Tethering options

N

narjy

New member
I am nearly ready to buy an E73 from T-Mobile, but first would like some advice on tethering. I understand that T-Mobile has never blocked tethering, and that the two most straightforward ways of tethering are 1) using a cable with the "One Touch Access" feature in OVI Suite, and 2) using WiFi with JoikuSpot. As my plans involve a lot more than a single Windows (or Mac) laptop, i.e. desktop OS's that do not support OVI Suite, and may not even support WiFi, I am looking for more creative options.

What I'd prefer is a wired router that accepts the USB connection from the E73, in place of OVI Suite, and lets me attach my various computers via Ethernet. Might such a box exist? I am willing to buy from Europe, or re-flash an existing router with a DD-WRT-like firmware to get this feature.

Failing that, it occurred to me that modern WiFi routers often have the ability to function in a repeater mode where they extend the functionality of an existing WiFi router. So I think that buying a WiFi router with several Ethernet ports, connecting it to JoikuSpot on the E73, and connecting the computers to the router would also do the job, if a bit messier. Has anyone tried this?

I would appreciate any feedback! Thanks!
 
Joiku creates an ad-hoc network so I don't think you could get a bridge scenario happening. I've never heard of any box that would do anything of the sort that you describe with regards to acting as a tethering device over USB and letting you use Ethernet. It could be done, but I doubt it would generate a lot of consumer interest so it probably doesn't exist.

I'd recommend JoikuSpot as the way to get all of your machines hooked up. Barring that, like for the cases of machines that don't support WiFi, you could use one machine that's connected over either Joiku or USB to the phone that then shares that connection with others.
 
however easy you think tethering is using ovi, it's even easier on a mac.
i tether my N900 via USB w/o any extra software, just plug in and it works.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the replies. Doing connection sharing had also occurred to me, but that could be even messier, as I'd need to boot two different OS's. And if the OS with WiFi drivers is installed in a different partition on the same PC as the OS I want to run, then I'm out of luck unless I want to reinstall everything with VMWare.

I wonder if the Mac drivers are open source?? As 3rd-party replacement firmware like DD-WRT is Linux-based, if these drivers could be added to a future release, that could be exactly the OS-agnostic solution I want. The Mac and Windows solutions may be straightforward, but what about Linux? OpenBSD? AmigaOS? Gotta do some more digging...
 
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