How to Wifi Tether ANY Rooted Android Smartphone or Tablet! [Universal Guide]

Most U.S. carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon, will charge you an extra “tethering monthly fee” (around $20-30) if you want wifi tethering enabled on your phone so you can share your phone’s internet with other wifi devices you own such as Android tablets, desktop computer, etc…etc…

Now, U.S. is the ONLY country in the world where carriers charge you twice for the same internet you already paid for.  In countries like South Korea, Thailand, and the rest of the world, there’s no extra tethering monthly charges to use the wifi tethering feature.

Luckily, there are ways to circumvent wifi tether block on most Android smartphones or tablets (that support SIM cards) by installing tether apps like FoxFi (which works on most Motorola/Verizon phones without root) or Wifi Tether app for Rooted users (which works on most rooted Android smartphones).

There are cases like Verizon’s Jelly Bean update on Galaxy S3/Note 2, Sprint’s Jelly Bean update on Galaxy S3/Note 2, or T-Mobile’s Jelly Bean on Galaxy S2, where tethering is blocked completely.

For Verizon or Sprint, your tethering application will just not work and for T-Mobile, you will be re-directed to a T-mobile wifi tether website where it asks you to pay for it.

Well, there’s a simple solution to all of this, a universal method that works on all rooted Android smartphones and tablets (as far as I’ve tested with 30+ devices I own on all U.S. major networks).

Tired of paying your carrier twice for the internet you paid for already?  Let’s get started.

We will be using the same Wifi Tether app for Rooted Users but modified by XDA user TrevE, which circumvents carrier blocks.

Step 1. Download Wifi Tether TrevE Mod app and install using ES File Explorer (or your favorite file manager app).  Make sure “Unknown Sources” is checked under Settings if it asks you to.

Download Wifi Tether TrevE Mod APK

Step 2. Open the Wifi Tether app, hit Menu button and hit “Settings”.

Step 3. Press on “Change Device-Profile”.

Step 4. Choose “Generic ICS/JB (wlan0)”.

Step 5. Choose “Change Setup-Method”.

Step 6. Choose “Netd-Ndc (master)”.

Step 7. Choose “Send Netd Max Client Cmd”.

Step 8. You can set your wifi encryption and SSID here to whatever you’d like.

Step 9. Make sure either “WiFi-driver reload” or “WiFi-driver reload 2” is checked on.  If wifi tether fails for some reason you can change this to the one you didn’t use.

Step 10. Scroll down and make sure “MSS clamping” and “Routing fix” are both checked on.

Step 11. Turn on tethering by hitting the Wifi icon.

Step 12. You can check logs by hitting Menu button->Show Log.  If you don’t see any errors you are good to go.

Step 13. Now, try connecting to your wifi tether using your computer or another wifi device.  Once connected, it should show up under Access Control. (hit Menu then Access Control)

Step 14. Enjoy your wifi tether without paying carriers twice!

Don’t forget to share this with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ thx!

*Note – This only enables wifi tether on Android smartphones/tablets so you can bypass

monthly tethering charges but it will still count under your data plan (unless you have unlimited/grandfathered plan).

Is it illegal? Nope. Charging for wifi tethering should be illegal though, most
countries outside the U.S. do not charge extra for wifi tether, it just counts
under the data plan. (e.g. South Korea, Thailand, and pretty much rest of the world)

If you have trouble tethering on T-Mobile, try these T-Mobile APN settings:

APN: epc.tmobile.com
MMSC: http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc

Credits – XDA <— Please donate to XDA user TrevE if this has helped you get free wifi tether on your Android!

Have a question?

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Max Lee

Max Lee is the founder of HighOnAndroid.com. Max makes Android tutorials and review videos for people who want to get high on Android over at his YouTube channel and Korean YouTube channel.