USB Tethering for Using Samsung Mobile as Modem for getting Internet on Desktop Computer

We are using BSNL (Government ISP in India) broadband connection for getting Internet connection to our computers.

And, we used to see intermittent broadband outages. So, I thought of finding some alternate ways for accessing internet while the broadband connection is down.

I decided to use the Samsung mobile as Modem to access the internet using the Vodafone mobile data connection. (In India, Vodafone provides GPRS download/upload upto 1GB  for 98 Rupees (~2$) per month)

Since the Android OS in the Samsung mobile (Galaxy Y GT-S5360) supports "USB Tethering", I had decided to connect the Samsung mobile to my computer thro' USB cable.

If you are not familiar with "Tethering",  you need to know that  "Tethering" is  nothing but  sharing the mobile data connection with laptop or Computer. Tethering can be done thro' USB, bluetooth and Wi-Fi. If the Tethering is done thro' Wi-Fi, then it will be branded as Mobile Hotspot.

I connected the Samsung mobile device to my Computer thro' USB cable. And, then I tried to enable the "USB Tethering"  by taping "Settings->Wireless and networks->Tethering and portable hotspot->USB Tethering"

But "USB Tethering" was not activated, instead it showed the message "unable to tether while USB storage in use".

So, I decided to disable the USB storage as per the suggestion in the error message. I did some Google search to know the steps for disabling the USB Storage. And, I came to know that we can easily disable the the USB storage feature by taping "Turn off USB Storage" option which appears on dragging the notification panel.





I was able to activate the "USB Tethering" after turning off the USB Storage.


A new connection ("Samsung Mobile USB Remote NDIS Network Device.") appeared under the "Network Connections" of the computer after activating the USB Tethering. I already installed the samsung Kies in my computer. So, the connection was esablished without without requiring any driver files, otherwise we may need to put some driver files as suggested by Google Android help pages.


For testing browsing speed of this connection, I disabled the usual broadband connection and did some surfing with the mobile data connection. It was working fine, and the browsing experience is not bad.


I came to know that  there are some android apps available for activating the USB Tethering. I couldn't understand the reason for using this Android App, as I was able to activate the USB Tethering easily without using this kind of apps.

Warning: Take care of your mobile data package terms and conditions for using it to get internet connection in computers. I came to know that some mobile data connection providers won't allow to use Tethering. And, you may be charged heavily if you use the mobile data excesscively. So, remember to check your usage limit frequently.



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Planning to make our Quotes site "TheQuotes.Net" mobile friendly.

Few weeks back I had published a post listing the suggestions given by LinkedIn users for improving our Motivational Quotes Website "TheQuotes.Net".


One of the significant suggestions is, "making the website mobile friendly".


 I had decided to implement this suggestion (i-e making the site mobile-friendly) first, because large number of people visit this Quotes  website from their mobile devices.  According to Google Analytics Reports, more than 21% of the traffic to the TheQuotes.Net website is coming from various mobile devices, while our other sites receive only around 1% of the traffic from mobile devices.

 I am exploring various options to make our TheQuotes.Net website mobile friendly.

TheQuotes.Net site is developed using Wordpress (Few non-Wordpress pages are also available).  I came to know that installing a simple wordpress plugin will automatically make the site mobile friendly. i-e This plugin will check whether the request comes from desktop computer or from mobile device. And the web page will be rendered using Style/CSS suitable for the desktop computer if the request comes from desktop computer. Similarly mobile specific Style/CSS will be used if the request comes from the mobile device.

I prefer to use this approach, because I believe it can be done easily and it will keep same url for both Desktop devices and mobile devices. But I would like to know the impact of this plugin. i-e whether it will reduce the page loading performance as it has to detect the type of client before rendering the page.

And, there are many such plugins are available. I would like to know which plugin is best. You can share your suggestions thro' the comments.

And, I am listing below the other approaches.

I came to know about some cloud based services, which will make our site seo friendly using cloud service. They claim that the page loading performance will not be affected as their cloud services will make the web page mobile friendly on the mobile devices only after the DOM is loaded. i-e The desktop computers won't require any additional processing on both server side and client side.
These cloud based services seem to be good choice. But most of them are paid services. Some of them are free services for limited traffic. But I am NOT sure about the hidden charges or hidden issues with these free services. So, I am hesitating to use them.

