People often “tether” their computers to their smartphones,
sending their computer’s network traffic over the device’s cellular data
connection. “Reverse tethering” is the opposite – tethering your Android
smartphone or tablet to your PC to use your PC’s Internet connection.
This method requires a rooted Android
and a Windows PC, but it’s very easy to use. If your computer has Wi-Fi, it may
be easier to create a Wi-Fi hotspot using a utility like Connectify
instead.
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Prerequisites
Before using this utility, you’ll have to enable USB
debugging on your Android phone or tablet – open the Settings screen, tap
Applications, tap Development, and tap the USB Debugging checkbox.
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You will probably also want to disable SuperUser access
notifications, or you’ll constantly see the SuperUser notification. Launch the
SuperUser app on your device, open its menu, tap Preferences, and uncheck the
Notifications check box under Notifications. If you don’t see the SuperUser app
on your Android, your device probably isn’t rooted.
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You’ll also need your device’s USB driver installed on your
computer. You can get this from your device’s manufacturer or try downloading a
generic driver from Google.
Android Reverse Tethering Tool
Android Reverse Tethering is a Windows utility that uses ADB
– also known as Android Debug Bridge – to share your computer’s Internet
connection with your Android over USB. It includes its own copy of ADB, so you
don’t even need the Android SDK installed on your computer. You can download it from here – scroll down and click the latest ReverseTethering .zip
file in the Attached Files section.
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Extract the downloaded .zip file and run the AndroidTool.exe
application inside its folder.
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Connecting
Plug your Android smartphone or tablet into your computer
with its USB cable, select it from the Select a device drop-down box,
and click the Connect button in the Android Reverse Tethering Tool application.
It will connect to your Android and install the required software (Busybox and
Redsocks) on it.
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If you encounter a crash, close the Android Reverse
Tethering Tool application and start again. You can also try clicking the Kill
ADB button on the Tools tab to relaunch the ADB process. You’ll see a
connection notification when the tool establishes a connection.
Some applications may complain that you don’t have an
Internet connection, although most (with the notable exception of Google Play
app downloads) will work properly. You can work around this problem by
connecting to a 3G or Wi-Fi connection before activating reverse tethering –
Android will think you have a normal connection, although all data will be send
through your USB cable and not over the air.