Reverse tethering and the T-Mobile Pulse

[Guest jmmL]

I'm currently struggling to get high-speed internet on my pulse.

Problems:

• Even though I am in the centre of a major city, I can only get GPRS in my room
  
• The university I attend has a policy of no wireless routers, so wifi is (technically) out of the picture
  
  Possible solutions:
  
  1. Reverse tether by wifi
     
  2. Reverse tether by bluetooth
     
  3. Reverse tether by USB cable
     
  By "reverse tether" I mean using the PC's internet connection and letting the pulse use that (i.e., the reverse of tethering).

  Further problems:

  [*]Reverse tethering by wifi doesn't seem to be currently possible for the pulse. My laptop can create an ad-hoc wireless network. However, android cannot by default connect to adhoc networks. Solutions are available for the g1 and hero, but the pulse uses a Atheros chipset (AR6000), different to TI chipsets apparently used by the hero and g1.

  [*]I don't have a bluetooth adapter, but if anyone has got reverse tethering to work via bluetooth for the pulse (and on linux) then I will certainly buy one!

  [*]I can't find any information on whether reverse tethering via cable is possible for android in general - I can only find posts asking for it!

  Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

[Guest bounty123]

I have done this by creating a wifi hotspot out of my debian linux desktop pc, with a really cheap wifi usb stick (tp-link tl-wn321g, using rt73usb module). The software i'm using for this is basically hostapd and dhcpd and the necessary iptables firewall rules for forwarding. Works like a charm.

A more simple solution would be to just buy a wifi router.

Edited January 10, 2010 by bounty123

[Guest jmmL]

I have done this by creating a wifi hotspot out of my debian linux desktop pc, with a really cheap wifi usb stick. The software i'm using for this is basically hostapd and dhcpd and the necessary iptables firewall rules for forwarding. Works like a charm.

A more simple solution would be to just buy a wifi router.

I tried to create a hotspot using my laptop, but my wifi chipset (on the laptop) is iwl3945, which does not support master mode, and so can only create ad-hoc networks - I don't know of a way to connect the pulse to a ad-hoc network. If you've done this, please share! :)

I'm guessing that you probably set your wifi usb stick to master mode. If so, what's the make and model?

Thanks

Edit: you were too quick! Thanks again.

2nd edit: do you mind posting a link to the howto(s) that you followed, or writing a quick guide here?

Edited January 10, 2010 by jmmL

[Guest jmmL]

It seems that the OpenMoko has the same wireless chip in as the pulse. They advise using ssh to tether (http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/USB_Networking) which sounds like a great idea. The problem is I'm stuck at the first step

$ sudo ip address add 192.168.0.200/24 dev usb0

Cannot find device "usb0"

I don't know how to configure the pulse to connect as a device to give something like "usbX". Here's my dmesg output:

[40873.061617] usb-storage: device scan complete

[40873.063325] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access	 T-Mobile 3G Phone		 ffff PQ: 0 ANSI: 2

[40873.064863] sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

[40873.077180] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

[41183.113317] usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 10

[41196.105102] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 11

[41196.249372] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

[41196.251134] scsi13 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

[41196.251705] usb-storage: device found at 11

[41196.251710] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

[41201.249519] usb-storage: device scan complete

[41201.251484] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access	 T-Mobile 3G Phone		 ffff PQ: 0 ANSI: 2

[41201.255934] sd 13:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

[41201.266511] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

Edited January 10, 2010 by jmmL

[Guest bounty123]

Here is the guide which gave me the idea, and I followed mostly: http://users.utu.fi/sjsepp/hostapd/hostap.html. Be aware that I had serious issues with the wifi connection prior the 2.6.32 kernel. After upgrading to 2.6.32 it started to work wonderfully. Possibly it does not work with any wifi drivers, so there is some luck factor involved...

I attached my own config files, hope they can help.

wifihotspot.zip

Not a necessity, but I also configured udev to start the necessary programs for me when I plug in the stick, so the dhcp server and hostapd only runs when needed. See the "wlanstick.rules" udev rules file and wifi_on and wifi_off scripts which it starts when inserting and removing the stick.

