With the iPhone Configuration Utility you can set your iPad or iPhone carrier’s APN (access point name) manually in case your 3G networking isn’t working properly, which can sometimes happen for developers running beta versions of iOS. It’s a workaround to be sure, but if you need your device on-network for testing and can’t wait for newer betas, sometimes a work around is just what you need.

Follow on after the break for step-by-step instructions.

• If you haven’t already, download, install, and run the iPhone Configuration Utility from Apple for Windows or Mac OS X.

• Go to Configuration Profiles under Library in the sidebar and then hit New in the toolbar.

• Under General (Mandatory) enter a name for the profile you’re creating, and a unique identifier.

• Google your carrier’s APN settings. Take note of them.

• Scroll all the way to the bottom and, under Advanced, fill in your carrier’s APN info.

• Plug in your iPad or iPhone and then select it in the sidebar under Devices.
• Pick your profile and hit Install.

• Approve the installation on your iPhone or iPad.

• Enjoy functional 3G networking!

Again, this isn’t as good as having it work automagically, but it’s better than not having it work at all. If you’ve been having problems, hopefully this helps.

tsopanos emails in and points us to this iPhone Hellas story. Yes, it is literally Greek to us (groan), so here’s a Google Translation.

Here’s the scoop: the Data Meter on the iPhone is very helpful for letting you know how much data you’ve used, as Rene pointed out a few weeks ago. Sadly: it’s not a “Cellular Network Data” meter proper, apparently. Tsopanos has figured out that if you play around with the Access Point Name (that’s APN to the rest of us, and no, AT&T owners won’t see that setting under General -> Network), you can get that meter to return false information on 2.0.2.

More specifically, if you ‘break’ your APN by changing or screwing around with those settings and then go back and browse any data you have cached on your browser, email, or maps, the iPhone believes all that is more data that’s been downloaded over the cellular network. What this means is that the Cellular Data Meter might actually be double-dipping when your APN is right, i.e. counting locally cached data as cellular data. We’re not sure yet as we don’t have an iPhone with editable-APN sitting around — browsing cached data while in Airplane mode doesn’t seem to register.

Yeah, it’s a esoteric bug and yeah, at least that bug errs on the side of caution by showing you potentially more data than you’ve actually downloaded. Still, something we’re hoping will get a fix.

Thanks, Tsopanos!