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How to share internet connection from notebook to mobile phone with micro usb cord in Debian based OS? (reverse tethering)

  • 5 replies
  • 7 have this problem
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  • Last reply by guigs

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I want to share internet connection from notebook to my mobile phone (Keon) with micro usb cord (because I don't have wifi). I found in Firefox OS (version: Boot2Gecko 1.1.1.0-prerelease) Settings only the possibility to share internet from mobile phone to PC. I use a Debian based OS: Knoppix. I tried to accomplish this with Networking Manager and I did a new wired connection via my phone with "Shared to other computers" IPv4 Settings and with FE:...:02 (usb0) MAC address. But on my phone there is not internet although the connecton between my notebook and phone is estableshed.

I want to share internet connection from notebook to my mobile phone (Keon) with micro usb cord (because I don't have wifi). I found in Firefox OS (version: Boot2Gecko 1.1.1.0-prerelease) Settings only the possibility to share internet from mobile phone to PC. I use a Debian based OS: Knoppix. I tried to accomplish this with Networking Manager and I did a new wired connection via my phone with "Shared to other computers" IPv4 Settings and with FE:...:02 (usb0) MAC address. But on my phone there is not internet although the connecton between my notebook and phone is estableshed.

All Replies (5)

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Hi Pimpo,

Thank you for posting your question. I was trying to reproduce your the Shared network, and I would love to know what kind of network you used to connect. This is not possible as of yet and I will file a bug being able to do this, but to make sure I have the right steps on the bug can you confirm the set up of the shared network please?

Also this is currently not possible because the software does not know how to send network traffic over usb, assuming you do not have the ability to turn the computer into a wifi hot spot, which I would recommend instead...

Modified by guigs

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I know with wifi is possible what I want to accomplish but I don't have wifi instead I am USB cable (micro usb cord). If this cable can make internet connection from mobile to notebook then is logical (I think...) it can serve for inverse thing too: internet from notebook to mobile. This would be much more useful than internet from mobile to notebook that is built-in in mobile by default. I don't know how to explain my problem more detail: I have a Dell notebook with Knoppix OS (Debian based OS), and a Keon mobile phone with Firefox OS. On notebook I have internet connection (DSL) and I want to share this connection to my phone with micro usb cord. In Knoppix OS at panel there is Network Manager which serves for making new connections. I connected with cable (micro usb cord) the mobile with notebook. On mobile I enabled internet sharing. With Network Manager (in Knoppix) I made a new wired connection with name Keon. At Keon connection's properties (Device MAC address) I selected the MAC address wich appeard after enabling the internet sharing on phone. This MAC address (F2:8D:C1:FE:82:F5 (usb0)) always ends with "usb0". Below this row there is a row for cloned MAC address where first I wrote nothing then I wrote the MAC address I have found in my mobile Settings (Devive Informations). But neither method was good for connection. At Keon connection's properties at IPv4 settings I set Sharing with other machines, Automatic DHCP, but the internet connecton could'nt be estableshed in neither case.

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And I forget to mention: the connection between the notebook and mobile was established, at Network Manager I could see that Keon connection is active. The only problem is that on mobile I don't have internet...

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Hi Pimpo, the usb cord is not designed to tether internet. The connection you see in the Network Manager

It sounds like there is a feature for usb tethering in the 1.2 release: it was mentioned in this bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=944351 and https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=842790

This bug actually needs information as well: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=962398

So so so so! I found this in mdn, it is disabled by default, but I am not sure if this is available for your device:

tethering.usb.enabled Boolean false

Referencehttps://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/F.../Settings_list

We can do a quick experiment, if you update to 1.2 is there a usb tethering option? and if you turn off wifi does firefox on the keon load a random web page?

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Ok after trying it again I filed a feature request in Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=969166