[GUIDE]TBH inspired Free wireless tethering hack instructions for Droid 3

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wattnxt

Senior Member
Apr 30, 2011
91
26
Ixonia
yes you can still teather with the .906 update..i have never done the tbh hack..
if you dont wanna do the hack try wifi teather for root users on the market combined with most of the newer roms..i use eclipse 3.0 and together i wifi teather great and free..

Did this the day it came out. Before root was obtained for the D3.
It has survived every update so far, never had to update it. Tether still works fine. And I agree, it is WAY easier to actually do than what it looks like. However; the consequences to not reading and following instructions perfectly can be disastrous, but was well worth the effort.

After the success with the D3, a similar hack can be applied to the Xoom 4g. Was applied as a 3g Xoom, sent to Moto for the 4g update, and came back fully updated with newest version (at the time) and the hack survived the 4g upgrade and ROM update as well. Been flawless since. Flashed everything from 3.2.2 up to Jelly Bean and back. Still works.

If I had to make the changes again, I would. Thanks to TBH for all their work, and cellzealot for all his help with my endeavors to apply this to the Stingray (M602 Xoom).
 
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apronouva

Member
Dec 30, 2010
23
8
Seraphim
Hi,

I've read that this hack will only be able to tether Droid 3 which using CDMA whilst I'm using GSM only on my country. I searched through this forum and perhaps my unfortune that I couldn't find a working answers. A few things I've tried :

1. Applying Droid 3 Tether hack mentioned at the first posts, steps completed and obviously still won't work because this hack intended for CDMA
2. Add APN type as "dun" on the APN setting page still not working
3. Using 3rd party applications like FoxFi and Barnacles.

Nothing worked so far. FYI, I'm at stock 906 ROM rooted with Safebloatremoval script by psouza4.

Any leads ? I'm sure there are solutions to comprehend this issue out there, its just that I'm not knowledgeable enough to solve it by myself.

Thank you in advance,
apronouva
 

crackface

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2008
88
0
Unable to apply radio hack to D3

I originally had stock and this radio hack worked using a Win7 laptop.

I then moved to the Eclipse ROM, which instructed us to use the Wifi Tether app from Playstore, which worked.

I not have the minimoto ROM installed, and the Wifi Tether app doesn't work, so I thought I'd try this radio hack again, but it didn't work:

On Windows 8, I installed the latest driver I could find off Moto's web site (MotorolaDeviceManager_2.3.4.exe), then installed Radiocomm 11.11.11, opened Radiocomm and selected the PST USB driver in settings, and plugged in the phone via USB. The light in the upper right corner of Radiocomm stayed red....it never turned green.

On Windows 7, I still had the moto drivers and Radiocomm installed from when I did this when phone was stock. I fired up Radiocomm, plugged in the phone, and the light did turn green. However when I tried to get the SW Version, the white box remained blank, so I did not proceed. I then tried installing the updated Moto drivers I used on Win8, and get the same result with one addition: when I plug in the phone, it fails on installing the MTP USB Device, and when I click on that device in Device Manager, its status says "The device cannot start".

I think I read somewhere that this hack has to applied to stock only...is this true? Otherwise any ideas what could be going on?

Thanks in advance for any advice or help.
 

cobravnm13

Senior Member
Apr 12, 2012
132
61
I originally had stock and this radio hack worked using a Win7 laptop.

I then moved to the Eclipse ROM, which instructed us to use the Wifi Tether app from Playstore, which worked.

I not have the minimoto ROM installed, and the Wifi Tether app doesn't work, so I thought I'd try this radio hack again, but it didn't work:

On Windows 8, I installed the latest driver I could find off Moto's web site (MotorolaDeviceManager_2.3.4.exe), then installed Radiocomm 11.11.11, opened Radiocomm and selected the PST USB driver in settings, and plugged in the phone via USB. The light in the upper right corner of Radiocomm stayed red....it never turned green.

