Galaxy Nexus - Wifi Tethering without the need for root

[akhenax]

Free Wifi Tethering Without Root

(Note: this thread is for archive purposes only. It was written specifically for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, but have since changed the title because it relates to other phones.)

I have found that there are several ways to "Wirelessly" tether your device without root.
Below are a few methods that I have used. I'm sure Google Play may have others, as this list continues to grow.

NOTE: For devices running Android 4.4 or higher these methods may not work without root (i.e. Moto X). For rooted Motorola devices, I recommend installing the Xposed Framework, then installing the X Tether module.

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1st Method
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Elixer 2

Pros: Free
Cons: Confusing to setup at first

1. Install Elixer2
Elixir 2 - Android Apps on Google Play

2. Install Elixer2 Widgets
Elixir 2 - Widgets - Android Apps on Google Play

The way I think this works is, you need to install Elixer2 to give you tons of tools and information about your device, so that the widgets work correctly.
Elixer2 Widgets gives you widget tools to create homemade widgets for you (example, turn on/off bluetooth, reboot your phone, check free ram, etc.)

For example, you can create a "Wi-Fi AP (Hotspot) toggle" widget that turns on Portable Wifi Hotspot. Doing this should bypass the wireless carrier check, and allow you to modify your AP settings to create a Hotspot. No Guarantees though. When I used it on my unrooted Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.x ICS) it worked.

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2nd Method
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FoxFi

Pros: Free, easy to setup
Cons: None found yet

1. Install Foxfi
FoxFi WiFi Tether w o Root - Android Apps on Google Play

I have used Foxfi sparingly to test it's abilities. It works just fine. I would use this instead Elixer 2 / Elixer Widgets (see below), for hotspot related functionality. Elixer 2 does do a lot of other cool things though.

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3rd Method
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Wifi Hotspot and USB Tether

Er.. this app has gotten poor reviews on Google Play recently and I feel it is not as good as it once was. They have a trial version, so that try that first. Even if the trial works, I would shy away given that the Developer hasn't responded to comments on Google Play and did not respond to my email request for support to my satisfaction.

Pros: [strikethrough]It works well; if your carrier changes something, the app will be updated to compensate.[/strikethrough] USB tether included; widget included
Cons: expensive

You can wireless tether your Galaxy Nexus without root using "Wifi Hotspot and USB Tether"
Wifi Hotspot USB Tether Pro - Android Apps on Google Play

If you would like to try the application first, a trial is available:
Wifi Hotspot USB Tether Lite - Android Apps on Google Play

This is...WAS my goto wireless tether app, as it seemed to work the most consistently.

edit: This did not work on my unrooted Moto X.

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4th Method
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Tethering Widget
Pros: Free
Cons: ??

Tethering Widget - Android Apps on Google Play
This is simply a widget that you add to your Android homescreen, that you activate when you want to tether, and deactivate when you dont. Sounds simple enough.

I have not tried this method, but it was mentioned in another thread, so I thought I would include it here.

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I suggest trying the free versions first, including the trial version of (SVTP Wireless Tether) and see which works best for you.

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I have verified that all above methods work. I could tether my HP Touchpad to my unrooted Galaxy Nexus (with a little troubleshooting) over 3G and 4G.

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USB Tether options:

Easy Tether (for computer to phone tethering)
EasyTether Full - Android Apps on Google Play

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The below text is for information purposes only, as it was the original text from this thread and much of the discussion following this post circled around it. Using the below information, as is, IS NOT FREE and assumes you have a $30.00 tethering plan from Verizon.
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Edit: You must be subscribed to Verizon's WiFi hotspot plan in order for this to work. If your phone is rooted, you may be able to use this feature without giving Verizon more money, or use alternatives.

If you have Verizon Hotspot enabled you can:

Open Settings,
you can bring down the notification bar and hit the slider icon at the top, select More, (only the first few ‘Wireless & networks’ settings options are shown). Select ‘Tethering & portable hotspot’

For a physical tether
If you have a USB lead to hand, you can physically plug your Galaxy Nexus into your computer and hit the ‘USB tethering’ box when it becomes available.

For a wireless tether
If you want to connect through your Galaxy Nexus wirelessly hit ‘Configure Wi-Fi Hotspot’, then input a new password (8 characters or more) and change the Network SSID to a recognizable name. Select ‘Save’. Now hit the ‘Portable Wi-Fi hotspot’ box and search for your phone in your laptop’s Wi-Fi network menu. Select it and input the password you just set up.

source: Samsung Galaxy Nexus – How to use it as a Wi-Fi hotspot

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Edited by FoxKat for correction on links to Play.Google.com instead of Market.Android.com.

 

[vtnerd]

I'm sure Verizon has already found a way to cripple it...

 

[ænyoc]

I'm sure Verizon has already found a way to cripple it...

...or track it so they can tack on the hotspot fee to your bill.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

 

[yakitori]

in my opinion....they shouldnt tack on a fee for using hotspot. They have already started limited data plans. People are paying for data. 5 mb usage.....period...shouldnt matter if they use it connecting their laptop or xoom to their phone...or stream netflix.

