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Browse the web from a tethered phone

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a Compag laptop running a 32-bit Windows Vista Home Basic.

I was able to install the software on the phone without problems, and was able to get the usb paring going between my phone and my computer. I get as far as START SOCKS on my phone but no luck connecting to the internet. I think it is my fault as a few of the instructions were sort of unclear to me.
​
Choose Tetherbot from your phone's menu
GOT THIS
Press the "Start Socks" button on your phone
GOT THIS
Move to the directory that has the adb utility, using inside the Sdk Tools folder and run
NOT SURE ABOUT THIS STEP. I did go to tools and ran ADB application

Windows: adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080Should I see this? If so I am not
Also, does it work only on firefox or does it work on Explorer?Thanks for the help in advance
 
Over a month ago I set up the tethering between my G1 and laptop (Dell Inspiron 1525 with Vista), and did not have any problems. I have used it almost daily. Suddenly yesterday I started getting the message in Firefox: "Proxy Server Refused Connection". I haven't made any changes, and everything's worked for days since any updates. I've checked settings (about:config & "Use proxy Tetherbot..." & "Use Socks proxy..."), etc, but can't find any problems. Obviously I've re-booted everything over and over. No luck...
Any ideas, please, from the experienced and bright ones out there... ?
 
ERamseth said:
Just a quick FYI for people using linux...

The alternative to proxifier is apparently proxychains.

ProxyChains - HTTP CONNECT and SOCKS proxy server client

I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it does what proxifier does on windows (full internet access through a socks 5 proxy)
Click to expand...

So i got this working. Make sure you have at least proxychains 3.1 edit the proxychains.conf file and make sure it points to a socks5 proxy running on port 1080 of localhost.

then you "sockify" a program by

$ proxychains <program name>

so if you want to use firefox over the socks5 you do

$ proxychains firefox

----

also, if you want to "sockify" your whole system, make a file called /etc/ld.so.preload (or similar) and add the line

/usr/lib/libproxychains.so

(or similar)

this forces libproxychains.so (which is what really does the "sockifying" to load before every executable.

This was all tested on ubuntu 8.10

note: I have not thoroughly tested the method of sockifying the whole system. It could have the potential to really mess up things I think.

I hope this helps someone.
 
ERamseth said:
So i got this working. Make sure you have at least proxychains 3.1 edit the proxychains.conf file and make sure it points to a socks5 proxy running on port 1080 of localhost.

then you "sockify" a program by

$ proxychains <program name>

so if you want to use firefox over the socks5 you do

$ proxychains firefox

----

also, if you want to "sockify" your whole system, make a file called /etc/ld.so.preload (or similar) and add the line

/usr/lib/libproxychains.so

(or similar)

this forces libproxychains.so (which is what really does the "sockifying" to load before every executable.

This was all tested on ubuntu 8.10

note: I have not thoroughly tested the method of sockifying the whole system. It could have the potential to really mess up things I think.

I hope this helps someone.
Click to expand...

Note: be careful. This (the whole system sockifier) really COULD seriously mess your system up. Using something called tsocks in a similar manner would work better because with tsocks you can specify a range of addresses to bypass the proxy.

I'll post more when I have the chance to try that out.
 
drwpk said:
Over a month ago I set up the tethering between my G1 and laptop (Dell Inspiron 1525 with Vista), and did not have any problems. I have used it almost daily. Suddenly yesterday I started getting the message in Firefox: "Proxy Server Refused Connection". I haven't made any changes, and everything's worked for days since any updates. I've checked settings (about:config & "Use proxy Tetherbot..." & "Use Socks proxy..."), etc, but can't find any problems. Obviously I've re-booted everything over and over. No luck...
Any ideas, please, from the experienced and bright ones out there... ?
Click to expand...

I meant to add that I have been using FoxyProxy as well, with no problems until now. I did uninstall this add-on, and then re-installed it; but, that didn't get it going again either.

I really would appreciate suggestions / ideas from someone out there.
Thanks again.
 
i downloaded tetherbot before the update and never unlocked root access. tetherbot works at rc33 for me, I'm assuming you can just as easily download and use it new from rc33 as if you downloaded and installed at a previous version, but I didn't uninstall/reinstall to check. I am currently on my pc here on the forums with the tetherbot running on my g1 and hooked up via usb, so it works at least for me with these steps.
Click to expand...

Works for me on RC33 but I had to change the dns settings in firefox to get it to work.
Click to expand...

Do I understand that 2 people got tetherbot to work without root ???????
 
drwpk said:
Over a month ago I set up the tethering between my G1 and laptop (Dell Inspiron 1525 with Vista), and did not have any problems. I have used it almost daily. Suddenly yesterday I started getting the message in Firefox: "Proxy Server Refused Connection". I haven't made any changes, and everything's worked for days since any updates. I've checked settings (about:config & "Use proxy Tetherbot..." & "Use Socks proxy..."), etc, but can't find any problems. Obviously I've re-booted everything over and over. No luck...
Any ideas, please, from the experienced and bright ones out there... ?
Click to expand...