On Windows 7, I still had the moto drivers and Radiocomm installed from when I did this when phone was stock. I fired up Radiocomm, plugged in the phone, and the light did turn green. However when I tried to get the SW Version, the white box remained blank, so I did not proceed. I then tried installing the updated Moto drivers I used on Win8, and get the same result with one addition: when I plug in the phone, it fails on installing the MTP USB Device, and when I click on that device in Device Manager, its status says "The device cannot start".

I think I read somewhere that this hack has to applied to stock only...is this true? Otherwise any ideas what could be going on?

Thanks in advance for any advice or help.

I believe you have a higher chance of success trying the Radiocomm on the stock ROM.
 
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yanger

Senior Member
Aug 21, 2010
136
8
I was soo reluctant in doing this... but since the D3 is pretty old (and this is my replacement phone, which was hardbranded XT861 [see my prev posts, long story] I tried this. It works! Kinda?

The instructions were perfect. Only minor issues I saw were:

I did this on a windows 7 64 bit pc. The radiocom software would def be happier with a 32 bit xp system, it will throw a lot of errors, but it will work. More on that in a second.

I did run this on a Windows 7 x86 PC. Errors were shown just as noted

3. Now, Connect your droid 3 to your computer and put it in PC mode. If you installed the drivers correctly you should get this cool little screen showing your phone and telling you some info about it that pops up from motos software. in radiocom software in the upper right of the screen right under the RC logo, the lgiht should turn green to show the phone is connected. You can test by pushing the GET button under the SW version. It should return your Android software version. DON'T PUSH ANY OTHER BUTTONS. YOU COULD REALLY SCREW SOMETHING UP.

I tried and tried and tried, and this would never give me my Android version at all. FYI, i'm on Stock Android 2.3.4, 5.7.906.XT862.Verizon.en.US, rooted, safestrapped, safestrap disabled... I risked it and skipped that part after 10 or so reinstallations of the drivers, RadioComm, and triple checking all was correct...

6. Now hit the restart button next the text box top center. You phone will restart. it will say something scary at first like SIm card not found. This is normal. Give it a Second and it will be right back to normal, you will have your 3G icon and be able to make calls, send texts etc.

The SIM card not found message didn't appear for me. It did reboot and went right to 3G, Wifi worked, calls worked.

What you didn't mention was if you used the "Tethering and Mobile Hotspot" or the "Wifi Tether" app. I used the Wifi Tether app, and it's working perfectly.... until you disconnect.. sometimes it lags suddenly and the sync icon appears, and anything that requires network gets "queued" but nothing happens until a reboot is done. (Google Voice queues the messages sent, but does not send them.)

I'll try the stock method later today :) but i do enjoy that I don't have to use the bluetooth tether method anymore [it's darned slow]

thanks!!
 

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  • 61
    Wireless Tethering is one of the main things I miss about not having root. I specifically bought a wifi only Xoom because I knew I could just tether it to my phone. When I switched to the droid 3 believing it would come unlocked it was like a kick in face.

    Recently I came across a thread from Team Black Hat describing a way of enabling free tethering on Verizon without root. In their write up they provide a flashable zip. Useless for us as we don't have root, or a recovery, but it got me thinking. All credit for this goes to Team Black Hat. They rock, I really hope they are working on rooting the droid 3 because they are android gods.
    The original thread by TBH can be read here.

    I'm not going to go too in depth here, because if you screw you have the possibility to brick your pretty new device. Also, It goes against your TOS with Verizon, and who knows one day they might work out a way to tell who is doing this. The more people who know and use this trick, the more likely it is they will find some way of detecting and or closing the hole.

    But I couldn't leave my XDA brothers out of the loop! :D So with the standard disclaimer (I'm not responsible for anything you do, anything that comes of something you do, blah blah, you know the deal) I will outline the steps required to enable free tethering on our wonderful Droid 3s.

