# Tethering / Trouble Installing USB Driver for Nexus Phone



## TinyFlutter (Jun 19, 2011)

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## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

First off, congratulations for getting your hands on the _coolest phone eva_!
I have the same phone, and you don't need PdaNet to enable tethering, as it is natively supported by the Android OS. First thing, uninstall PdaNet. Then, if you enabled the USB debugging mode, disable it. Done that, on your phone, go to Settings -> More... -> Tethering & portable hotspot.

Here, you have two choices. Honestly, I'd spare myself some trouble and use the portable hotspot function, and use the USB tethering function only for desktop computers without an WiFi network card.

Enable the Portable hotspot check box. This will turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot (it will "send" a wifi signal instead of "receiving" it). Then select Configure WiFi Hotspot if you want to change the access point's name (SSID, the default one is AndroidAP) and give it a password. I recommend the default WPA2 PSK setting. You can pick any password you like, as long as it's 8 characters long, or you can keep the default password, which you can reveal if you click on the "show password" box.

Now get on your computer, click on the connections icon next to the clock in the bottom right corner, and you should see the "AndroidAP" network. Double click on it, give it the password you chose earlier, and you should be good to go.

Notice that as long as the phone is "sending" WiFi signal, it won't be able to "receive" it. So be sure to disable the Portable hotspot check box when you leave your house and want to use other WiFi networks with your phone.

Also, you may want to consider installing an app called NetCounter, which will keep an eye on the data usage. Useful if you have a limited data plan. Be advised that a computer tends to chomp through data a lot faster than your phone, especially since it considers a WiFi connection to be a local area network connection, and may decide to download updates etc.

I never tried the USB tethering option. But if you really want to use that, even just for teh lulz, we can try it together. Let me know.


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## phoenixwright (Jun 22, 2011)

That is a sweet device. One of the best Androids out there. Besides maybe the Samsung Galaxy S II. I don't have that phone. But I'm familiar with the Nexus S (previous Nexus). All I had to do was set up a WiFi hotspot from android's wireless connection settings with password encryption. Then I connect to that WiFi hotspot with my laptop like you would with any WiFi router.

WiFi Tethering is native in Android 2.2 and up so a Android 4.0 stock android galaxy nexus is more than capable of doing it. My android 2.3 HTC desire HD can. So can the Nexus S.


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## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

PiscesVixen said:


> I'm on an unlimited data plan right now, so I hope tethering won't be a problem with my carrier?


I don't think they would have any problems with it, and they won't be able to do anything about it anyway. EDIT: @OP read following posts regarding the possible existence of tethering fees in your country.



PiscesVixen said:


> I actually managed to get rid of the older Android USB driver on my computer and I STILL can't install the latest driver for it, I have no idea why. There's something seriously wrong with my laptop, it can't even detect my printer *sighs* I've been having problems with it ever since I did a system restore.


You won't need the USB driver for any practical purposes anyway. Unless you're planning on rooting your phone, you're good to go as you are now. The USB driver is only needed for the ADB interface, which is used to send instructions to the phone via the Windows command line, and for the development of apps (which is why it's distributed through the Android developers website).

USB tethering does not require the USB driver, it requires another driver. I've just tried it myself, out of curiosity. The first time you use USB tethering, the _computer will have to be already connected to the internet_ through other means (friend/neighbour's internet connection, public WiFi, internet cafè etc). Once you activate the USB Tethering option, Windows 7 will automatically search the internet for the appropriate driver (which is _a_ USB driver, not _*the*_ USB driver, which usually refers to the ADB Interface driver), and add a virtual network card to your computer.

Notice that USB modes are mutually exclusive, which means that when the phone is connected in tethering mode, its OS will have to dismount the MTP device from the computer. In other words, while you're tethered you won't be able to access your phone's internal storage through Windows Explorer, and vice versa.

To summarize:

When the phone is connected to the computer via USB cable as "media device" (MTP), which is the default setting, and lets you move files to and from the phone, you get:



When the phone is connected in USB tethering mode, you get a virtual network interface card:



When the phone is in USB debugging mode, and the USB drivers are properly installed, you get the ADB Interface, which was used by programs like PdaNet to interact with the phone when Android didn't have native support for tethering yet, and also for developing apps:


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## coldmorning (Jul 4, 2007)

PiscesVixen said:


> I'm on an unlimited data plan right now, so I hope tethering won't be a problem with my carrier?


