Question about tethering with Android phones

[mommieto3]

Hi everyone,

Sorry if this has been asked before and thank you in advance for your answers.

Our company is currently using BB Tour's through Sprint. We all have the Phone as Modem (tethering) capability turned on our phones and use it frequently.

We are looking to swap out our BBs and get either the Evo or Epic (letting the employees decide) through Sprint. We want to still be able to "tether" our phones BUT don't want to pay the $30/month charge for the mobile hot spot function.

So my question is this... can we tether the droid phones to a single computer/laptop without having to pay the hot spot fee each month?

Thanks again in advance

 

[Demache]

Sure you can. There are apps to do it which cost money, or you can root and get WiFi tethering for free.

 

[mommieto3]

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by "root" the phone?

Thanks,
Kristen

 

[gamma]

Yes, you can use the device to tether as you have been doing with the Blackberry.

 

[Demache]

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by "root" the phone?

Thanks,
Kristen

In layman's terms, it gives you additional privileges to phone features that aren't possible on a completely stock phone. One of which, is Wifi tethering. If you want more info about it, look in the "All Things Root" section for the particular phone you want to get.

 

[mommieto3]

Thank everyone for the help. All of this is new to us and we don't have a "real" IT department so we are doing the research ourselves. I'll keep poking around the forums and see what else is out there.

 

[Artemis68]

I have a G2 and have "rooted" it with the VISIONary app. There are a couple "one click" programs out there that you can install and use to root your phone. They are really easy to use. Just make sure that it's compatible with your phone! Can't stress that enough.

If you google "android wifi tether" you'll find an app on a google site that is really useeful. It's free. You can use it to wifi tether with your phone, and you can even encrypt the wifi connection and control who connects to it. I believe mine is set up to have WPA security with an easy to remember (For me) wireless key. Very useful.

If you root, there is no reason to pay for tethering.