it is required, all TCP/IP applications need this configuration. Applications which only use http do not. So, your friend might have that configuration for other TCP/IP applications before installing TetherBridge MIS. For some networks, the service provider may hand out phones with APN preconfigured. It all depends.
Q: Will my cellular service provider charge me for using their APN after I have configured the APN setting?
A: This is completely depends on your cellular service provider. We are not aware any does but it is possible. Remember this is a setting all other TCP/IP applications require, not just TetherBridge MIS in a cellular network which needs APN configuration.
Q: TetherBridge MIS-Mobile was shut down by itself shortly after I started it up. What should I do?
A: TetherBridge MIS-Mobile will goes to the background automatically after you have had active TCP connections to the Internet to allow you to use the phone as usual. This does not mean it is shut down. It is just running in the background. You can verify this by select TetherBridge MIS-Mobile again. If it is still running, you won't see the "Start" selection. To leave the application running, you should use the Blackberry escape key. The "Close" selection on the command menu terminates the application.
If the application was indeed automatically terminated, check your Security Timeout setting on Blackberry. If you have Security Timeout turned on with a password and it has a very short timeout value, it is possible that the screen has timed out before the application has gone to the background. When the password protection is turned on, the Security Timeout shuts down the current application using the screen automatically. In this case, you may want to increase your Security Timeout value somewhat. Using the shortest timeout of 1 minute runs the risk of getting such unintended shutdowns. Also don't forget to use the escape key to manually put the application back to the background if you re-entered the application after it has gone to the gbackground but want to leave it running. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting unintended shut down by the Security Timeout protection.
Q: How do I uninstall TetherBridge MIS?
A: To uninstall TetherBridge MIS-Mobile, go to the TetherBridge MIS icon and push the Blackberry menu key. Select "Delete". To uninstall TetherBridge MIS-PC, go to the Windows Control Panel. It is under "Add or Remove Programs" on Windows XP and "Programs and Features" under Vista and Windows 7.
Q: How do I track my tether data usage?
A: On the TetherBridge MIS-PC window, you can find the Session Data Usage and Accumulated Data Usage counters in KB. The accumulated data usage is a running total over sessions until you manually clear it. You can only clear the accumulated data usage counter when the Blackberry is not in a tethering session. To check or clear accumulated data usage, select TetherBridge MIS on your Blackberry and go to Data Usage.
Q: Can I use Blackberry Desk Top Manager while I am tethering?
A: Yes, you can use the Blackberry Desk Top Manager while tethering. However, you need to be aware of the impact of doing so. The tasks you perform on the Desk Top Manager may affect the performance of tethering. This is particular true if you are carrying out some synchronization work involving a large amount of data. This is true for the Mass Storage Mode and MTP mode as well. We recommend you turn them all off to achieve the best tethering experience unless necessary otherwise.
Q: How can I limit my tethering data usage?
A: We do not have a feature that limit your data usage while tethering. In order to avoid unnecessary data usage, it is advisable that you turn off automatic update of various software components on your computer before starting tethering. Doing so both reduces your data usage and increases the effective performance you get. In particular, automatic Windows update frequently transfers a large amount of data which you may want to avoid while tethering.
Q: After installatin, I followed the instruction to start tethering. But TetherBridge MIS-PC indicated that the "Connection to the mobile device has failed". Why and what should I do?
A: The most common cause of this scenario has been that the user either has not installed Blackberry Device Manager properly or forgot to install it altogether. First verify you have installed Blackberry device manager properly and it is working. The Blackberry device manager is installed as part of the Blackberry Desktop manager. You can simply start the Blackberry Desktop Manager and see if it can connect to the Blackberry device. If not, you need to fix that first.
If the Desktop Manager can connect to the Blackberry device, you need to make sure you follow the procedure as indicated in the prompts when you run TetherBridge MIS-PC. If you have got a connection failure, it is advisable that you disconnect and then reconnect the USB cable before your next attempt.
Q: TetherBridge MIS-PC indicated it had connected to the Internet but I was unable to go to any web site or the Internet access was very sluggish. Why and what should I do?
A: If the session data indicator on your PC remains at 0 after a few minutes, it is almost certainly there is a problem with the interaction between TetherBridge and the Windows OS. The most likely scenario is that your firewall has prevented TetherBridge from reporting "network up" status to the Windows OS. As a result, nothing will work. McAfee (not Norton) has been found to cause this problem even if completely disabled where TetherBridge is installed after McAfee has been in place. The solution is to uninstall both McAfee and TetherBridge and then reinstall TetherBridge and McAfee in this order.
If the session data indicator is not 0, the issue is most likely related to the TetherBridge limitation on the number of simultaneous TCP connections. This is particularly true if you have no problems with simple web pages such as Google but more complex web pages fail to fully load or load very slowly. Please see Operation Tips for advices on how to deal with this problem.