[Guest jmmL]

Here is the guide which gave me the idea, and I followed mostly: http://users.utu.fi/sjsepp/hostapd/hostap.html. Be aware that I had serious issues with the wifi connection prior the 2.6.32 kernel. After upgrading to 2.6.32 it started to work wonderfully. Possibly it does not work with any wifi drivers, so there is some luck factor involved...

I attached my own config files, hope they can help.

wifihotspot.zip

Not a necessity, but I also configured udev to start the necessary programs for me when I plug in the stick, so the dhcp server and hostapd only runs when needed. See the "wlanstick.rules" udev rules file and wifi_on and wifi_off scripts which it starts when inserting and removing the stick.

Thanks. Can I just ask what caused you to select the TP-link tl-wn321g?

I'm running ubuntu lucid (the development release) at the moment, so luckily I already have .32!

I think this will probably be the simplest solution, although it's a shame that it will still cost me £10!

[Guest bounty123]

Thanks. Can I just ask what caused you to select the TP-link tl-wn321g?

I'm running ubuntu lucid (the development release) at the moment, so luckily I already have .32!

I think this will probably be the simplest solution, although it's a shame that it will still cost me £10!

I tried to google it before buying, and found some hints that the rt73 drivers are working under linux - however I also found some earlier problem posts - but the driver has developed. Also it was one of the cheapest sticks out here in Hungary, about 6GBP if i convert it.

[Guest giorgitus]

nobody find a way with usb or normal intel chipset?

[Guest Jan M]

nobody find a way with usb or normal intel chipset?

you can reverse-tether through usb using a linux box:

networking:

   adb ppp <tty> [parameters]   - Run PPP over USB.

  Note: you should not automatically start a PDP connection.

  <tty> refers to the tty for PPP stream. Eg. dev:/dev/omap_csmi_tty1

  [parameters] - Eg. defaultroute debug dump local notty usepeerdns

[Guest SoundSurfer]

I'm using Windows 7 and VirtualRouter , but for intel chipsets only works for wifi cards model 5300 or higher. My laptop has a Dell wifi card that supports VirtualRouter.

[Guest mvs]

I'm using Windows 7 and VirtualRouter , but for intel chipsets only works for wifi cards model 5300 or higher. My laptop has a Dell wifi card that supports VirtualRouter.

Haha, VirtualRouter works great. It's a bit annoying that even while my phone is connected to my laptop to charge, I still have to setup a Wifi connection to sync my calendar, but it works and does synchronization automatically. I don't like to do it manually with the PC suite. And of course, PC suite is only for sync'ing, not for internet access.

[Guest deweylewie]

you can reverse-tether through usb using a linux box:

networking:

   adb ppp <tty> [parameters]   - Run PPP over USB.

  Note: you should not automatically start a PDP connection.

  <tty> refers to the tty for PPP stream. Eg. dev:/dev/omap_csmi_tty1

  [parameters] - Eg. defaultroute debug dump local notty usepeerdns

Can you give more details on this? I've got a ZTE Blade (Orange San Francisco) and would like to be able to hook in to my main PC's internet. I can't get an adhoc network going, nor connect to a Bluetooth PAN so the USB cable is the only option left until I can get a wireless router.

[Guest Sh4d0w940]

I'm using Windows 7 and VirtualRouter , but for intel chipsets only works for wifi cards model 5300 or higher. My laptop has a Dell wifi card that supports VirtualRouter.

Thats a lot like Connectify although afaik connectify just requires the wifi card to have windows 7 drivers.

Sh4d0w940

[Guest rikkiej]

Maybe try this?

Adding your ad-hoc SSID in Settings->Wireless & Network, then do the following modification in data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf:

1)Add

ap_scan=2

at the beginning.

2)Locate the "network" section corresponded to your ad-hoc network, add "mode=1" in that section.

3)If the previous two steps don't solve the problem, try adjust the priority of the ad-hoc network to the highest: make sure "priority=1" in its network section, and modify other sections' priorities sequentially.

[Guest deweylewie]

Maybe try this?

Yep i've tried that and also tried editing the tiwlan.ini file as per another set of instructions which I think may not apply to this device as I had to create tiwlan.ini. Still no go.

[Guest rikkiej]

Yep i've tried that and also tried editing the tiwlan.ini file as per another set of instructions which I think may not apply to this device as I had to create tiwlan.ini. Still no go.

@#%$...