Hot Spot???

[BigE"s DROID]

It says in the specs that the x is capable of being a hot spot but with an additional monthly charge....i for 1 will not pay another $30 a month!!! is there anyway around the charge besides rooting??? I love the wireless tether and have to have it so this is gonna be my only drawback for the x. I "upgraded" from my droid to the Incredible and just got my tether back and dont want to wait if i upgrade to the x!! Any ideas??

 

[zoomzoom9]

It says in the specs that the x is capable of being a hot spot but with an additional monthly charge....i for 1 will not pay another $30 a month!!! is there anyway around the charge besides rooting??? I love the wireless tether and have to have it so this is gonna be my only drawback for the x. I "upgraded" from my droid to the Incredible and just got my tether back and dont want to wait if i upgrade to the x!! Any ideas??

I don't have a Droid yet (waiting for the X), but I would imagine you'd have to pay even to tether with your Incredible (my wife has that and that's what the VZW reps told us). How are you tethering with the Incredible without paying the fee? I'd imagine if you're able to with the Incredible, that you could do the same thing with the X.

 

[Backnblack]

"Hot-spot" will be a $20 option for the X

 

[Jaxidian]

"Yes" is the answer to almost all forms of your question (I'll anticipate some forms of it):

Can I tether with the Droid X? Yes. There is a $20/mo addon option from Verizon that turns yoru phone into a wireless hotspot for a handful of devices. Note that this will have a 2GB limit and you will be charged something like $50 per additional GB!

Can I tether with the Droid X without paying this additional fee? Yes. If you root your Droid X (if/when it becomes possible), then you can download Android Wifi Tether for Root. This turns your phone into a wireless hotspot. If you do this, you will not have a 2GB limit and it will be free, but you will also void your phone's warranty and you may permanently break it as well. This is NOT the "obvious" thing you should do unless you are willing to break your $600? phone and go out and buy a new one. (NOTE: As of now, there is not yet a Droid X version of this application. However, once the Droid X is rooted and this method is possible, it won't be long until this will be available.)

Can I tether with the Droid X without paying this additional fee and without rooting my phone? Yes. However, this method requires you tether via USB or Bluetooth and NOT via wireless. There is an application on the Android Market called "PdaNet free edition" that allows you to do this. Doing it this way, you do not void your warranty and you do not have a 2GB limit. However, this will not work for all situations. For example, you cannot use this method to provide internet access to your iPad.

These are your options. None are ideal. The first option costs money and is restrictive, but is the easiest and safest. The second option is the riskiest (and therefore potentially the most expensive) but had the best end-result. The third option works well if you only want to tether to your laptop and you're computer-literate enough to operate the processes required to connect in that way - i.e. it's a good middle-of-the-road solution that contains no risk and no cost.

 

[supersaki]

"Yes" is the answer to almost all forms of your question (I'll anticipate some forms of it):

Can I tether with the Droid X? Yes. There is a $20/mo addon option from Verizon that turns yoru phone into a wireless hotspot for a handful of devices. Note that this will have a 2GB limit and you will be charged something like $50 per additional GB!

Can I tether with the Droid X without paying this additional fee? Yes. If you root your Droid X (if/when it becomes possible), then you can download Android Wifi Tether for Root. This turns your phone into a wireless hotspot. If you do this, you will not have a 2GB limit and it will be free, but you will also void your phone's warranty and you may permanently break it as well. This is NOT the "obvious" thing you should do unless you are willing to break your $600? phone and go out and buy a new one. (NOTE: As of now, there is not yet a Droid X version of this application. However, once the Droid X is rooted and this method is possible, it won't be long until this will be available.)

Can I tether with the Droid X without paying this additional fee and without rooting my phone? Yes. However, this method requires you tether via USB or Bluetooth and NOT via wireless. There is an application on the Android Market called "PdaNet free edition" that allows you to do this. Doing it this way, you do not void your warranty and you do not have a 2GB limit. However, this will not work for all situations. For example, you cannot use this method to provide internet access to your iPad.

