Android tethering

Tethering is a way to have internet access on your PC through your smartphone using its network connection. USB tethering and Wi-Fi access point tethering are natively supported since Android 2.2 "Froyo".

Wi-Fi access point

Using an Android phone as a Wi-Fi access point (to a 3G/4G mobile internet connection) is available for devices running Android 2.2 "Froyo" or newer.

Enable it via one of the following:

  • Settings > Wireless & networks > Internet tethering > Wi-Fi access point
  • Settings > More... > Tethering & mobile hotspot > Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot
Note: On some phones, this method will discharge the battery rapidly and tends to cause intense heating, unlike USB.

USB tethering

USB tethering is available since Android 2.2 "Froyo".

  • Connect the phone to your computer via USB (the USB connection mode -- Phone Portal, Memory Card or Charge only -- is not important, but please note that you will not be able to change the USB mode during tethering)
  • Enable the tethering option from your phone. This is usually done from one of:
    • Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Internet tethering (or Tethering & portable hotspot, for more recent versions)
    • Settings -> More... -> Tethering & mobile hotspot -> USB tethering
  • Install the usb_modeswitch package. See Mobile broadband modem#Mode switching for more information.
  • Follow Network configuration.
Note: The network interface name may change depending on the USB port you use. You may want to change the interface name to create a unique name for your device regardless of the USB port.
  • If you are using a cellular data plan and you have recently entered a new billing period, you may need to restart your phone.

Using systemd-networkd with udev

Using systemd-networkd you can automatically adjust the networking to use the phone as the gateway when plugged in.

/etc/udev/rules.d/90-android-tethering.rules
# Execute pairing program when appropriate
ACTION=="add|remove", SUBSYSTEM=="net", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1" ENV{ID_USB_DRIVER}=="rndis_host", SYMLINK+="android"

You may have to adjust the idVendor attribute depending on your phone. You can check using udevadm:

$ udevadm info /sys/class/net/enp0s26u1u2

Then create the corresponding systemd-networkd file:

/etc/systemd/network/50-enp0s26u1u2.network
[Match]
Name=enp0s26u1u2

[Network]
DHCP=ipv4

USB tethering with EasyTether

Get the easytether linux client software. The commands to set it up and run it are as follows.

# pacman -U easytether-0.8.5-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
# easytether-usb
# dhcpcd tap-easytether

Make sure you have the EasyTether android app installed on your phone for it to connect to. Note: The Lite app disables some connections and you must have the paid app for full functionality. For this reason, using the AziLink setup is recommended instead.

Reverse tethering

Reverse tethering is to provide internet connection to Android through PC. gnirehtetAUR provides reverse tethering.

Connect your phone to your computer via USB like mentioned above and start: 

$ gnirehtet run
Note: gnirehtetAUR currently only supports USB.

Tethering via Bluetooth

Android (from at least 4.0 onwards, possibly earlier) can provide a Bluetooth personal-area network (PAN) in access point mode.

NetworkManager can perform this action and handle the network initialisation itself; consult its documentation for more details.

Alternatively: pair and ensure you can connect your computer and Android device, as described on Bluetooth, then, substituting the address of the Android device (here given as ), do:

$ dbus-send --system --type=method_call --dest=org.bluez /org/bluez/hci0/dev_AA_BB_CC_DD_EE_FF org.bluez.Network1.Connect string:'nap'

This will create a network interface . Finally, configure a network connection on this interface; Android offers DHCP by default.

Tethering with SOCKS proxy

With this method tethering is achieved by port forwarding from the phone to the PC. This is suitable only for browsing. For Firefox, you should set to in ( address bar )

Tools needed

Tetherbot

Tetherbot is an experimental SOCKS proxy and Port Bouncer that should allow you to connect your laptop to the internet using the internet connection (EDGE, 3G or Wifi) of your T-Mobile G1 Cellphone. It is discontinued and its website is down, but still can be accessed from Wayback Machine where its APK can also be downloaded from.

In order to do SOCKS proxy via Tetherbot to connect your browser to the Internet, do:

  1. For your phone, open the application Tetherbot and press the Start Socks button
  2. Start your SOCKS proxy by running:
  3. Now go to your web browser's proxy settings, set a manual proxy configuration with the proxy host address and port , leaving the rest blank.

Proxoid

Follow the instructions demonstrated in the following link.

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