How To Tether Your Android Phone For Free

So you’ve heard about tethering.  You’ve heard its available from your phone company for an extra whopping $30 bucks on top of your regular data plan.  Well, what if I told you that with a few easy steps, you can tether your Android phone to your desktop or laptop and surf the web using nothing but your phone a “sort of” high speed modem?  With some very basic computer knowhow, a PC, a USB cable, and an Android phone, you can surf the web from wherever there is a decent 3G or EDGE connection, which for a lot of people is almost everywhere.

I am using a Nexus One (Android 2.1 rev1) but I believe this should work on all Android devices.  There are a few different ways to enable your phone to tether.  One way is rooting your phone, which voids your warranty and the other (the one I’m going to go over) is installing a free application from the Android Marketplace called “Proxoid”.  Just open up the market and search for it.  It will be right at the top.

Unfortunately, in order for Proxoid to work you will need to download the Android SDK. Luckily, Google has redesigned the SDK to only include the basic framework, requiring you to download the platform and tools you wish to work in, rather than forcing you into a 200+ MB download that has everything.  Ok, away  we go:

This tutorial assumes that you have a basic to intermediate knowledge of Windows XP / Vista / 7 or are willing to research any items that don’t make sense.  Specifically, you know how to move files, extract files from archives/zip files, create shortcuts on your desktop etc.

(Of course, start by downloading Proxoid from the Android Market)

1.  Turn on Debugging Mode on your phone.  Go to Settings>Applications> Development >USB Debugging

2. Download the Android SDK.  You can get the ZIP file here:  http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html (note: this tutorial only covers the Windows version.  I am writing this tutorial as if its for Windows 7, but Vista and XP should be similar.   Although it is possible to tether on Mac and Linux, I’m not that great with either so I can’t really get into it).

3. Extract the “android-sdk-windows” folder from the ZIP file to a place of your chosing.  I just extracted it to my c: drive.  The choice is yours.

4.  Open the “android-sdk-windows” folder you just extracted and launch “SDK Setup.exe”

5. Note:  On two separate PCs, I got the same error saying:

“Failed to fetch URL https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/repository.xml, reason: HTTPS SSL error. You might want to force download through HTTP in the settings.”

To get passed this, click “close” and go to the “settings” tab found on the left side of the window.  Check the option to force https: connections to use http: which will fix this error.

6. Click the “Installed Packages” tab on the left.  Then click “Update All…”

7.  All we need here is the USB Driver Package.  Click each item in the packages window to place a red X except for the USB Driver Package item.  You can also indivudually highlight each package and click “reject”.  In this screen “accept” means install and “reject” means “do not install”.

8.  Once everything EXCEPT the USB Driver Package is rejected, click “Install”.

9 This will create a new directory in your “android-sdk-windows” folder called “usb_driver“.  Check it out, you’ll see it there.  This folder contains the USB drivers for your Android phone and will allow it to properly communicate with your Windows computer.

10.  Plug in your phone using a USB cable.  Some computers will automatically pop up a Found New Hardware window and some won’t.  I’m not sure why.  (If it doesn’t pop up, go to step 10a).  If you are presented with the Found New Hardware window, do not have Windows automatically search for a driver to install, instead, instruct it to “Browse My Computer For Driver Software”.  This will allow you to tell Windows where to find the driver for your phone.  Browse for the driver by pointing the search to “c:/android-sdk-windows/usb_driver” (or wherever you installed it) and click Next.  With any luck, Windows will find the driver and install it automatically.  Note:  both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers are included in the SDK.

10a.  If you were not prompted to install new hardware when you plugged in your phone, don’t worry.  Just go to your device manager.  There are several ways to do this.  The easiest way is to Right Click your “Computer / My Computer” icon on the desktop and then click “Properties”.  Depending on which version of Windows you have, you may see a link right there for Device Manager.  XP users have a dig a little bit more, but it’s there. I promise.  Once you’re in the Device Manager, look for a item that sounds like your phone and that has a yellow mark on it.  (You may have several yellow items depending on the overall health of your computer).  Mine simply said “Nexus One” and had a yellow icon under it.  Double click the item and you will see a message saying something to about the driver not being installed for this device.  Install/update the driver and use the steps in step 10.  Once the driver is installed, you will have an item called something like “Android Compatible ADB Interface”.  If you see this, you’re in business.

11.  There are two files additional files that must be added to the Android SDK folder to enable tethering.  Install the “start-tunnel.bat” and “check.bat” files into your “c:/android-sdk-windows/tools”  folder.  These files are provided at the maker of Proxoid’s website, but for you’re convenience, I have uploaded them here: http://www.slagermanphoto.com/android/

12. After copying the two .bat files into your tools folder, right click on the “start-tunnel.bat” file and go to “Send To>Desktop (create shortcut).  This will place a shortcut to the file on the desktop.  This will be helpful because any time you wish to tether, you will need to launch this application.

13. On your phone, open Proxoid and place a check mark in “Start/Stop” Proxoid

14.  Double click the “start-tunnel.bat” shortcut on your desktop and follow any instructions in the command prompt window that opens.

15. Open your browser, be it Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome.. whatever.  You are going to need to modify the browser’s proxy settings.  I won’t go into much detail here, that’s what a Google search is for, but you will need to set your proxy address to “localhost” or “127.0.0.1” (no quotation marks) and the port for all traffic to 8080 (http, https, socks etc).  Almost all browsers will have their proxy settings under Options or Settings.  Firefox is under Tools>Options>Advanced>Network.  Chrome is under the Wrench icon, then Options>Under The Hood>Change My Proxy Settings.  IE, eahh.. you get the point.

16. FIN!  Start Browsing!

If you did everything correctly, you shoud now be able to browse the net right through the data connection on your phone.  Unfortunately, it will be slower than what you’re use to.  Sometimes painfully slow.  It really depends on your carrier, signal strength, data connection quality, and the content you are trying to access.   You can verify its working by turning off your wifi connection or unplugging your ethernet cord.  If these are off and your able to surf, then give yourself a pat on the back cause you’re done.   The beauty of this is your phone is being charged as you use it, so as long as your computer is plugged into an outlet, you will have limitless access and not have to worry about the battery on your modem.. err…  phone.

Be aware that when you are done tethering, you will want to change your proxy settings back to their default (usually blank) state.  If you try to connect to the Internet over regular wi-fi or a wired network and you don’t change the proxy settings back, you will have trouble browsing.

Happy Surfing and congrats on sticking it to the man… Cough At&t….

Keep in mind that it is YOUR responsibility to verify with your mobile carrier that this will not cause you to incur any extra costs on your bill.  I will not be held responsible for any unexpected or outrageous phone bills.  Always check with your carrier.