How to Tether an Internet Connection with an Android Phone

Android Smartphones For Dummies

One way to share the Android phone’s digital cellular connection is to connect the phone directly to a computer and activate the tethering feature. Not every Android phone has this capability.

Tethering is a solid way to provide Internet access to another gizmo, such as a laptop or a desktop computer. Follow these steps to set up Internet tethering:

Connect the phone to a computer or laptop by using the USB cable.

The best success with this operation is when the computer is a PC running Windows.
Open the Settings app.
Choose More, and then choose Tethering & Mobile Hotspot.
Place a check mark by the USB Tethering item.

Internet tethering is activated.

The other device should instantly recognize the phone as a “modem” with Internet access. Further configuration may be required, which depends on the computer using the tethered connection. For example, you may have to accept the installation of new software when prompted by Windows.

When tethering is active, a Tethering or Hotspot Active notification icon appears. Choose that notification to further configure tethering.
Unlike creating a Wi-Fi hotspot, you don’t need to disable the Wi-Fi radio to activate USB tethering.
Sharing the digital network connection incurs data usage charges against your cellular data plan. Be careful with your data usage when you’re sharing a connection.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.