A Guide To Setup USB Tethering With The Motorola DROID

Have you recently purchased a Motorola Droid? Have you owned one for a while, but neglected to take full advantage of all of its features? One of the most advanced and useful features of the DROID is it’s abilitiy to tether. What does it mean to tether your phone, you ask? It means that you will be able to hook your laptop up to the internet at high speeds without a wi-fi connection or ethernet cable. This can be useful in airports, work, your car, or pretty much anywhere that you can think up. 

What you need before you get started:

• Motorola USB Drivers for DROID
• Tethering Software known as PDANet ($29)

Once you have the prerequisites, you will need to take out your DROID phone. The next step is to check the option for “USB Debugging.” You can do this by heading into the APP Menu, followed by Settings, Applications, and lastly Development. Once you are in the Development menu, check the box labeled “USB Debugging.”

Now you must install the PDANet software on both your laptop and your phone. For your computer, simply download it from the PDANet website and follow the installation instructions. Once downloaded, this should automatically install the USB drivers that you need. If this is not the case for you, simply head to Motorola’s website at this link: http://www.motorola.com/consumers/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=bda09ec8009a0210VgnVCM1000008806b00aRCRD

After you have done this, connect the DROID device to your laptop. If you have not yet started PDANet on your laptop, now is the time to do so. The next step is to click the icon labeled “Turn on PDANet” on your DROID. Now revert back to your laptop and right-click the icon labeled “PDANet,” followed by clicking on connect.

Your phone is now tethered to your laptop, which means now you can connect your laptop to the internet, virtually regardless of where you take it (assuming you can get phone service there).

After you have completed this, take it for a test drive. Try it out in public parks, in your backyard, or where ever else your brain can think up. Get a feel for it right away, and you will be ready to go when you actually need to use this feature.