iPhone OS 3.0.1 Update Error 3014 SOLUTION

Update: If you are getting a 3014 error updating to iPhone OS 3.1 this fix will work as well.

I attempted to install the iPhone OS 3.0.1 update for my iPhone today with great disappointment. For the past few hours my iPhone has been a useless brick. The update started normally until iTunes tried to verify my iPhone with Apple. It failed displaying a "3014" error and taking me to a generic "somethings gone wrong" page.

I took a hint that while it doesn't make total sense, it must have something to do with my network, as I have the latest version of iTunes (6.2.1) and it's what everyone keeps tlaking about. I fiddled with my ADSL modem, router, firewalls, everything, with no success.

The Solution
I almost resorted to using iRecovery, an application that goes into your iPhone and changes something so I could go back to using my phone with plain 3.0, but I don't like the idea of having non-Apple software stuff around with my iPhone. Luckily I discovered an easy painless solution: Use another network!

I couldn't really use another network at home, so I downloaded AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield that lets me use their VPN network free of charge, tunnelled through my own internet connection. It worked, I installed Hotspot Shield, started up iTunes and away it went, no problems at all.

What is Hotspot Shield?
Hotspot shield is a piece of software that tunnels your network traffic through Anchor Free's network and back out to the internet, encrypting all the data sent between your computer and their network. This type of technology is called a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, and is primarily used to ensure the data between you and a work network or public wifi connection is secure. In this case however we are taking advantage of the fact that being connected through a VPN is like being connected to a different ISP or network all together. For those of us who have ISPs that are incompatible with Apple's servers, it is the perfect solution.