    Team Black Hat said:
    TeamBlackHat is releasing for the public the only permanent 3G Hotspot hack. Please be responsible and do not abuse this release. MyDroidWorld and TeamBlackHat are not responsible for your behavior nor your bills.


    I did this on a windows 7 64 bit pc. The radiocom software would def be happier with a 32 bit xp system, it will throw a lot of errors, but it will work. More on that in a second.

    1st. You need the most recent drivers for your computer so that your computer can see your phone. You can get them off the Motorola website, same as if you were going to use adb or RSDlite. The file I downloaded from the moto support site was called MotoHelper_2.0.49_Driver_5.0.0.exe

    2nd. You need a copy of Radiocom. Radiocom is a piece of software thats supposed to be for moto employees only and allows you to read and write data directly to your software radio. You need to search the internet for it, because its a copyrighted file I can't post it for you. You need to find the latest version. The best version I found was RadioCOmm_v11.11.11_Install.msi - You also need the .net framework installed on your computer. You can get that from Microsoft's site for free.

    3. You need a USB cable and a droid 3.

    Now... crack a beer and lets get down to business.

    1. Install the moto drivers and the .net framework. Install Radiocom. It will give you all sorts of errors, but it will install.

    2. Next, find it under your start menu. Right click on it, and select "trouble shoot compatibility" I just ran with the suggested settings. Basically what this does is run the application under XP compatibility mode. Now take a sip of beer, you are gonna get some error messages but don't tweak.

    a. You will still get the first screen that says do you want ot the following program from an unknown company to make changes on your computer - check yes.

    b. it will say motorola datacard drivers 1.5.9 : this installation is intended for 32-bit os versions only.please use the 64bit version on this machine. click okay.

    c. Installation incomplete: the installer was interrupted before motorola datacard drivers 1.5.9 could be instaled. You need to restart the installer to try again. hit close.

    d. Warning: Motorola Dataard Drier installlation package ersion mismatch. the version supplied with this tool does not match the installed version on the machine. WE cannot guiarantee proper radio enumeration unless you install the latest version. the installation package will start again the next tiem this tool is started. Click OK

    e. This version of RadioCOmm is more that 2 months old. This version may be out of date. Please visit the PDO compass webpage and download the latest version of RadioComm. - Click OK.

    Radiocom will start! Phew!

    you will have to select the chipset at start: I selected CDMA 1x (MSM 7500) w/ Android. I don't know if this is the best or most accurate one. I actually spent 45 minutes trying to search for exactly what our chipset base was... but I decided to be brave (or stupid) and went with this one and it worked. after it boots, Under settings in radiocom, USB, Select PST USB Driver.

    3. Now, Connect your droid 3 to your computer and put it in PC mode. If you installed the drivers correctly you should get this cool little screen showing your phone and telling you some info about it that pops up from motos software. in radiocom software in the upper right of the screen right under the RC logo, the lgiht should turn green to show the phone is connected. You can test by pushing the GET button under the SW version. It should return your Android software version. DON'T PUSH ANY OTHER BUTTONS. YOU COULD REALLY SCREW SOMETHING UP.

    Now a little background, you can read TBH's awesome explanation, but the quick and dirty one is that moto's software radio uses three different 128 char string identifiers for data requests. Thats how they can tell the difference between your phones web browser asking for data, and a laptop or Xoom connected to your phone asking for data. We are going to use Radiocom to make all three strings match the first string - so all data appears to be just for the phone. After doing so - your verizon installed hotspot app will work and the usb tethering option will too! ta da!

    Team black Hat has made a screen shot showing all the steps required it can be viewed here.

    I'll also try including it right here but i'm not sure how it will look:

    RC_Tether_1.jpg


    3. now take a deep breath... use the arrows in the Radiocom program to find the tab marked P2K 1.

    Look at the image and in your Radiocom program in the bottom left there is a box called STELEM/ RDELEM. First Select Dec entries.

