Thursday, September 20, 2012

USB Tethering for Using Samsung Mobile as Modem for getting Internet on Desktop Computer



We are using BSNL (Government ISP in India) broadband connection for getting Internet connection to our computers.

And, we used to see intermittent broadband outages. So, I thought of finding some alternate ways for accessing internet while the broadband connection is down.

I decided to use the Samsung mobile as Modem to access the internet using the Vodafone mobile data connection. (In India, Vodafone provides GPRS download/upload upto 1GB  for 98 Rupees (~2$) per month)

Since the Android OS in the Samsung mobile (Galaxy Y GT-S5360) supports "USB Tethering", I had decided to connect the Samsung mobile to my computer thro' USB cable.

If you are not familiar with "Tethering",  you need to know that  "Tethering" is  nothing but  sharing the mobile data connection with laptop or Computer. Tethering can be done thro' USB, bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If the Tethering is done thro' Wi-Fi, then it will be branded as Mobile Hotspot.


I connected the Samsung mobile device to my Computer thro' USB cable. And, then I tried to enable the "USB Tethering"  by taping "Settings->Wireless and networks->Tethering and portable hotspot->USB Tethering"

But "USB Tethering" was not activated, instead it showed the message "unable to tether while USB storage in use".

So, I decided to disable the USB storage as per the suggestion in the error message. I did some Google search to know the steps for disabling the USB Storage. And, I came to know that we can easily disable the the USB storage feature by taping "Turn off USB Storage" option which appears on dragging the notification panel.





I was able to activate the "USB Tethering" after turning off the USB Storage.


A new connection ("Samsung Mobile USB Remote NDIS Network Device.") appeared under the "Network Connections" of the computer after activating the USB Tethering. I already installed the samsung Kies in my computer. So, the connection was esablished without without requiring any driver files, otherwise we may need to put some driver files as suggested by Google Android help pages.


For testing browsing speed of this connection, I disabled the usual broadband connection and did some surfing with the mobile data connection. It was working fine, and the browsing experience is not bad.


I came to know that  there are some android apps available for activating the USB Tethering. I couldn't understand the reason for using this Android App, as I was able to activate the USB Tethering easily without using this kind of apps.

Warning: Take care of your mobile data package terms and conditions for using it to get internet connection in computers. I came to know that some mobile data connection providers won't allow to use Tethering. And, you may be charged heavily if you use the mobile data excesscively. So, remember to check your usage limit frequently.



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1 comment:

nagraj said...

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