How-to: Tether your Motorola Droid and use it as a modem

once the phone is tethered, does your carrier "know" a difference? Meaning are there additional charges to your cell phone bill?

You need to have unlimited data plan, and monitor your usage.
If you go over 5GB in a month they may drop you.

I actually spoke to a representative yesterday. I asked her if the unlimited data plan was truly unlimited. She said most definitely. She said that it would be against the law for Verizon to state that a plan was unlimited and then charge you for overages or cancel your service. She said that 5GB or 5,000GB, it didn't matter, it is unlimited. I hope this helps.

You can just root the phone and do this for free...

Originally Posted by insomniawesome

You can just root the phone and do this for free...

Rooting the phone certainly sounds like a bargain. A one-time $30 fee for a program that, after a free trial and you know that it works, also sounds like a bargain.

So, rooting a Droid. How do you do it?
Is there a negative to it (voiding warranty or terms of service)?


Thanks in advance,
Walt D in LV

I love PDAnet, especially good when I don't have wireless in this one class at school

I downloaded a different program called Easy Tether lite. Its free and works great. It was super easy to install and the wizard on the phone is awesome. It will even download the exe and start the installation on your pc, although i downloaded it from the website cause it was a little faster. They even have a 64 bit version, mac is "coming soon." Linux doesn't look like an option. Basically just read and follow the directions on your phone but here is a run down

* Install easy tether from the android market on your phone
* Install easy tether on your PC from here: easytether PC Install
* Follow the on screen directions to enable USB Debugging on your phone
* Connect your Droid using the USB cable
* Select Enable USB Tether
* On your computer, right click on the easy tether icon in your sys trey and select Connect
* To disable the connection right click and select Disconnect (or Turn Off easy tether on your Droid)

I can't get high speed at my house (satallite, or a veriz air card are my only options) so I got the droid to do this. I'm actually saving $32 a month by not having a landline and a dialup service- and my speed rivals the DSL speeds down the street! PDAnet is a great program and I'm gonna purchase it as soon as I find out if we can set up a wireless network through it.

I just got it and installed works great paid $18 full version need to register on each computer you. use it on Ed

I used my father-in-laws droid to use the web and it ran really well. I might buy the droid x today. has anyone tried the pdanet on the x??????

I'm a little confused here....I just spoke to a Verizon rep and they told me it was $39.99 per month to tether the droid to a laptop. How are you doing this for free???

Originally Posted by Palmer

I'm a little confused here....I just spoke to a Verizon rep and they told me it was $39.99 per month to tether the droid to a laptop. How are you doing this for free???

I would also like some clarification on this as well..is it free or is it gonna cost?

Guerte:

From what I've found out if you tether the droid without the Verizon fee of, it's $30 per month, per your own pdanet app and usb cable, you violate V's term of service. They can void your contract on the spot terminate your contract and you owe them the early termination of service fee of $353,835,344.91....Anyway, if I'm signing up for voice/text and the unlimited data plan why in the world do they need to charge me another $30 per month to use the Droid as a broadband modem maybe for 20 minutes a month is beyond me. I plan on using the pdanet app to do this. Not sure how V can find out of you are doing this but maybe someone else more knowledgeable can chime in here...

As it was explained to me, when you TETHER, the phone acts as an "ACCESS POINT", aka SERVER - just like your home Router does for your home computers. That means there is very specific Data Packets that get exchanged between your DROID and whatever is Tethered to it. What I do NOT know is how this works for a USB-connected Tethering situation. (Does anyone technical know this here?) Whether VZN actively monitors those Access Point Packets to see that you're tethering, I don't know. Maybe they only do so when your data usage goes over the top vs. normal users. I agree with others though - we SHOULD be allowed to USB-connect 1 computer/laptop to the phone and not get nickeled and dimed $20/mo. for a WiFi service. But that's Verizon.