Yesterday morning my Google Nexus One phone updated itself to Android 2.2. One of the features is something called "tethering". It offers two ways to use a phone to connect your PC to the Internet.
1. USB Tethering -- Connect your PC to the phone with a USB cable and your PC is ready to surf.
What's even better is:
2. WiFi Portable Hotspot -- Your phone becomes a wireless access point for several devices.
Both were trivial to set up and were working within 5 minutes. The USB connection just caused the PC to install a driver. The wireless connection required setting up a password on both phone and PC to complete.
Both worked OK as an Internet connection, but may have been a little slow. I need to use it more to find out what it feels like. Time of day may have been a factor.
Using the phone as a wireless hotspot caused the phone to heat up and discharge farily quickly. I did use it for an hour and a half to stream music from our Performer service so it worked pretty well.
I suspect this will work even better in the next release. For now, it's great to have an "on board" Internet connection. I can leave my cell modem at home now.
Author
Topic: Using an Android 2.2 phone as an Internet connection (Read 3138 times)