No ideas from anyone? Let me ask a follow-up question then, that might help: Could this be from one of the fairly frequent Windows Vista updates? If so, does anyone know how I could see which updates occurred around that same time, and how would I back them out? Thx!
 
drwpk said:
No ideas from anyone? Let me ask a follow-up question then, that might help: Could this be from one of the fairly frequent Windows Vista updates? If so, does anyone know how I could see which updates occurred around that same time, and how would I back them out? Thx!
Click to expand...

you should be able to rollback to any safe restore point and see if they make any difference ...

Suggest that you make a safe point now or just before doing any rollbacks ... so you can easy com back to current ... if it proves out that it is not a Vista issue ...
 
justjimjpc said:
you should be able to rollback to any safe restore point and see if they make any difference ...

Suggest that you make a safe point now or just before doing any rollbacks ... so you can easy com back to current ... if it proves out that it is not a Vista issue ...
Click to expand...

Your advice worked like a charm! Seeing that there was a Windows update on 3/12 (the day that I started having the problems -- See 3/13 message above for details) and also one on 3/10, I rolled back to a 3/9 safe-point... and the tethering started working again. THANKS!!!

I recommend that "tethering users" be wary of whatever Windows Vista updates occurred around 3/12/09. However, if you already have been a "victim" of the update, and your tethering no longer works, you can do what "justjimjpc" recommended to me, by typing "System Restore" in the Start-Search field, and following the instructions there, to go back to an earlier point in time of your system, prior to the problematic updates. (As he also recommended, you first can choose to create a current safe-point, by clicking on the "open System Protection" link near the bottom of the initial "System Restore" window, prior to rolling back.)
 
drwpk said:
Your advice worked like a charm! Seeing that there was a Windows update on 3/12 (the day that I started having the problems -- See 3/13 message above for details) and also one on 3/10, I rolled back to a 3/9 safe-point... and the tethering started working again. THANKS!!!

I recommend that "tethering users" be wary of whatever Windows Vista updates occurred around 3/12/09. However, if you already have been a "victim" of the update, and your tethering no longer works, you can do what "justjimjpc" recommended to me, by typing "System Restore" in the Start-Search field, and following the instructions there, to go back to an earlier point in time of your system, prior to the problematic updates. (As he also recommended, you first can choose to create a current safe-point, by clicking on the "open System Protection" link near the bottom of the initial "System Restore" window, prior to rolling back.)
Click to expand...


I am glad that worked for you ... would be good if you could ID the Update culprit's ID ...

Also you may need to be cautious of future updates that they dont try to
push that same Update on you again ...
 
As far as I can tell I have all the prerequisite installs done correctly, sdk, eclipse, adt.

In terminal when I run
./adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080

in the directory where adb is

/home/richandcreamy/desktop3/android-sdk-linux_x86-1.1_r1/tools

It returns:

error: device not found

Any tips on trouble shooting this?
 
justjimjpc said:
I am glad that worked for you ... would be good if you could ID the Update culprit's ID ...

Also you may need to be cautious of future updates that they dont try to
push that same Update on you again ...
Click to expand...

As per your suggestion, here are the updates from that date; I'm not sure which is/are to blame (although I would think that the security updates would be most suspect), but at least this narrows down the list:

Update for Windows Vista (KB959772)
Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [March 2009] (KB905866)
Security Update for Windows Vista (KB960225)
Security Update for Windows Vista (KB958690)
 
drwpk said:
As per your suggestion, here are the updates from that date; I'm not sure which is/are to blame (although I would think that the security updates would be most suspect), but at least this narrows down the list:

Update for Windows Vista (KB959772)
Update for Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [March 2009] (KB905866)
Security Update for Windows Vista (KB960225)
Security Update for Windows Vista (KB958690)
Click to expand...

Cool ! ... Have you tried to reinstall the abov one at a time to find the Offender ??
 
justjimjpc said:
Cool ! ... Have you tried to reinstall the abov one at a time to find the Offender ??
Click to expand...

That was interesting.

As per your suggestion, I downloaded and re-installed each of the 3/10 updates individually, and tested after each re-installation. I noticed that both security updates failed today in the middle of the installation the first time, and then were successful the 2nd time, again installing them separately from each other. Curiously, the tethering worked after each individual installation. Based on that, and on my observation of the installations' failing initially, I now suspect that the problem I had may have been related to an imperfect installation of one or both of the security updates from 3/10. The good news is that everything now is working fine, and with all updates to-date installed.
 
drwpk said:
That was interesting.

