Can't USB-tether XP to Android

Kernel_Sanders

For reasons probably only known to Bill Gates, Windows only started having this facility built-in with Vista. XP users had to install and try and configure a small file called tetherxp.inf, which I have found impossible to do.
If you go to android.com/tether#usb and expand the 'USB tethering' option you'll find the point I've reached (step 6 under 'WindowsXP'). Here, clicking 'browse' brings up the window in the top right of the pic, but there appears to be a missing step inbetween this and step 7. However this is not my problem (at least yet); I cannot select the xptether.inf file because it's not showing, despite it clearly being one of the ten folders in the highest strata of my C: drive.

Quiet_Spark

Put the inf file inside a folder.

Assuming you have the correct driver pack for your handset installed (including the ADB driver), select the option "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install" and then browse to the folder containing that file

It probably wasn't included in XP because Android handsets didn't exist when it was released.

Kernel_Sanders

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

Put the inf file inside a folder.
It probably wasn't included in XP because Android handsets didn't exist when it was released.

I thought they might have been around when Service Pack 3 was released. Anyway, I chose the 'Drivers' folder and it still doesn't show, despite rebooting:

Quiet_Spark

Do you have the ADB drivers installed for your handset?

Kernel_Sanders

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

Do you have the ADB drivers installed for your handset?

I thought I'd cross that bridge when/if I ever arrive at it! I really don't know how to check, but the phone's help page led me to the pages mentioned in this thread. It's 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) BTW.
EDIT I've done a bit of research on this and it appears that they would be on my PC, not my phone! I've certainly got no Android SDK Tools on my PC like this site presumes http://visualgdb.com/tutorials/android/usbdebug/manualinstall.php

gjchester

Isn't this a device driver not a built in Windows Driver, Any files should have been provided on a cd/in the devices memory when connected.


The TetherXP file may be device specific, so if the devices does not announce itself correctly then the file may not be valid.


Think about a lot of Dongles or Mi-Fi's they present as a CD ROM until the drivers are installed and then present as a data connection. It could be the device is not reporting itself correctly and so the file cannot be installed.