Motorola Droid now just a (hacked) firmware update away from WiFi tethering

Add one more item to the "Droid does" column -- unofficially, at least. WiFi tethering from Motorola's hottest is now possible straight from the phone itself, over WiFi even. PDANet already enabled the thing to share its connection, but relies on an external driver installed on a Windows or Mac device. This latest fix does away with that, but does require the installation of a hacked version of the 2.0.1 firmware. The process, laid out at the read link by DroidForums.net user webacoustics, doesn't sound that bad, but warnings like "if your phone stays at the white Motorola logo for longer than a minute or two, you probably bricked [it]" will leave many users sticking with PDANet or waiting for the official Verizon solution -- and paying out the nose for it.

[Plazmic Flame Posted Dec 23rd 2009 11:48AM]

I'm a little bit lost...first, my understanding is that tethering is for your laptop so you can get internet access where there is no wifi. What is the point of your phone becoming a "wifi router" if your laptop can already pick up on the signal? I don't see the benefit of this...can someone give a few? Serious question...I'm so lost...

[surgex Posted Dec 23rd 2009 11:57AM]

@Plazmic Flame
lol...okay so the phone has a 3g internet connection...it can share that connection via a usb cable, bluetooth, or wifi. either one is called tethering, regardless if an actual "physical tether" cable is being used (tethering is a very archiac term and I don't like it myself, but people still use it so, whatever..).

From my understanding, the Droid does not allow for tethering over WiFi out of the box due to Verizon (so much for "droiddoes" eh?). As for usb and bluetooth, I'm not sure, but i would bet that tethering over bluetooth is disabled as wel...but no one really cares about that since most people don't use BT PANs anyways..

So anyways, the point of your phone becoming a wifirouter is this -- say you're in an area with no internet access whatsoever -- no ethernet cables, no wifi, nothing. You can use your phone to share your 3g internet via wifi, and if you have collegues with you, they can all use their laptops\netbooks\phones\whatevers at the same time to access the internet directly from your phone without any cables over a fairly decent range. Also, if you do it right, it requires no extra fees from the telco provider (provided you don't go over the monthly bandwidth quota).

[surgex Posted Dec 23rd 2009 12:06PM]

@Plazmic Flame
I can also put it another way...
A verizon MiFi (hardward cdma 3g -> wifi router), costs about 100$ with mail in rebate. The price requires a 2 YEAR contract at $40 per month, which allows 250 MB worth of downloads (250 MB!?!?!), or $60, which gives you 5 GB worth of download power.

With a normal Verizon smartphone like the droid, their "unlimited" data plan, which is really 5GB a month, costs 30$ extra added on to your minute plan. See where I'm going with this? They will also have a "tethering plan" (complete bullshit) that jacks the price up to 60$ extra per month I believe..

Turning your phone into a wifi router saves a ton of money and saves you from carrying around another piece of hardware as well.

[Demios Posted Dec 23rd 2009 12:12PM]

@Plazmic Flame
There is an app on android market that does tethering just fine. I'm not quite sure why anyone would want to tether over wifi anyway... why not just connect to wifi with whatever your other device is. Unless I'm mistaken, what surgex wants is to make his phone a router. Which other mods have enabled, but it's just dense. It's like sharing a sub 56k connection with other people.E/3G is only so fast and there is no real viable reason why more than 1 device should be tethering through the phone. Anymore is a waste of bandwidth. For all that, you might as well get wimax on a laptop or something

[surgex Posted Dec 23rd 2009 12:22PM]

@Demios
If it's so dense then why are WindowsMobileWifiRouter (win mo version turns phone into wifi router) and JoikuSpot (symbian version turns phone into wifi router) two extemely successful programs that actually shipped out of box with millions of nokia and samsung phones worldwide last year?

[Demios Posted Dec 23rd 2009 12:33PM]

@surgex once again, it is not a logical route. Sorry, I don't need to feel like I'm on a baud modem to get my work done. Want it that badly? root your phone. It takes 5 seconds or so. What I see here is you crying that thigns are not enabled for stupid users by default... begs the question, are you stupid? I'm out. I've searched your posts and seen enough of your bias. It's been nice.

[EtherGnat Posted Dec 23rd 2009 8:03PM]

@Demios "It's like sharing a sub 56k connection with other people.E/3G is only so fast and there is no real viable reason why more than 1 device should be tethering through the phone. Anymore is a waste of bandwidth."

Wow' that's kind of dense. A 3G connection is 20x faster than a 56k connection, and in standard web browsing most clients aren't actively downloading at any given moment anyway. It'd be fine to share among a few clients.

But that isn't even the real benefit. It's just more convenient to be able to tether without wires. I can leave my phone in my pocket and browse the web for a bit on the netbook, or leave the phone on the charger and wander around the house on my notebook. I don't carry a data cable with me every where I want to go, nor do I want to hassle with installing software on every computer I want to tether.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 23rd 2009 1:11PM]

Any HTC windows mobile phone with wifi has had this since Jesus was born as a simple CAB installer. No hacks needed. Now that its available on Android its like it has never been done before.

Cant wait to see this built into the iphone without a hack, these tech sites would report it as the most innovative feature ever.

[ptard Posted Dec 23rd 2009 1:17PM]

The droid was initially rooted without physical disassembly because its open source. You don't have to take it apart to figure out how it works when you can see the code (http://source.android.com/download).

[Suomaa Posted Dec 23rd 2009 3:32PM]

It's a bit sad that you have to hack a phone in order to make it tether. I have been able to do tethering over WLAN for some time now using my Nokia N80 (let alone USB, Bluetooth and IRDA).

[eka Posted Dec 23rd 2009 5:55PM]

If Have to hack for a feature, better to buy an iPhone then. More Apps than Android, and definitely Easier to use.

[EtherGnat Posted Dec 23rd 2009 8:11PM]

@eka Yes, you have to hack for root. But you can install any applications you want on the Droid. Plus you get 2.5x the resolution, a physical keyboard, Google Nav, removable battery, and Verizon, among other things. The apps will continue to improve for Android, it's not bad now.

[shogunmaster Posted Dec 24th 2009 12:18AM]

Has anyone used an unlocked Droid on Bell? I want to get one but I need to know if it will even work first..