Noob Needs Help linking wifes Epic to Archos Tablet. And other things

[JohnMcD348]

OK, just bought the wife a Archos 101 G9 tablet yesterday and first thing I did was upgrade it to the ICS that was available. My wife has been using an Epic 4g(slider) from sprint now for about a year. I've really done nothing with it as I'm, more or less, a windows person.

Anyway. she wants to use the Tablet as a video viewer/movie watcher when on trips, on top of using it to continue with our son's education with online courses through his school. We had thought we'd be able to link her Epic w/ Gingerbread to the tablet with Ice Cream sandwich via either BT or WiFi tethering so her phone would act as the modem. I can't seem to make that happen. When both items are searching, niether one can find each other. i tried it with my WP7 HTC Arrive and they did find each other but could not link up due to incompatibility. the usual $20+ fee extra per month from Sprint would allow her to Hot Spot her phone but I was wondering if there was another option?

My WP7 phone doesn't allow tethering but I was hoping someone, somewhere might know of an app or other means, besides fully Rooting/jailbreaking/hacking(Bricking) her phone.

There will be other questions I'm sure coming in the next few days as my wife asks me to do other things to her tablet/phone. I appreciate any help you all can give me on this. I haven't checked out XDA or any other place yet.

Any and all help/insight is appreciated.

Thanks
John

[gTen]

You have 3 options.

1) Android wifi tether 3.0 or above which makes an infrastructure connection: (remember rooting is required but is easy)

android-wifi-tether - Wireless Tether for Root Users - Google Project Hosting

2) Do a WPA supplicant fix on your Android Tablet so that it can see Ad Hoc connections which again requires root.

3) ICS has bluetooth tethering built in under settings, more, tethering, bluetooth but I have not tried it.


To note though, you don't need to worry too much about rooting the epic, the epic is virtually unbrickable.

[JohnMcD348]

OK. Thank You. I'll play with it some when I get the chance. I'll maybe make an attempt at rooting. After all, if I do mess it up, it's the wife's phone.........

[gTen]

Originally Posted by JohnMcD348

After all, if I do mess it up, it's the wife's phone.........

That's the spirit! lol

But its generally as simple as plug in and click a button.

[demonlordoftheround]

If you don't want to root, check out an app called Foxfi. Allows infrastructure wifi hotspot without root.

[JohnMcD348]

OK. Thanks. I'll give it a try.

I've been glancing through a few places like here and XDA. I'm looking for an absolute, hand holding tutorial on rooting Droid. I'm, for all intents and purposes brand new to this whole idea. I did a little of it with my WM PDAs but it was nothing more than installing a few .CAB files and directory subsystem tweaks. But, that was when I was able to easily access my WM PDA via ActiveSync and Mobile Device Center on my XP Win7 system.

I've never really done much more than make a phone call with my Wife's phone. Now I'm her Tech Support for all things Droid.

I have a lot of learning to do.

Thank you All for your input. Please keep it coming. I can use all of it I can get at this point.

[JohnMcD348]

Originally Posted by demonlordoftheround

If you don't want to root, check out an app called Foxfi. Allows infrastructure wifi hotspot without root.

Just tried to get FoxFi to install. I couldn't get it via the Phone and going online via computer, it says it's not available for my carrier. I guess Sprint has it locked out so it won't install on their phones.

[demonlordoftheround]

The developers site should have a way to side load the app.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by JohnMcD348

Just tried to get FoxFi to install. I couldn't get it via the Phone and going online via computer, it says it's not available for my carrier. I guess Sprint has it locked out so it won't install on their phones.

FoxFi Installer


or if you want it to automatically update its also available on amazon appstore.

---

As for the rooting question, there is a simple way and a little more tricky way.

Simple way: Just odin what you need and you are done.
Less simple way: Load up clockworkmod and then you can flash directly from the device.

Its pretty easy, easier then it was in the winmo days even.

[JohnMcD348]

Thanks You again for the help. I just got home, installed the Amazon App store app onto her phone and installed FoxFi and it worked great. Now we just need to try it out with streaming video to the tablet.