These are your options. None are ideal. The first option costs money and is restrictive, but is the easiest and safest. The second option is the riskiest (and therefore potentially the most expensive) but had the best end-result. The third option works well if you only want to tether to your laptop and you're computer-literate enough to operate the processes required to connect in that way - i.e. it's a good middle-of-the-road solution that contains no risk and no cost.

The thing is, FroYo has the hotspot/usb tether built-in. I don't know how quickly the Droid X will get 2.2, but I think VZW would delay the release until they can disable that and put in their own crap software, VZ Access Manager (and charge the extra $20 for it as well). This was the situation with WinMo as far as tethering, and I don't see it changing for Android.

If/when they get the Droid X rooted, you can use the builtin features of FroYo and not worry about the extra fees from Verizon.

 

[Jaxidian]

The thing is, FroYo has the hotspot/usb tether built-in. I don't know how quickly the Droid X will get 2.2, but I think VZW would delay the release until they can disable that and put in their own crap software, VZ Access Manager (and charge the extra $20 for it as well). This was the situation with WinMo as far as tethering, and I don't see it changing for Android.

If/when they get the Droid X rooted, you can use the builtin features of FroYo and not worry about the extra fees from Verizon.

Yeah, no doubt Verizon will strip/cripple/control that feature of FroYo. It's pretty much a given (I believe at some point, Google has used the language, "... if the carrier enables it"). If anything, they'll just use that and tie it to the VZ Access Manager behind the scenes (or on their servers).

However, you may be incorrect that simply rooting the phone will allow people to use that for free. Imagine the scenario where Verizon breaks or removes that feature - in this case, you'd have to install a custom ROM. However, word is that rooting the phone will be the easy part but getting a custom ROM installed will be the hard part (since the bootloader is signed and that will be much harder, although not impossible, to get around). So not only will they need to root but they MAY need to also install a custom ROM (if Verizon completely removes or breaks it). Regardless, though, the options I mentioned would still work if they can simply attain root (and I wasn't going to try and explain installing custom ROMs, much less how to attain root ). But yes, if we can root the phone and install custom ROMs, then that opens up a ton of other options too. I'm guessing people who know how to do that won't be asking such questions as these, though... ;-)

 

[kodiak799]

So what does everyone use for a wireless tether app? I was unable to get barnacle to work on my Win7 laptop.

I'm using Android wifi tether (wireless tether for root), and it seems to be a bit finicky, but was able to get it to work - got upwards of 700kbps on channel 11 (I don't have the best 3G signal in my apartment). However, my computer won't connect automatically (have to constantly re-enter password) and when I enable MAC filtering my computer will connect but not have internet access.

Thoughts?

 

[hendrix]

I used wireless tether for root on my droid.

 

[Backnblack]

I use wireless tether if needed. Less than 1gb a month as I have a aircard from work that I can use

 

[huskur]

This is why i am waiting for the "X" to have root established before i purchase it. I would love the bigger screen but love the wifi tether i have now.

 

[Jaxidian]

I use WiFi Tether for Root on my G1 and it works great! The reason you have to manually connect every time is because it's an ad hoc network instead of an infrastructure network. Windows tries not to automatically connect to ad hoc networks for security reasons. I've had no problems with it, though, other than my battery draining faster than it charges.

 

[magikmarkur]

There is an application on the Android Market called "PdaNet free edition" that allows you to do this. Doing it this way, you do not void your warranty and you do not have a 2GB limit.

2GB limit per how often?

 

[Backnblack]

There is an application on the Android Market called "PdaNet free edition" that allows you to do this. Doing it this way, you do not void your warranty and you do not have a 2GB limit.

2GB limit per how often?

Billing Cycle.....

 

[magikmarkur]

There is an application on the Android Market called "PdaNet free edition" that allows you to do this. Doing it this way, you do not void your warranty and you do not have a 2GB limit.

2GB limit per how often?

Billing Cycle.....

Who's billing cycle? VZW or the apps?

 

[hendrix]

2GB limit per how often?

Billing Cycle.....

Who's billing cycle? VZW or the apps?

Verizon... Why would you pay an app maker (in this case, motorola) per data that is used over verizon's network?