The other approach is, having separate website for mobile devices. i-e creating subdomain such as mobile.thequotes.net for the mobile devices, and duplicating the site in this subdomain. It will give the flexibility to change content (i-e reduce the Page content Bytes)  for the mobile device so that the pages can be loaded quickly. But we have to do something (e.g specifying as canonical) for getting search rank penalty for duplicate content from the search engines.


Apart from making the site mobile friendly,  I plan to create an android application for showing motivational Quotes in various ways. You can add comments to mention your expectations about the motivational quotes android application.


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[Solved] Micro USB port problem in Samsung phones.

Few days back the below error message started appearing in the computer while connecting the Samsung Galaxy phone (GT-S5360) to the computer thro' USB port.

USB Device Not Recognized

One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it

When I checked the Device Manager in the computer, it was showing as "Unknown Device" on expanding the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" node.


After seeing these error messages I thought the driver for the device might have corrupted. So, I uninstalled the Samsung Kies and then installed it again. Before doing this, I tried "repair" of Samsung Kies. But it didn't help to solve the error.

I tried by connecting the Device to the different USB port. Same error "USB Device Not Recognized" was shown for all ports.

Even I tried to connect the device to other computer also. But the same USB error was appearing in that computer also.

And then I noticed a very strange thing. i-e the Battery charging indication was getting shown on the Samsung phone even after I unplugged the USB cable.

So, I decided that this error is NOT related to the USB port. Either the USB cable should be faulty or there should be some issue with the android software or device.

Then I tried to charge the device using AC adopter charger. Similar to USB connection, battery charging indication was getting shown on the device even after removing the AC charger. It clearly indicates that the USB cable may not be reason for this problem.

So, I decided that there should be some problem in the device. I had done lot of search for USB error message, and searched about the battery charging indication problem also.

I was surprised to see that huge number of people are facing these issues. There were lot of discussions about them in many Android forums.

I found many suggestions asking to remove the battery and attach it after few minutes. I tried it many times. But nothing got changed.

Many Android forum people suggested to do "Factory Reset" of the Samsung mobile device.

I did "Factory Reset" too by taping Settings->Privacy->Factory Data Reset.

Warning:Note that "Factory Reset" will remove all the data (including contacts stored in phone) from the Phone.

The problems continue even after doing the Factory Reset.

Some people suggested to do the Factory Reset by dialing *2767*3855# (Warning: It will erase your phone Data). I tried this option also. But No improvement.

And, I couldn't understand the difference between doing Factory Reset by dialing *2767*3855# and by taping Settings->Privacy->Factory Data Reset. If you know the difference you can share it thro' the comments.

Finally I found some forum posts saying that this problem will be due to the problem in the Micro USB port of the device. As per their suggestion, I used a small pin to move the center component in the Micro USB port towards the Device Screen side slightly. (Warning: Make sure that you removed the Battery, SIM Card, SD memory Card before doing anything with the Micro USB port).

Surprisingly it solved the issue.. Battery charging indication is getting appeared only when doing the actual charging. And, USB connection also made without any error, and the Samsung Kies also detected the device.

I had to spend lot of time and efforts to find this simple solution. Android forum people are saying that many people are facing this kind of issue. Just replacing the device from samsung also won't help. Because many people are saying that their replacement device also starting experiencing these issues in few days. It seems there is some design level issue in the micro USB port of many samsung devices. So, You may share this post so that any one facing this issue can solve them easily.


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Any suggestions for solving the "This app is incompatible" error while installing Android app from Google play Store?

I am seeing below error message when trying to install any android application from Google Play Store.

This app is incompatible with your Vodafone IN Samsung GT-S5360.

On expanding error message, below details are getting shown.

Vodafone IN Samsung GT-S5360

You have not opened the Google Play Store app recently on this device. Please open it and try again.

Note that I am trying to install the compatible apps only.

I have signed-in with same Google account on both the Device and from the web.

I already updated the android market on the device to the Google play store app.

So, I couldn't see any reason for this error message.

And, as suggested by many forum users, I had done "force stop" of the Google Play store App on the Device and cleared the cache of Play store app.

But still getting the same error message. Do you have any suggestions for troubleshooting and fixing this error message? You can share it thro' the comments.

Update

This error message was NOT appearing for installing further apps after installing one app from the device itself. (i-e It seems we have to install at least on application from the device before start using the google play store from Web for installing android applications.)



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