Sunday, October 21, 2012

Connect to the Internet Using your Mobile Phone

So my ethernet worked easily and simply.  The only drawback?  I don't have a router at home.  I do all my internet surfing by tethering my mobile phone to the computer.  Something that didn't work with the RPi.  At least not yet.  Luckily I had access to a friend's router, and so installed wicd that way, but if you're not so lucky here's how to do it (you will need to install libpcap, ppp, and pppoeconf anyway).

Step 1:  You will need to download libpcap0.8, ppp and pppoeconf.

Step 2:  Open LXTerminal in the same folder where you have the files saved and type dpkg -i libpcap then press the 'Tab' button (the rest of the name should auto-complete - if not, then you'll have to type it in full (or copy and paste the name).

Step 3:  Do the same for ppp and pppoeconf.

Step 4:  Open LXTerminal in the root folder and type:
sudo leafpad /root/interfaces.txt and add the following line:
iface usb0 inet dhcp
then save and quit.

Step 5:  Enter ifup usb0 in the terminal

Step 6:  Make sure your phone is connected, and tethering is switched on.

Step 7:  Type sudo ppoeconf and follow the prompts

Step 8:  Reboot.

You should now have networking (or at least I did).  You can now apt-get install wicd which will give you better access to your networking.

Step 9:  Open wicd, and from the drop down menu on the right select 'preferences' and replace eth0 with usb0 in the wired interface box.  Tick the 'always show wired interface' box.

You can also turn wireless on and use your phone as a wireless dongle - just as handy, but without using your bandwidth.

Thanks to Mast for his instructions on getting a Network Manager working and Plugwash on getting usb tethering working.

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