yes you heard right, I recently find out that one can use an Android feature called “USB tethering” to get internet through an Android device. which is really cool since now you don’t have to worry about your wifi card not working in linux since you can just use your old Android device as wifi access point and have internet. not only it’s supported in Linux but it’s also supported in BSD world too. this can enable people in trying out distros like Guix, Parabola etc which doesn’t provide non-free firmware.
just wanted to share this amazing feature I didn’t know :)
As you suggested I used to do this when distro hopping on my old HP Elitebook that needed Realtek WiFi drivers to be installed manually most of the time.
Yup, I’ve been using this for more than 10 years for gaming. It’s weirdly reliable.
Hasn’t this been available for at least a decade? It’s always been there.
Bit of a strange post, but hey, OP learned a cool thing today. I use my Android when my home internet shits the bed. Super slow, but it works well enough.
“Always” is a long time on the internet, until it isn’t.
What matters is to celebrate the now. Today’s ten thousand. (@jbk@discuss.tchncs.de already linked it for me).
Yep, the feature was introduced in Froyo*, but there were third party apps that enabled the functionality even before that. It’s how I got through college.
I was using it two decades ago.
While very useful, it’s not exactly the same as connecting straight to your WiFi. Iirc your android device will act as an additional nat and firewall, which can make it more difficult connecting to the device behind it from devices connected to the regular network, and vice versa.
Not seeing how this isn’t simply the forever-available stock ‘hotspot’ ?
Computer/laptops WiFi card is dead. Can’t connect to an android hotspot if your WiFi isn’t working.
Thus, usb tethering. It’s a wire, doesn’t need a WiFi card. And the android device can then share ITS WiFi/Data connection through the USB cableYou should be able to tether over bluetooth, too. If all of your wireless is dead, yeah, it’s USB or ethernet adapter tethering.
Same settings category as hotspot, available since Android Froyo, 2.2, which was released in 2010.
Yeh, but (to me) a hotspot is WiFi with internet access from a mobile device. Whereas tethering is sharing internet access from a mobile device via a cable (USB).
Kinda like how WiFi doesn’t mean internet access, despite so many people conflating the meanings.
And furthermore, you can share your internet from your computer, if running Linux, to other devices via Ethernet or WiFi! There may even be a super hacky way to do it through Bluetooth as well, but I’m gonna assume that wouldn’t be worthwhile to pursue…
Windows has (had?) the ability to share internet through Ethernet a couple of decades ago. I think it required a crossover cable? Anyone remember what I’m talking about?
EDIT: ChatGPT found it by inputting the above text. Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)! Gods it’s been a long time since I did that.
Afaik that feature (or at least one of the implementations) was discontinued in one of the recent versions of Android.
Fuck
Yet another reason to switch to Linux mobile (though I now have a SIM in my Laptop anyway)
It’s about the ability 😊
Can’t find any such news but apparently some phone makers hide it in their menu. Probably in carrier provided models.
Wait, Wifi Hotspot was discontinued?
No, it wasn’t,
It’s a different thing. I don’t remember what exactly it is though.
I do use my android to play mario kart wii online, on my wii
Some anti-China ISPs won’t let some tablets connect. wifi hotspot from phone to rescue.
I’ve used this a few times with my gli-net travel router (I assume it would work with any openwrt router)