    Rdelem means read, and STELEM means write.

    now this is very very important. Do not screw this part up. make sure again you have selected Dec entries, because if you enter the numbers below in hex mode and then hit DEC they will change and you will be reading and writing the wrong values which is BAD.

    In Dec Mode

    For ElementID: enter 8040
    Record # 1
    offset 0
    length 128

    Now Hit RDELEM. the box in the top right should go green, a bunch of numbers should flash through but most importantly right next to where you entered the element ID and record number the box that says Data (hex only) will now have a 128 char string in there. Hilight the entire 128 byte string and copy it.

    4. You are now going to change the element ID to 8041 (record, offset, length stay the same) and hit RDELEM. If you compare these two numbers they are different, this is how moto knows you are tethering. You would have to paste both into a word file becuase they both end in a bunch of 00's so in the tiny data box they look the same, but trust me they are different. Select the data in the databox for 8041 and delete it. Paste the number from 8040. Now hit STELEM. Again you should see a bunch of numbers go through that box on the top right and it should be green.

    5. Now you are going to do the same things for element numbers 8042, and 8043. Remember each time to hit RDELEM first, paste the value from 8040, then hit STELEM.

    6. Now hit the restart button next the text box top center. You phone will restart. it will say something scary at first like SIm card not found. This is normal. Give it a Second and it will be right back to normal, you will have your 3G icon and be able to make calls, send texts etc.

    EXCEPT.... Now you can use the verizon mobile hotspot application and it won't send to that verizon website that says "would you like to pay for tethering?" - you have just successfully hacked your radio to make verizon believe all data requests are phone data requests.

    Ta DA!@

    We might not have root yet, but now we have free wireless tethering! I have had this running for about 24 hours and everything seems perfectly functional. My xoom connects right away to my phone and the distance is actually pretty good (like from bed to desk.. not just pocket to hand). Speeds are functional, just like you would get on the phone.

    I hope I have made the wait for root just a little easier for my fellow XDA'ers... I know despite the fact I'm taking the Bar exam in 3 days I still check the forums every hour hoping against hope for some new news of root .... or hell... even video chat working in talk (gchat/huddle/etc).

    Again I take no credit for this, All thanks to Team Black Hat! But if you wanted to press the thanks button it would make feel all warm and fuzzy inside =)

    - faylix / local
    4
    Here is a zip file containing two .NVM seem tables for use with RadioComm NV/SEEM feature which writes these files in a single operation.

    One file will write these SEEMs enabling tethering on any Moto Droid device and the other will write the default values to disable it on any Moto Droid device.

    Or you can open them up in Wordpad to just read the data and write it manually if you prefer.
    3
    Nice job! ;)

    There is actually a great deal more to discuss regarding the NVM of the D3 and I will be doing so.

    These instructions and screenshots should actually be updated to reflect the MDM6600 global chipset in the D3 and other global Droid models.

    I am currently working on a comparison of a dump of the D3 NVM and an unlocked Droid Pro 3.8.7 engineering build to see if its possible to isolate the band unlock and apply it to the new radio.
    So far it doesn't look good because there are so many differences in the radio NVM between them, but I have only just started examining it.

    Thanks for giving credit where due and i emphasize that this is a very dangerous practice right now if you abuse it and VZW is making a concerted effort to identify and penalize such users.
    3
    Here is an updated screenshot that should help some of you with issues.
    You can read the SW Version and MEID but it will hang reading Flex version so don't bother with that.
    Note that the GUI will change dramatically with the correct chipset base and the RDELEM/STELEM module is now on the P2K4 tab instead of P2K1 tab.

    Some of the other steps outlined in the OP may also be unnecessary depending on your PC config.

    Yes, I am using a newer version of RadioComm than you will find available on the web but this will work with any 11.X.X version.

    Droid3_RadioComm_NAI.jpg
    2
    Hehe, folks here aren't too generous with the thanks button...I have no idea why.

    bunch of mean people on XDA.... :p

    - faylix / local

    (finally rooted my droid and on darkdroid blah blah).