Tethering Android

Goineasy9

I found this link when I was surfing. It describes the setup for tethering in pretty good detail, especially for those using Debian or Fedora based distros.

http://www.humans-enabled.com/2009/12/how-to-tether-your-verizon-droid-as.html

Even though it is written for the Verizon Droid, it looks as though it will work with other carriers. The only differences I've found, in the past, were the address and password.

BTW - I'd be interested in hearing any other methods also. Maybe there's a more secure way, or, a faster way. Just Asking.

mfillpot

On my nexus one I only had to do the following in slackware:

1. Load the usbnet module with the modprobe command
2. Plug the phone into the computer
3. start the tethering mode on the phone
4. run the appropriate ifconfig and dhcpcd commands to bring the usb0 interface up and request an ip address

I have also replaced step 4 with using wicd to treat usb0 as a local net adapter

Goineasy9

Now that's interesting. At one one I do recall seeing a post on a Fedora IRC channel that said "All I did was plug it in and NetworkManager did the rest".

Time for experiments.

mfillpot

That is correct also, with my system the usbnet module is not installed (custom kernel) so I have to enable it myself, which allows this to be more informative for other users.

On most "user friendly" distros where the kernel includes the kitchen sink it will be plug and play, except for the fact that you must tell your network manager application to use the usb0 adapter.

ben

I'm too lazy :-)
I'm just using tethering with nexus wireless card, if you enable wireless tethering you only need to connect to your phone in the same way you connect to an Access Point. No drivers, nothing... and platform independent (tried with a mac as well)

Goineasy9

Since Froyo 2.2, I think Verizon monitors if your using the phone as a wireless access point and asks if you'd like to add the service to your contract. This is from some threads on the forums I have read. That, and the fact that tethering through wifi is slower than wired, means I'll continue on the wired route. I got halfway through the azilink setup in the original link I posted. The computer now sees the phone, and I'm experimenting to see if NetworkManager can actually help with the setup. So far no luck. I'll go the rest of the way with OpenVPN if I run out of ideas.
I looked at the other alternatives and found Proxoid too involved. The need to reset proxies on the fly when it is needed is too much work. PDANet is $30.00 and not Open Source. So, short of a rooting solution, I'm trying Azilink. All that would be required would be to set the usb to ""usb to pc" and set usb debugging on each time I need it.

mfillpot

I have been using both the wifi access point and tethering and prefer the tethering option because it is faster, gives me access to the SD card and because the wifi connection seems to go up and down quite frequently.

woboyle

Tethering my Nexus One on Ubuntu 9.04 and 10.10 requires nothing. The systems automatically detect the modem and connect to it. It has been the easiest process I could imagine. No muss, no fuss, no drivers to install, no software to configure, nada, nil, zip, zilch... :-)

mfillpot

On the CR-48, I was impressed by the tethering, as soon as I plug my nexus one into it and turn on tethering it switches to make the tethered ethernet the primary network connection, absolutely no configuration is necessary.

Goineasy9

Well, Verizon and the Droid 2 using Froyo 2.2 doesn't have the tethering option. When I had my Palm Treo 700p, I could tether just by plugging it into the usb, and NetworkManager would do the rest. When I first got the Treo, I had to add an app called usb modem, but, that was the only app I had to add.
As the carriers take more control of the wireless internet, I'm sure more restrictions (pay for play) will appear. I'm not really concerned about the tethering, due to the fact that I can do everything with the Android OS that I needed my laptop tethered to do in the past.
I'm sure on a rooted phone, setting up the tethering would be a lot easier, but, I'm not done experimenting yet.