They just keep giving us less for more. Stop already. In my opinion they should do this:

1. Provide tether feature to folks free of charge. No root necessary
2. Charge a flat fee for unlimited data 30 a month is a good price.
3. Not throttle your data when you reach a certain point.
4. Deal with the people using 15-20 gb every month.

Done deal. Think of this. I pay my internet service provider 30 a month.....they DONT limit how much I can use in that time period. I dont abuse the tether feature like some greedy folks do. Myself and a lot of coworkers I know travel frequently. Having the ability to connect on a business trip is pretty common.

Verizon has brainwashed some folks into thinking that its against some kind of moral code to tether. Its not. If I paid 45 a month for 10 gb data usage...I should be able to tether to my phone and use 2 gb from the 10 (leaving me 8 for the month) w/o having to pay an extra fee.

 

[suliman]

i realized that none of the op's post indicates that this feature is free. its just a description of how to turn it on, most likely once you have this feature on your plan.

 

[vtnerd]

in my opinion....they shouldnt tack on a fee for using hotspot. They have already started limited data plans. People are paying for data. 5 mb usage.....period...shouldnt matter if they use it connecting their laptop or xoom to their phone...or stream netflix.

They just keep giving us less for more. Stop already. In my opinion they should do this:

1. Provide tether feature to folks free of charge. No root necessary
2. Charge a flat fee for unlimited data 30 a month is a good price.
3. Not throttle your data when you reach a certain point.
4. Deal with the people using 15-20 gb every month.

Done deal. Think of this. I pay my internet service provider 30 a month.....they DONT limit how much I can use in that time period. I dont abuse the tether feature like some greedy folks do. Myself and a lot of coworkers I know travel frequently. Having the ability to connect on a business trip is pretty common.

Verizon has brainwashed some folks into thinking that its against some kind of moral code to tether. Its not. If I paid 45 a month for 10 gb data usage...I should be able to tether to my phone and use 2 gb from the 10 (leaving me 8 for the month) w/o having to pay an extra fee.

I wholeheartedly agree. It shouldn't matter to Verizon if the packet originates in the smartphone or some device behind the smartphone. When (not if) an enterprising developer finds a way around Verizon's tether detection, I'll be first in line to use tethering free of charge. I will never, ever pay a separate fee for tethering because data is data, as far as Verizon should be concerned.

 

[suliman]

I wholeheartedly agree. It shouldn't matter to Verizon if the packet originates in the smartphone or some device behind the smartphone. When (not if) an enterprising developer finds a way around Verizon's tether detection, I'll be first in line to use tethering free of charge. I will never, ever pay a separate fee for tethering because data is data, as far as Verizon should be concerned.

thats not how capitalist america works.

 

[stratjb]

I wholeheartedly agree. It shouldn't matter to Verizon if the packet originates in the smartphone or some device behind the smartphone. When (not if) an enterprising developer finds a way around Verizon's tether detection, I'll be first in line to use tethering free of charge. I will never, ever pay a separate fee for tethering because data is data, as far as Verizon should be concerned.

Verizon doesn't care about where the request for data originates. It cares about the total amount of data. If you have unlimited data on a cell phone only you would potentially use much less data than if you used the cell phone and also your home computer. You are paying $30.00 a month for unlimited data ON YOUR PHONE. In order to provide a useable network for all it's customers, Verizon has to invest in infrastructure BASED ON THE NUMBER OF PHONES and their estimated use of data ON EACH CELL PHONE. Getting data to a phone isn't just magic! It takes a huge amount of machinery to get that to you. If everyone started using twices as much data as normal all at once, the Network would become unusable for all. Just ask AT&T about what happened to their network when they launched the iPhone.

 

[ShinyTop]

Exactly, if they had no unlimited data the model of data is data would apply. With unlimited data a tethering user will most likely use much more data than untethered. Their pricing is based on predicted usage and that is why they charge extra fees for tethering. It would be logical for them to allow tethering for users who have limits but I am not fully aware of what difficulties that would place on their infrastructure and billing so the simplest method for now is to charge extra for tethering.

 

[vtnerd]

Verizon doesn't care about where the request for data originates. It cares about the total amount of data. If you have unlimited data on a cell phone only you would potentially use much less data than if you used the cell phone and also your home computer. You are paying $30.00 a month for unlimited data ON YOUR PHONE. In order to provide a useable network for all it's customers, Verizon has to invest in infrastructure BASED ON THE NUMBER OF PHONES and their estimated use of data ON EACH CELL PHONE. Getting data to a phone isn't just magic! It takes a huge amount of machinery to get that to you. If everyone started using twices as much data as normal all at once, the Network would become unusable for all. Just ask AT&T about what happened to their network when they launched the iPhone.

Irrelevant.

If I can't use unlimited data (**deleted by poster**), Verizon shouldn't be allowing me to keep my unlimited data (**deleted by poster**).

