Cell Phone Tethering
I use many different tools to monitor, diagnose, and test my network on a daily basis. One tool that is often overlooked is a cell phone. Cell phones have enjoyed an explosive growth in popularity over the years. PDAs in particular have bridged a major gap, going from a device for business people to a device for the every day consumer. With the popularity of PDAs comes the likelihood that most, if not all, of these phones have a data plan associated to them.
When making changes to any network it is often important to test all services from inside and outside the network. With tightening budgets, you can consider yourself lucky if your employer springs for an Internet connection strictly for testing. That’s ok, since you can use that fancy phone that’s attached to your hip for testing.
At work we recently changed Internet service providers. Along with this change came changes to our address space, DNS zones, firewall policies and more. It was important for me to test connectivity to our external facing services after the migration, particularly since I was taking this opportunity to apply hardened policies to our firewall. Once the migration was complete, I was able to use my cell phone to see check the status of our DNS zone propagation as well as to test how well my firewall policies were working (sometimes they work too well).
Tethering your cell phone to your computer can be a tricky subject. Many carriers charge an extra monthly fee for tethering for one reason or another. There are ways to tether your cell phone to your computer without the need for an additional tethering plan. I caution you in following any of these processes. There is the likelihood that if you abuse the “free” tethering your cell phone provider can find out and you may be stuck with a fat bill.
Moderation is the key here. In my opinion you should only use the free tethering process minimally, such a when you need to do testing. These processes should not be used if you plan to tether regularly, or use your phone as you would a data card.
Below are some links to tutorials on how to setup various cell phones for tethering. Remember; use them wisely and at your own risk.