Sprint HTC Hero : Tethering Worked First Time

I've been reading all this complicated nonsense about Sprint Hero and tethering, rooting the phone and all other stuff, maybe it's just dated but it was all out of touch with the reality of what the phone did in the real world.

I had my Hero plugged into the USB port, HTC Sync software was pre-installed of course, and simply pressed the following on the phone:

MENU -> SETTINGS -> WIRELESS CONTROLS -> MOBILE NETWORK SHARING

The "Mobile Network Sharing" is actually disabled when the USB cable isn't connected so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the machine implicitly allows tethering.

Now to see you actually have a network, from the Windows Start Menu select "NETWORK" on the right hand column, then click "Network and Sharing Center" and VOILA! there's a new network connection titled "HTC Remote NDIS based Device".

How simple and freaking cool is that?

Didn't have to unlock the phone or do any rooting, it was simple as a single click in the menu.

Got a bandwidth speed of just under 450mbps on my first test but I was definitely loading web pages through the phone as I manually disconnected all other networking options.

The FUD though is about whether this causes extra fees on your Simply Everything plan or not as the Sprint salesperson warned us that using tethering is tracked separately and goes against your actual phone minutes and not your data plan.

If that means nights and weekends are free, cool.

If that means any time you tether it's burning up minutes, not cool.

Since Verizon offers Droid tethering for $30/mo. extra I can't imagine Sprint won't do something comparable or simply lose customers.

Let us know of your of tales of Hero tethering!