For new customers, if Verizon can't handle me using 2GB (or 4GB with the double data promotion they are currently running), then they shouldn't be offering that as a plan either.

Bottom line is simply that Verizon is offering X GB per line so their network should have no difficulty with X GB per line. How I use that X GB (all phone, tether for some, etc) simply does not matter and never enters into the equation at all. There is no valid reason why it matters.

I'm fine with Verizon enforcing limits. I get that limits are necessary to make sure everyone can use the service. Differentiating between data types is nothing but a money grab.

If I understand correctly, you are basically claiming:
-If someone uses 2GB solely through their phone then it is ok.
-If someone uses 1GB from their phone and 1GB from a tethered device, it is not ok because Verizon can't possibly anticipate that this person who has a 2GB plan might actually use 2GB of data. If that's true, Verizon needs to hire some more intelligent people.

As far as Verizon is concerned, data is data. It doesn't cost them more to handle packets that come from a computer through a phone than it does to handle packets that only from the phone. You can certainly have your own opinion, but you're doing absolutely nothing to sway my point of view.

[Deleted references to 5GB limit for Verizon wireless cell phones. There is no such limit. I have believed in the existence of such a limit for many years now, but it has come to my attention that I was misinformed. Deletion done in an attempt to prevent others from having the same misinformation.]

 

[stratjb]

Irrelevant.

If I can't use unlimited data (actually 5GB), Verizon shouldn't be allowing me to keep my unlimited data (5GB).

For new customers, if Verizon can't handle me using 2GB (or 4GB with the double data promotion they are currently running), then they shouldn't be offering that as a plan either.

Bottom line is simply that Verizon is offering X GB per line so their network should have no difficulty with X GB per line. How I use that X GB (all phone, tether for some, etc) simply does not matter and never enters into the equation at all. There is no valid reason why it matters.

I'm fine with Verizon enforcing limits. I get that limits are necessary to make sure everyone can use the service. Differentiating between data types is nothing but a money grab.

If I understand correctly, you are basically claiming:
-If someone uses 2GB solely through their phone then it is ok.
-If someone uses 1GB from their phone and 1GB from a tethered device, it is not ok because Verizon can't possibly anticipate that this person who has a 2GB plan might actually use 2GB of data. If that's true, Verizon needs to hire some more intelligent people.

As far as Verizon is concerned, data is data. It doesn't cost them more to handle packets that come from a computer through a phone than it does to handle packets that only from the phone. You can certainly have your own opinion, but you're doing absolutely nothing to sway my point of view.

Dude, you can argue all you want. You pay for unlimited data on your phone, not you phone and your laptop or your home PC. Period. It's fairly obvious that when someone tethers, they use more data than if they didn't tether! It's just nonsense to not acknowledge that.

Tethering puts more demand on the network. The more demand on the network, the more infrastructure is required to provide useable throughput to all users. This whole notion of throttling is to protect the bottom 95% of data users from those using it suspiciously.

If you hate verizon so much, why stay? With so many carriers, I'm sure you'd have no problem finding one that will please you. Well, not really sure but you know what I'm saying!

 

[Liderc]

Dude, you can argue all you want. You pay for unlimited data on your phone, not you phone and your laptop or your home PC. Period. It's fairly obvious that when someone tethers, they use more data than if they didn't tether! It's just nonsense to not acknowledge that.

Tethering puts more demand on the network. The more demand on the network, the more infrastructure is required to provide useable throughput to all users. This whole notion of throttling is to protect the bottom 95% of data users from those using it suspiciously.

If you hate verizon so much, why stay? With so many carriers, I'm sure you'd have no problem finding one that will please you. Well, not really sure but you know what I'm saying!

He has a point though, we pay for unlimited data, it shouldn't matter if we use 5gb or 50gb, what's the point of paying for unlimited if we're only allowed to use a certain amount?

I understand your point, but Verizon shouldn't sell us unlimited data if their network can't deal with the potential use.

Charging the few people who tether more money per month isn't going to make a difference in their infrastructure if they can't handle the unlimited data in the first place.

 

[coverton341]

Since when has the unlimited data plan been only 5GB? I use over 5GB constantly because I exclusively use my phone to stream Netflix. No, I don't tether. I recently came up for an upgrade and Verizon customer service called and wanted to fix my monthly bill and "try to save me money" and when the girl on the phone asked if I wanted to change my data structure I told her to look at my usage. She said and I quote "I see that your unlimited data plan is working just fine for you so I don't think we need to change that, how about lowering your text messages since you hardly use them"

From what I recall reading, the 5GB limit is for their wireless cards and such, but unlimited data means just that for phones.

Regardless, I have never had them email me or call me or threaten me in any way because of my high usage of data, and there are people out there who pay for unlimited data and use a tonne of it without tethering.

 

[Liderc]

Unlimited is not unlimited. If you come in the top 5%(which is supposedly 5g+) then they will throttle your speed for the next billing cycle. This was changed just in the last few months.

http://articles.businessinsider.com...limited-data-plans-data-users-internet-speeds

 

[coverton341]

Odd, I have never had that happen.