As per your suggestion, I downloaded and re-installed each of the 3/10 updates individually, and tested after each re-installation. I noticed that both security updates failed today in the middle of the installation the first time, and then were successful the 2nd time, again installing them separately from each other. Curiously, the tethering worked after each individual installation. Based on that, and on my observation of the installations' failing initially, I now suspect that the problem I had may have been related to an imperfect installation of one or both of the security updates from 3/10. The good news is that everything now is working fine, and with all updates to-date installed.
Click to expand...

Wow ... that was probably a fluke ... but good to know that it is recoverable !!
 
It seems like a decent portion of people are having to change the dns/socks setting in firefox to get it to work. Seems like the type of thing that would be useful for Graham to include on the official instruction page at
Tetherbot

Anyway -- if you are reading this, and everything seems set up right, but you still cant load pages -- see this post to make sure your dns/socks setting is correct in firefox.
http://androidforums.com/android-applications/1449-browse-web-tethered-phone-2.html#post9959
 
This project was a bit too complicated for the likes of me. With this kind of stuff, I'm like a 7-year-old building a model plane meant for experienced adults. A 7-year-old probably could have done this better than me actually.

I did manage to navigate through all of the instructions and help here, eventually pushing all the right buttons. Figuring out how to open a Terminal on my Mac, then changing directories and putting in the command was perplexing, but upon success I felt pretty smart.

After finally setting up the Socks Host in Firefox correctly, I got it all working... for about three clicks at Google.com. I had disabled my wi-fi, and felt like I had crested Mount Everest for those few seconds. Then it all suddenly stopped working. Firefox let me know that no pages on the internet were available. I had lost the Internet connection -but I DID have it for that short time!

I haven't had any success since, even after trying to stop and restart stuff like the Socks on my phone, and the command on the Terminal. At the end of the day, I still don't know what any of this stuff is or means, and feel just as dumb as I was before I even dared to start this challenge.

Maybe my socks don't match, or my Terminal is terminally ill. What if my Proxy Server can't quite do a 1080. Shouldn't a 360, 540, or 720 spin be good enough? Did my port bouncer get lost in the tunnel? I don't know what it is, but it sounds pretty tough, so I haven't messed with it any.

In all seriousness, it DID work for those few glorious seconds, then stopped. Any ideas?

-for someone who won't totally understand the technical words, but can probably figure them out eventually...
 
Thanks Darksyth, your earlier posting on February 13th solved my problem. Changing that setting from False to True is all I needed to do. While navigating to that page, Firefox prompted me to not go any further, but I clicked the "I promise not to mess things up" button, and followed your instructions to the letter. I don't know what it is that you had me do, but it was the right thing that needed doing! I should have read ALL the postings in this forum before complaining, but thanks to you, I'm now among the happy campers.

-and following the tradition of making my post, using my G1 as my modem!
 
Can I please have access to the source code of the latest version of Tetherbot? I would like to make the following modifications:

1.) Option to start the service running on boot (I use Tetherbot a lot)
2.) Track down a bug which causes the service to crash when I tear down my OpenVPN which is pointed at the socks proxy
3.) Update the main page to display whether or not the service is currently running and enable/disable the start/stop buttons as appropriate.

I'd be happy to feed back the modifications that I make ...
 
Graham, this is a clever piece of software that's just added loads of value to my G1. Thank you very much.

Initially I couldn't get it working but ended up installing the FoxyProxy plugin for Firefox. I created a new profile with the settings as you described and still couldn't get it to connect. What finally seemed to do the job was enabling the "Use SOCKS proxy for DNS lookups" setting under the global settings.

I know this may be untowards, but would you mind providing the code for this? I am new to Android programming and am quite interested in how you've managed to do this. I would also like to change it so I can choose the port that the adb deamon should forward to. I would understand if you prefer not to do this.

Thanks again

Nic
 
I'm so lost. I downloaded, the android-sdk-windows file, installed tetherbot on my g1, installed foxyproxy, followed those wonderful walk through videos to the tee, even changed the about:config, but still no dice.
I installed the drivers for the android device, and when im on the cmd line and i enter "adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:180" it says:
*daemon not running, starting it now*
*daemon started successfully*
error: device not found

I need help. if soneone could please explain what im doing wrong like im a 5 year old, id appreciate it! Any help is appreciated at this point, as ive spent almost 20 hours doping this and reading every single post and trying to get it to work.
 
I'm so lost. I downloaded, the android-sdk-windows file, installed tetherbot on my g1, installed foxyproxy, followed those wonderful walk through videos to the tee, even changed the about:config, but still no dice.
I installed the drivers for the android device, and when im on the cmd line and i enter "adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:180" it says:
*daemon not running, starting it now*
*daemon started successfully*
error: device not found
Click to expand...

Make sure you have the "start socks" button on the G1 tetherbot program on. If it's still not working, make sure you have "USB debugging" checked according to the instructions given at the website. That should clear up the problem.
 
BTW, for anyone who hasn't found out yet, there's a more user friendly tethering app out there. It's called PdaNet. Do a google search for it and it'll show up soon enough.
 
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