In my post about “Transfer ringtone to iPhone wirelessly using SSH“, I wrote about how you can use SSH to transfer ringtone file from your computer to iPhone through WiFi. User with certain technical background may find SSH useful. For general iPhone user, however, SSH may look weird. Recently, you can download Netatalk v2.0.3-4 on Cydia. Netatalk, which is an open-source implementation of AppleTalk, powers your iPhone to talk to your Mac. 
What it means is, with Netatalk, your iPhone can show up on Finder of your Mac as a shared device. You can then just drag & drop files onto the iPhone. Pretty great, right? Netatalk is a great alternative of SSH, especially it offers a more intuitive way for novice to connect your iPhone with your Mac.
Window User: You can use iPhoneBrowser to connect to your iPhone. I’ll write up another post about the connection procedures. Stay tune by subscribing to RSS or Email.
Installing Netatalk
- Launch Cydia. Tap “Sections”. You can find Netatalk under “Network” section
Connecting iPhone on your Mac
Netatalk should let you connect to your iPhone for both Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. But, the connection procedures are somewhat different.
For Mac OS 10.5
If you’re using Mac OS 10.5, that’ll be great. The connection between your iPhone and Mac is seamless.
- Once you got Netatalk installed on your iPhone. Ensure the Wifi is turned on.
- You’ll then find your iPhone shown up on Finder window as shared device.
- Next, click “Connect As” button to logon as another user. You’ll be prompt to enter name/password.
- Type “root” or “mobile” for name and “alpine” for password. Then click “Connect”.
Now your iPhone is connected with your Mac. You should see a “mobile” folder and you can drag & drop file into the iPhone.
For Mac OS 10.4
As an older version of Mac OS X, it’s less intuitive to connect to iPhone even with Netatalk compared with that on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard).
- Again, make sure your iPhone’s Wifi is turned on. But for Mac OS 10.4, you need to check the IP address of your iPhone. You can go to “Settings” -> Wi-Fi. Tap on “>” of your connected network. And you’ll see the IP address.
- Next, on your Mac, open Finder. Click “Go” -> “Connect to server…”. Fill in your iPhone’s IP address.
- You’ll then prompt to enter your name and password. Type “mobile” or “root” for name and “alpine” for password.
- Next, if you are successfully authenticated, you’ll be prompted to choose the volume. Just click OK to accept the default volume.
That’s it. You should now select a “mobile” device (that’s your iPhone) connected to your iPhone in Finder window. Get ready to drag & drop file onto your iPhone.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
gusmen 09.17.08 at 9:34 pm
hey, what a useful article
Thanks mate!
Pete 09.18.08 at 11:49 am
Well … it was a useful article really: I have a jailbroken / unlocked iPhone 1st Gen with iPhoneOS (fw) 2.1 … I can login through SSH with the usual “root” & “alpine” … however as I happily tried logging in via AFT (Netatalk) … surprise - nada … Wrong Password! … soooo … seems like Apple disabled AFP for user root in this wonderful release
Now I just have to do a little bit digging so I can find out what I need in order to reenable AFP for root …. 
If anyone has suggestions by all means do let me know t1_power at yahoo dot com ….
Simon Ng 09.18.08 at 11:56 pm
Pete, did you try “mobile” as username? The password is the same.
JOE 09.27.08 at 3:50 pm
Does somebody know if netatalk waste more battery power? I’ve heard that open ssh sucks up a bunch of battery, so netatalk does also? Please if someone know about this, if netatalk sacrifices much hours of battery life, id rather uninstal it.. thanks for your help
Joshua Curtiss 10.07.08 at 12:29 pm
I’m wondering the same thing. With SSH you can turn it on/off with BossPrefs or the SSH Enabler app, but has anyone written something like this for netatalk?
gilgamesh 10.22.08 at 1:43 am
@Joshua & JOE
Netatalk does not use up battery in a noticeable way (whereas OpenSSH certainly does!) However, it would be good to have a GUI, or even a command line, to either turn it off or at least make the iPhone invisible. Basically, with netatalk your machine is always visible by any user in the wifi network you are in. Which means, if you use netatalk, you better change the password for mobile and root
gene 11.04.08 at 11:45 pm
hey there… my phone is not showing up in finder… i read the above and still doesnt show up… any ideas?