Tetherbot

Welcome

Wow - i didn't expect this would generate quite this much response. Looks like i've made the front page of Lifehacker and various other blogs.

What is this?

This is an experimental SOCKS proxy and Port Bouncer that should allow you to connect your laptop to the internet using the internet connection (EDGE, 3G or Wifi) of your T-Mobile G1 Cellphone.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

What is this not?

It's not really a true "tethering" app. Presently we don't have access to any low level packet APIs so it's impossible (without hacking the lower levels of the phone) to write something that does the kind of NAT connection possible with Windows Mobile phones.

Who are you?

My name's Graham Stewart, I'm a 28 yr old Software Consultant in Boulder, CO. I'm also involved in various other ventures, including the news discussion aggegrator banniNation.com. I'm also a keen photographer.

Installation

Read the bit above about no warranty again. This shouldn't damage your phone, but if it does, it's your own fault!

Install the app on your android phone, by clicking here (from your phone browser of course)
You might have to change your settings to permit apps that don't come from the Google Market by going to your home screen and choosing MENU > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources.
Turn USB debugging on on your phone
On your G1 go to the home screen, press MENU > Settings > Applications > Development, then enable USB debugging.
Follow the instructions here to install the Android driver - you'll need to do this on Windows & Linux but apparently not on the Mac.
Download and install the Android SDK for your computer platform. Alternatively if you are on Windows and don't want a 100 meg download, just get the ADB utility from here
Plug your phone into your computer

Using the Socks Proxy

The SOCKS proxy will let you connect things like firefox to the internet

Choose Tetherbot from your phone's menu
Press the "Start Socks" button on your phone
Move to the directory that has the adb utility, using inside the Sdk Tools folder and run
```
Windows: adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080
Linux/Mac: ./adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080
```
Now you should have a socks proxy running on port 1080 that you can use to configure firefox
Set your firefox proxy : Options > Advanced > Network > Manual Proxy Configuration
```
Socks Proxy: localhost
Port: 1080
```
Leave the others blank
Remember to disable your proxy settings in firefox if you want to stop using your phone.

Using the Port Bouncer

The port bouncer will let you connect to a single port on a remote host. This works well if you need to establish an SSH tunnel to your home machine.

This should work for TCP only vpns (openvpn can be configured in this mode) but it wont work for Microsoft PPTP (because it's GRE based) or most typical openvpn setups (because they are UDP based).

Choose Tetherbot from your phone's menu
Enter the hostname of the server you wish to connect to on your phone
Enter the port you wish to use
Press the "Start Tunnel" button on your phone

Move to the directory that has the adb utility, using inside the Sdk Tools folder and run

Windows: adb forward tcp:4444 localabstract:Tunnel
Linux/Mac: ./adb forward tcp:4444 localabstract:Tunnel

Now you should have a tunnel connecting from port 4444 on your local host to the port on the host of your choice
To establish an ssh connection, type something like
```
ssh -p 4444 user@localhost
```
and you should be routed through to the server in question

Credits

Thanks to my wife and boss for their patience while I scramble to get this working.

Feedback

Post any feedback here.