Monday, November 3, 2008

Howto: Tether Your G1 to your PC or laptop


What is this?

Updated howto: here

This is a HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL proxy application that should allow you to browse the web via a USB connected T-Mobile G1.

Use at your own risk!

This does seem to be pretty slow when relaying the EDGE data network, however i think T-Mobile are having issues in my neighborhood tonight. I've done most of my testing on Wifi. There's no 3G network here yet, but there's no reason why it won't work.

What is this not?

It's not really a "tethering" app. Right now it only allows web access, you can't use it as a general purpose internet tool

I do think I can use this approach to tunnel SSH and maybe VPN traffic - so if you have your own server somewhere then it could come in pretty handy

Ok, I've read all the caveats above

Really..?

Yes... where do i start

  • Install the app on your android phone, by clicking here (from your phone browser of course)
    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.
  • Turn USB debugging on on your phone
    On your G1 go to the home screen, press MENU > Settings > Applications > Development, then enable USB debugging.
  • Follow the instructions here to install the Android driver - you'll need to do this on Windows & Linux but apparently not on the Mac.
  • Download and install the Android SDK for your computer platform. Alternatively if you are on Windows and don't want a 100 meg download, just get the ADB utility from here
  • Plug your phone into your computer
  • Choose Proxy App from your phone's menu
  • Press the "Start Proxy" button on your phone
  • Move to the directory that has the adb utility, using inside the Sdk Tools folder and run
    Windows: adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy
    Linux/Mac: ./adb forward tcp:8080 localabstract:Proxy
  • 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.
  • Set your firefox proxy : Options > Advanced > Network > Manual Proxy Configuration
    HTTP Proxy: localhost
    Port: 8080
    Leave the others blank
  • Enjoy the slow slow EDGE network, or let me know if you have glorious fast 3g coverage!
  • Remember to disable your proxy settings in firefox if you want to stop using your phone.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the awesome tip. it seems to me though (total nube here, so take this with a grain of salt) that if you can set firefox to use it via proxy port 8080 you should be able to set any internet using program with proxy port capabilities to use it as well, ie outlook, skype, msn. most of these programs have some version avaliable for the phone directly, but sometimes its just nicer to type on a full sized keyboard than on the little slide out device.

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  2. When I connect the phone to my laptop, instead of getting the "New Hardware Found" window I get a "Removable Drive E" window.

    Is there a safe and simple way to disable/uninstall whatever (driver?) is causing this?

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  3. On my Phone I get the application was unsuccessfully installed, and on my Macbook, I can not decompress and combine the two files listed in the link.

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  4. This post has been updated here:
    http://www.android-unleashed.com/2008/11/tether-your-android-g1-to-your-laptop.html

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  5. the app "adb" seems to run and i can't get to stay open at all to enter the info in. any ideas? the blackberry seems to be a better option to this app for the g1. anything i should know?

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  6. im currently using windows vista and cannot seem to get the abd app to stay running any help i could get would be greatly appreciated?

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  7. I got the connection to work without to much trouble but Firefox browser is blank??? Anyone else have this issue?

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