USB Tethering with
Windows XP : Android Devices
If your computer is
running Windows 7 or a recent distribution of some flavors
of Linux (such as
Ubuntu), you typically don’t need to prepare your computer
for tethering. But if you’re running an earlier version of Windows or another
operating system, you may need to prepare your computer to establish a network
connection via USB.
If you want to tether your
Android device via USB to a computer running Windows XP, you must prepare your
computer as described in this article.
Windows
XP contains the drivers you need to take advantage of USB tethering, but you
must install a configuration file before connecting your phone to your Windows
XP computer, to instruct Windows XP how to configure itself to use those
drivers.
- Download the following
configuration file (tetherxp.inf)
to your Windows XP computer. Typically, you can right click on the link
and choose "Save As". (If your browser appends .html to the file
name, you will need to edit the name to remove the .html extension.)
- Use the USB cable that came
with your phone to connect your phone to your computer.
- On the Android phone, press Home, press Menu, and touch Settings to
open the Settings application.
- Touch Wireless & networks > Tethering & portable hotspot.
- Check USB tethering.
- When Windows XP’s New Hardware
Wizard opens, select No, not at this time and click Next.
- Select Install from a list or specific location and click Next.
- Click Browse to browse
to the directory where you installed the configuration file you downloaded
in Step 1 and click Next. Windows XP uses the configuration file to configure
itself to support USB tethering with the Android phone.
- When Windows XP finishes installing the software for Android USB Ethernet/RNDIS, click Finish.
You
can now use the new Windows XP local area network connection provided by your
phone via USB tethering. For more information about configuring networks in
Windows XP, see the documentation that comes with Windows.
