How to Steps For Mobile Internet Tethering with Android

What is often asked about phones that provide data plans is if you can use it to tether the Internet to your laptop and now Android provides a means to do so on the G1.

The steps below provided by a 28 year old in Boulder Colorado, Graham Stewart, and require some technical and programming experience:

1. Install the Android Proxy application on your android phone, by clicking here
2. You might have to change your settings to permit apps that don’t come from the Google Market by going to your home screen and choosing MENU > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources.
3. Turn USB debugging ON by going to the G1 home screen, press MENU > Settings > Applications > Development, then enable USB debugging.
4. If your laptop is using Windows or Linux install the Android driver here.
5. If using Linux or Mac download and install the current Android SDK here
6. If using Windows just get the ADB utility from here
7. Plug your phone into your computer
8. Choose Proxy App from your phone’s menu
9. Press the Start Proxy button on your phone
10. Move to the directory that has the adb utility, using inside the Sdk Tools folder and run
    On Windows: adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy
    On Linux/Mac: ./adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy
11. Now you should have a proxy server running on port 8080 of your own computer that will relay the information over the Android Debug Bridge to the Proxy App which will relay it on to the Internet.
12. Set your FireFox proxy : Options > Advanced > Network > Manual Proxy Configuration
    HTTP Proxy: localhost
    Port: 8080
13. Leave the others blank

*** Remember to disable your proxy settings in FireFox if you want to stop using your phone. ***

Whew!  Reports are that this does work well but has some latency issues, so if you want a simpler solution it will cost you as WMWifiRouter will be providing a tethering Android application shortly for around $30.

Curious if T-Mobile will go back to their initially proposed user data cap on 3G as tethering picks up steam or will use the KILL SWITCH.

About the Author

Michael Martin is the SEO Manager at Covario and owner of Mobile Martin in San Diego, Ca while also being recognized throughout the search marketing industry as one of the leading authorities on Mobile SEO and all things Android. In his 10-plus years of Internet marketing experience, Michael has spearheaded online marketing campaigns for such global industry leaders as Research In Motion, Dell, T-Mobile, Samsung, IBM, SC Johnson and IGN.