A couple of weeks ago I was without Internet (thanks to AT&T), and was forced to go to Starbucks to check email and commit work I had done. While I like going to Starbucks, it was not the best working situation for someone who works from home.
Since I have an Android (HTC Evo) I thought about USB tethering the device to my laptop and Internet sharing, but Sprint hits you with a $29.95/month fee to use that option. Since I am completely able to work locally without a connection to the Internet, I decided to tough it out and wait until AT&T figured out their mess and got me turned back on.
Fast forward a couple of weeks later… (yes, I am back on the net)
I found some neat applications for my phone that enable someone to bypass the tethering options that Sprint charges for. One popular application is PdaNet, but it is limited to Windows and Mac. (For those who are still limited by those two platforms, give PdaNet a try.) Another application I stumbled across called EasyTether has Linux support, so I gave it a try. (I am actually writting this blog post while using it)
The application for the Droid was available on the Droid Market Place, and their website has the Ubuntu file available for the PC connection. http://mobile-stream.com/easytether/drivers.html
I installed the “Lite” version from the Droid Market Place (FREE!!! but limits you to non-SSL pages, unless you pay the $9.99 for the full version) The application walks you through the couple of simple steps needed to use it, and even gives you the address above to get your Windows/Mac/Ubuntu/Fedora up and running.
Once I installed the DEB file on my laptop, after downloading it, all I had to do was connect my phone to USB and open the connection via command line.
The command to link up is:
easytether connect
Now the next time I am without Internet I am ready. 🙂
7 responses to “Tether Android to Ubuntu for free Internet”
Hey Adam, great article but did the application you use hide your data usage? If not does it require an extra add-on or something. The tethering of cellphones is growing acoss America and it won’t too long until wireless companies will give in and give away tehering data only to find another reason to hike fees. Anyways, this is your article, not mine. Thanks.
Re-read the article and saw that it does bypass data usage. By the way, it works great!
thanks…. u hav saved my life :)))
thanks man
Great!
I’m running linux mint 17.3, on android 5.1, through metro pcs; although i bought the full easy tether version, and it works, my data usage continues to climb according to my phone. I had to spend 50$ today to get etros “unlimited” bundle, but it maxes out at 8gb. When i used to use pdanet on windows platform, it hid the tether and the data would not climb. Any input? can i get ppa to prevent this? do i have to go back to windows : ((, and pdanet to avoid charges? I cannot afford data, right now, but must be online.
Using PDANet on Linux 20.04 it tethered fine under Firefox if you set the network proxy settings to manual > 192.168.49.1 > port 8000.
What is odd is that I cannot ping the internet from the command line, but my browser works fine.
If anyone knows a workaround so I can use the connection at the CLI I would sure appreciate it.