How to use T-Mobile/MetroPCS as your Home Internet

Hi guys,

Today I am going to share a small trick that would save you $50-$100 every month you are paying to your current home internet provider. I did not want to do 2 year agreement with Verizon FiOS, as I will be moving to another city within a month, so I found this setup works for me.

Basically, what you are trying to do is to tether your T-Mobile/MetroPCS unlimited internet plan and connect it to your router. By connecting any device to the router you can access internet on that device.

This method is helpful, when you have a XBox or Roku or any such devices connected to your TV and stream music and videos.

Here is what you require.

A laptop or desktop. ( Desktop is preferred )
An Android phone
PdaNet+ application
PdaNet+ License key $7.95 onetime payment
Any wireless router
A T-Mobile or MetroPCS connection with unlimited data plan ( At the time of writing this article, T-Mobile unlimited 4G Plan costs $80/month and MetroPCS unlimited 4G Plan costs $50/month ). It doesn’t matter the plan comes with a tether service or not. Note that, after MetroPCS merged with T-Mobile, MetroPCS is using T-Mobiles network for internet and I’d highly suggest you opt for MetroPCS $50/mo plan instead of T-Mobile $80/mo plan.

Steps:

1. Install PdaNet+ and its license key on your Android Phone. If you do not buy license key then you have to restart PdaNet after you download certain data. Go ahead and buy a license for $7.95 ontime fee
2. Install the PdaNet+ windows application on laptop and connect your phone to the laptop using USB tethering. To do so, open the PdaNet+ app on your phone and click on “Activate USB Tether”. Make sure “Hide Tether Usage” is selected on the windows app
3. Connect an ethernet cable to your laptop ethernet port and connect the other end to your wireless router’s Internet port. This means, the router is ready to accept internet connection from your laptop.
4. Goto Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center on your laptop. Then click on PdaNet Broadband Connection. You will be presented with the connection status dialog. Click on Properties -> Sharing and tick on “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection”. Also select your Ethernet connection name from the Home Networking Connection dropdown/textbox.
5. You are ready to go. Now connect any device to your router and you will be able to access internet on that.

The working principle is simple, you connect your phone to the laptop using USB cable and laptop gets internet access. Laptop then shares the internet access with the router and the router transmits it using wifi. Any devices connects to the router will thus get internet access

Speed Test
When I checked with speedtest.net I was getting 10-20Mbps download speed. I believe the speed varies with the signal strength.

The only issue with this setup is that, you have to connect your phone to your laptop/desktop all the time. And if you get a call or text message or wants to move your phone away from the laptop, then the internet connection will be disconnected and all the other devices connected to the router will be disconnected from the internet. There is a workaround for this.

You will require one more android phone. Install PdaNet and key on that phone. You don’t have to purchase another key if you are signing into Playstore on the new phone with the same login that you used for buying the key for first phone

Open PdaNet on the first Android phone which has the T-Mobile sim. Then active WiFi Hotspot. Then connect your second android phone to the first android phone and connect the second android phone to your laptop using USB connection and active USB tethering on that phone. The remaining setup is same.

Hope you guys starts saving some bugs if you do not care this little inconvenience