I don't know about the Canadian companies but some of the US ones will charge you a tethering fee (and they'll know you're tethering even if you don't tell them). I think that's stupid, after all data is data, but somehow consumers here have been convinced that you can be charged different amounts based on what you use the data for.


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## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

coldmorning said:


> They'll know you're tethering even if you don't tell them.


How sure are you about that? The only way I know to implement that would be to inspect the traffic details of every single user. It would probably be economically impractical (and, in the case of inspecting payload details like user-agent data, potentially illegal). Especially if the customer uses data with moderation. If you don't stress the network too much, I think it's easier for them to leave you alone than potentially lose a customer in the process of requesting a tethering fee.

Has it actually happened to you, or you have direct experience of someone who's been contacted and/or fined by their carrier because they tethered their device without paying the fee? I'm really curious on the matter, I'm always eager to see how thing evolve around the world. As of now, my country's carriers don't do that, and I had no idea it was like that in the US. I wonder if I have to start worrying.

At any rate, @OP, do install NetCounter, and keep an eye on your data usage. Don't download tens of gigabytes of data every week, or you could hear from your carrier. Otherwise, I don't think you'll run into any problems.


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## coldmorning (Jul 4, 2007)

ShyGuy86 said:


> How sure are you about that? The only way I know to implement that would be to inspect the traffic details of every single user. It would probably be economically impractical (and, in the case of inspecting payload details like user-agent data, potentially illegal). Especially if the customer uses data with moderation. If you don't stress the network too much, I think it's easier for them to leave you alone than potentially lose a customer in the process of requesting a tethering fee.
> 
> Has it actually happened to you, or you have direct experience of someone who's been contacted and/or fined by their carrier because they tethered their device without paying the fee? I'm really curious on the matter, I'm always eager to see how thing evolve around the world. As of now, my country's carriers don't do that, and I had no idea it was like that in the US. I wonder if I have to start worrying.


I don't think it's illegal to inspect things like user-agent data. (EDIT: I don't know the legality of that at all). They also have to look at things like TTL and they would notice the count is lower than it should be. So there are a few ways they would know. Anyway, the carriers here are very invasive and most stock installs have all sorts of things that keep track of what you're doing. If I go to the android market and buy an app, my carrier takes over the payment and have it go through them. So it shows up on my credit card as billed from my carrier and not the market. Americans don't bat an eye over things like this... it's perfectly fine to them. I'm sure they have installs that keep track of what apps you use to save them the effort of inspecting packets. And most people won't bother to root.

But I don't have personal experience of getting a notice for tethering. I've only read about it from others on the web. I've actually used PDAnet and tethered without problems but this was years ago before that carrier had a clear policy on tethering. Carriers now make it clear that if you tether you pay a fee for it on top of your data plan... because you know, a meg of data used on your laptop is more special than a meg used on your phone of course.


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## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

coldmorning said:


> I don't know the legality of that at all


Me neither, but consider this: user-agent data is HTTP data, therefore it's at the application layer level. It's not the packet header, it's in the packet's payload. So basically it's the same class of data (albeit unencrypted) as your usernames and passwords, credit card numbers or e-mail texts, etc. If it's not illegal for carriers to read a TCP packet payload...

[insert "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" meme pic here]

Now, I'm not as naive to think they won't do it in practice, especially because it's unencrypted data, but I like to think they won't be able to _use_ anything they glean from application level data against you. It's like accusing someone of stealing by saying "I totally broke into your house and found my stuff there".



coldmorning said:


> most stock installs have all sorts of things that keep track of what you're doing.


I had not taken that into account at all. That's most illuminating. It kinda makes the point of packet analysis moot.



coldmorning said:


> because you know, a meg of data used on your laptop is more special than a meg used on your phone of course.


Rotfl. Of course. It's, like, you know... _heavier_. :clap :clap


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## ShyGuy86 (Sep 17, 2011)

PiscesVixen said:


> I was sitting at a coffee shop for WiFi...And oh my gosh, there were lots sketchy characters that went in and out of the place :afr. Some tried approaching me, some bothered me by asking what I'm doing on my laptop. So I packed my stuff and dashed out of the place!


That was weird. I probably would've panicked too. Or I would've felt very uncomfortable anyway!



PiscesVixen said:


> Okay, I just did some research and I found out there's a 5 GB cap with my carrier, so as long as I don't over that, it should be okay.


There ya go then. Keep the usage in check, and I don't think you'll have any problems.


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