AndroidTether

dev January 26, 2009 Google Android 2 Comments

AndroidTether is a software that brings the Internet connection of an Android device to a Mac OS X computer.

at_icon128An Android (such as the Google G1 phone) can be tethered to a computer running Mac OS X, allowing the computer to browse the web. The device is connected to the computer using a USB cable. The web is browsed with Firefox. The detailed communication procedure is documented here.

This article is only intended to give a brief overview of AndroidTether and provide a link to the download page.

  1. overview
  2. copyright and guaranties
  3. download AndroidTether
  4. launch AndroidTether
  5. advanced preferences


1. Overview

1.1 What is Tetherbot?

Tetherbot enables an Android device (such a Google G1 cellular phone) to be used as a network interface to provide a MacIntosh OS X laptop with an Internet data connection. It provides mobile, wide-area Internet access for the computer via the cellular-phone network — for instance where unrestricted WiFi is not available. This process is generally referred to as “tethering.”  In addition to expanding the range of Internet access for the OS X computer, Tetherbot enables the features of the OS X device to overcome the limitations of the Android device, so that one can use a more fully featured keyboard and Flash-enabled web browser (Firefox), to access webbase e-mail and browse the web efficiently. Tetherbot runs on the Android device, and requires a mirror application to run on the computer.

1.2 What is AndroidTether?

AndroidTether is designed to automate the process of tethering and eliminate the need to reconfigure your computer system every time you wish to tether. You should refer to the terms of service of your cellular service provider before tethering. AndroidTether runs on the computer, and connects to Tetherbot.

2. Copyright, guaranties, cost.

Copyright

Written by (c) Xavier Schott 2009.

Guaranties

none.
The software is provided  “AS IS”; “thegothicparty.com/dev” and “the author” make NO GUARANTIES and NO WARRANTIES OF ANY TYPE, expressed or implied, including NO WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Again, none.

Cost

free

3. Download AndroidTether

at_icon64

Start here:

Download AndroidTether 0.91 for Mac OS X.

4. Launch AndroidTether and Tetherbot

Tethering is automatically started upon launch, and stopped when quit.
You can also stop and restart the connection using the Stop/Start button.
Thus, when you are done, simply quit AndroidTether. Refer to the complete procedure, device installation requirements, and how to use Tetherbot  here.

at_tethered1080_413x133


5. Advanced Preferences

It is possible to change AndroidTether ports to accommodate to changes in Firefox or Tetherbot.
The local port (left number) refers to the SOCKS Host: localhost Port: 1080 setup in Firefox

at_localport508x114

The remote port (right number) refers to Socks Proxy Server on: 1080 setup in Tetherbot

at_remoteport320x138

Note:
AndroidTether will conflict with adb. You cannot use adb and AndroidTether simultaneously.


6. External links


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2 Responses to “AndroidTether”

  1. JonEBarker said:

    Jan 27, 09 at 4:27 pm

    Prior to using the Android Tether app, I tried to use the adb terminal command with no success. The tether app worked yesterday, but fails to work today. I think it may be conflicting with adb process. Is there way to stop the adb process? I can’t find it running in the activity monitor and don’t know the terminal command. THANKS!!

  2. dev

    dev said:

    Jan 29, 09 at 8:19 am

    In Terminal, I look for the adb process using the command:
    ps -acx -o pid,command
    This will list all processes for the current user, with a neat 2 columns format.

    To stop the adb server, I first execute the command adb kill-server, which generally stops a well behaved adb process. Then, using the {pid} returned by ps ..., I execute kill {pid}. I too have found this mechanism not entirely reliable, since occasionally some lingering (adb) processes seem to simply refuse to go away, even if sent a kill -9 {pid}.

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