Tethering Your Android Phone

Tethering is the act of sharing your phone’s mobile data connection with another device — such as your laptop or tablet — connecting it to the Internet through your phone’s data connection. There are several ways to tether on Android.

Tethering is useful when you’re somewhere where you don’t have Wi-Fi access, do have cellular data access, and want to do something on your computer instead of your phone. But you may pay extra for the convenience.
Types of Tethering

We’ll cover how to use each tethering method. Here’s how they compare:

•     Wi-Fi Tethering: Wi-Fi tethering has faster theoretical speeds than Bluetooth. With Wi-Fi tethering, you can connect more than one device — but the battery will drain faster than if you used Bluetooth.

•     Bluetooth Tethering: Bluetooth tethering has slower theoretical speeds, but this shouldn’t matter on 3G connections. You can only tether one device at a time via Bluetooth, but it uses less battery power than Wi-FI tethering.

•     USB Tethering: USB tethering has the fastest speeds, but you have to connect your phone to your laptop with a USB cable. Your phone’s battery won’t drain because it will suck power from your computer’s USB port.

Wi-Fi Tethering

Android has a built-in Wi-Fi tethering feature, although it may be disabled by some carriers if you acquired your Android phone directly from a carrier.

To access this feature, open your phone’s Settings screen, tap the More option under Wireless & Networks, and tap Tethering & portable hotspot.

Tap the Set up Wi-Fi hotspot option and you’ll be able to configure your phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot, changing its SSID (name) and password. Leave the security set to WPA2 PSK unless you need to use an older device that doesn’t support this encryption standard. WPA2 PSK is the most secure option, and you don’t want other people connecting to your hotspot and running up your data bill.

After configuring your hotspot settings, check the Portable Wi-Fi hotspot option. You can now connect to your phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot from your laptop, tablet, or any other device.

Bluetooth Tethering

You can also opt to tether via a Bluetooth connection. If your laptop has built-in Bluetooth — most do — you can enable Bluetooth on your phone and enable Bluetooth tethering.

Bluetooth tethering is enabled from the same Tethering & portable hotspot screen.

With Bluetooth enabled on your laptop and your phone set to be discoverable, visit the Devices & Printers Control Panel. Use the Add a Device button to add your phone and pair it with your computer.

Once your laptop and phone are paired, you can right-click your phone and select Access Point to tether with it over Bluetooth.

USB Tethering

Connect your phone to your laptop via a USB cable and you’ll see the USB tethering option become available.

Enable it and you’ll see a new network adapter in Windows. The USB tethering connection is described as a “Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device.” Use this adapter to connect to the Internet using your phone’s data connection. It should be used automatically if you’re disconnected from standard Wi-Fi and wired networks.