Smartphone USB tethering

This article relies on the following:

Introduction

USB tethering is used to connect your OpenWrt Router to the Internet by using the your smartphone. It’s more convenient and has better performance (lower latency) than turning your smartphone into an access point and using that. It also is less of a CPU load on your phone, charges your phone, and allows you the flexibility of doing things with your OpenWrt router that you cannot do with your phone like connecting multiple devices with ease, both wireless and wired, to each other and to the internet. In order to maximize performance, you should turn your tethered phone Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off.

Instructions

1. Installation

For the easiest installation, have a wired upstream internet connection to boot-strap this process. You will need: the router, your tethering phone, necessary cables, a laptop and an upstream internet connection via Ethernet for initial setup. Instead of a wired upstream connection to plug into the router WAN port, is also possible to download necessary packages below, through your laptop while tethered to your phone, the same way you can get the OpenWrt distribution for your router.

Provide USB tethering support for Android 8/10 with RNDIS:

Extra steps depending on USB type and drivers for your router:

Additional steps for iOS devices:

2. Smartphone

Connect the smartphone to the USB port of the router with the USB cable, and then enable USB Tethering from the Android settings. Turn on the phone’s Developer Options [Find the Build information in the About Phone menu, and tap rapidly 7 x]. There is a Default USB Configuration: USB Tethering option. The phone will now immediately turn on USB Tethering mode when plugged into a configured router [or laptop], without further commands. However, it is necessary to remove the screen lock on the phone. A locked phone will not start USB Tethering by itself.

3.a Command-line interface

On the router, enter:

For IPhones, replace the interface name usb* with eth* depending on router.

It should be all working at this point. To activate wireless connections to the router, go to Network, Wireless and set then enable the interfaces.

3.b Web interface

Go to Network, Interfaces. Create a new interface called TetheringWAN, and bind to it the new *usb0* network device (or for some cases ‘*eth1*, check what the log is showing in your case), set the protocol to DHCP client mode or DHCPv6 client mode if the ISP assigns IPv6 , and under the Firewall Settings tab, place it into the WAN zone. Save changes.

See the following screenshots.

First page of the Create Interface wizard.

Firewall tab of the Create Interface Wizard. Very important to set it as WAN .

And the end result in the Interfaces page.

After committing the changes the new TetheringWAN should be activated. Otherwise, restart it with the buttons you find in the Interface page of LuCI web interface.

Troubleshooting

If all went well, you should be able to see something like the following in the kernel log

Note how the last line tells us that this new “RNDIS device” was bound to interface usb0.

The above messages will not be shown with IPhone tethering.

How to Set Up USB Tethering on Windows 10

Use your Android or iPhone to create a hotspot

What to Know

• First, connect your Android or iPhone to your laptop with a USB cable.
• Next, go to Settings on your phone > turn on USBTethering (Android) or Personal Hotspot (iPhone).
• In the Windows taskbar, open the computer’s Network and Internet settings to verify the connection.

This article explains how to set up USB tethering on Windows 10 devices, which allows you to create a hotspot to access the internet even when no network connection is available. Troubleshooting tips are also included if something isn’t working right.

How to Set Up USB Tethering on Windows 10

Before you begin, make sure both your phone’s operating system and your computer’s operating system are updated to the latest versions. Also, depending on your mobile carrier, you may be charged a flat fee for tethering a laptop to a mobile device. Check with your carrier if you’re worried about extra costs.

To set up USB tethering between your mobile device and your Windows 10 computer:

Connect your mobile device to your laptop via USB cable.

For Android phones, use a USB-to-micro USB or USB-to-USB-C connector. For iPhones, use the standard lightning cable.

Open your phone’s settings and go to Network & Internet > Hotspot & tethering (Android) or Cellular > Personal Hotspot (iPhone).

turn on USB tethering (on Android) or Personal Hotspot (on iPhone) to enable. Your laptop should now be able to access the internet through your phone’s mobile plan.

Make sure you turn off Wi-Fi so your computer doesn’t try connecting with other networks you can’t access.

Open your computer’s Network and Internet settings in the Windows taskbar to make sure you’re connected. Depending on your device, it may say that you’re connected via LAN.

If you’re having trouble with the connection, try plugging your phone into a different USB port, or using a different cable.

