android phone usb tethering

Connect your phone to your laptop via a USB cable and you’ll see the USB tethering option become available.

Enable it and you’ll see a new network adapter in Windows. The USB tethering connection is described as a “Remote NDIS based Internet Sharing Device.” Use this adapter to connect to the Internet using your phone’s data connection. It should be used automatically if you’re disconnected from standard Wi-Fi and wired networks.

Third-Party Tethering Apps

There are quite a few third-party tethering apps you can download from Google Play. Many are paid apps or require root access.

PdaNet+ offers Bluetooth and USB tethering on all Android phones, while its Wi-Fi tethering will only work on some phones. The free version will automatically turn itself off and force you to turn it back on occasionally — you can have it stop bothering you by paying up for the full version. Unlike many other such apps, PdaNet doesn’t require root access. The bundled Wi-Fi tethering feature is new in PdaNet+, and is the same as the popular FoxFi app.

You may also want to look for other tethering apps in Google Play. You may want a free app that uses root and doesn’t require you to re-enable it regularly, or PdaNet+ may not be able to provide Wi-Fi access on your phone. In this case, try something like the WiFi Tethering app. It requires root access, but provides Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth) tethering with no restrictions.

Reverse Tethering

You can also reverse tether — connect your phone to your computer and share your computer’s Internet connection with your phone. This is a fairly rare situation, but you may someday find yourself in an office where there’s no Wi-Fi. If you can connect your Android phone to a computer with a wired Internet connection using a USB cable, you can share its wired Internet connection.