Troubleshooting Windows 10 USB Tethering

If USB tethering isn’t working in Windows 10, it could be because the driver for the network adapter is outdated. To fix this problem:

Right-click the Start Menu and select Device Manager.

Expand the Network adapters tab, then right-click your network adapter and select Update driver.

Select Search automatically for updated driver software.

You must restart the computer after installing the driver. If the Device Manager says that you already have the latest driver, then the problem could be with your connection, your phone, or your mobile data.

What Is USB Tethering?

Tethering is the process of sharing your phone’s mobile data to access the internet on another device, such as a laptop. You can tether using Bluetooth or NFC, but USB tethering is the fastest and most effective method. That said, USB tethering can’t compete with the speeds of a solid Wi-Fi connection.

Be careful about how much data you use when tethered. Since many data plans charge incremental amounts based on data usage, watching videos or downloading files on a tethered connection can quickly increase your phone bill. In some cases, it’s possible to reverse tether and share Wi-Fi from your computer to your phone to save on data.

Windows 10 USB tethering problems with Android phones. [Resolved]

Windows 10 selected an older NDIS driver in default so that after connecting to the internet with USB tethering, it becomes extremely laggy and unusable.

How to reproduce:

1. Connect an Android Phone to your computer.

2. Turn on USB tethering on your phone.

1. Open Device Manager

2. Go to Network Adapters

3. Right click «Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device» and select «Update»

4. Choose «Browse my Computer for driver software«

5. Select «Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer»

6. Uncheck «show compatible hardware»

7. In the manufacturer section, select Microsoft

8. Choose the «Remote NDIS Compatible Device» model and click Next

Known devices having this issue:

2. Asus Zenfone 3

Windows 10 Pro Build 15031.0

Just posting this in case someone encountered the same issue.

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This fix resolved my issue of Windows 10 Network & Sharing Center becoming very laggy when PC is connected to my Google Pixel. «Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device» constantly stuck at «Identifying. » and no internet connectivity available.

To update the driver I used this procedure:

1. Open Control Panel -> Network & Internet -> Network Connections

2. Right-click «Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device», click «Properties»

3. Click «Configure», go to «Driver» tab, click «Update Driver»

4. Select «Remote NDIS Compatible Device» driver as per steps 4-8 above.

USB Tethering for Windows Phone 10 Internet Sharing

I use my phone every day for a mobile hotspot, however, there are some disadvantages with using a wireless hotspot mode for tethering.

— Increased Battery Consumption

(With an active WiFi hotspot running, you are doing twice the work than what you would use with a USB connection, and of course you are charging off the computer as well)

— Less throughput than using a USB cable.

— Connectivity issues when used in area with many other WiFi networks.

( WiFi can only function on a handful of channels without overlapping transmissions. When you have four to five WiFi networks in an area, their signals will get tied up with other signals, causing packet loss, which slows internet connection.)

Apple and Android phones still provide this function which is just another thing that can turn people away from getting a windows phone. This feature used to available in Windows Phone 6.5, I would love to see it again. Other people think so as well.

Just food for thought.

Sincerely,

Alexander Patchin

* Moved from Windows Insider *

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USB tethering would save me a lot of pain.

At the moment, I’m having to use blue tooth tethering at the office because over the past 2 to 3 weeks something in the environment is interfering with the Lumia Wi-Fi Hotspot 2.4 GHz Channel 11 broadcast. Connecting to the phone’s Wi-Fi Hotspot in the office results in dropped ping packets and disconnects — the Wi-Fi hotspot is unusable. Bluetooth gets around the issue, but then I’m limited to just over 1.6Mbps download.

Outside of the office, the Wi-Fi Hotspot works perfectly and is very fast and stable.

Although I’m still trying to figure out the source of the interference in the office in regards to sharing a hotspot via Wi-Fi, USB tethering would be a preferable workaround to Bluetooth, and having USB tethering as an option would help get around situations when environmental conditions make Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi unreliable.

I would also like to see the ability to modify the Wi-Fi hotspot Network Band and Network Channel emitted by Windows 10 Mobile so that if you find yourself in a Wi-Fi saturated workplace, you can adjust the hotspot to a less congested channel and/or band. Nonetheless, USB tethering would be preferable than having to fiddle with Wi-Fi bands and channels.