How to get more SafeLink data tethering usage when developing on iPadOS.

If you’re like me, and you happen to have invested in, let’s say, for example, an iPad base model from Target’s 🎯 holiday sales

Because, let’s face it. $80 - $100 off a brand new iPad is a great deal. Target has been hosting these deals since back to school days this year, and I’m sure that with the upcoming Christmas shopping season coming around, that they’ll repeat the same deal, as far as Apple iPads go. 

and, in addition, you’re on a General Relief | SNAP Food Stamps | subsidized housing | homeless | mental health | emergency funding basis, 

and, as well, that you happen to have become a recipient of SafeLink phone service LifeLine “free” government phone service, 

Yet, you’ve found yourself trying out their recent Net10 marketing MMS outreach notifications offering paid data plans that are definitely reasonable, such as a $5.78 4 GigaByte data plan, ~ $15.00 for 14 GigaBytes, and $25.00 for 40 GigaBytes of high speed 4G LTE cellular for a month. The SafeLink TracFone-based service and product offerings (even though they started out free), are definitely worth making the switch, if you’re eligible, as a California welfare beneficiary. I typically find the representatives outside of the Downtown Los Angeles, CA Department of Public and Social Services office. 

 For those who are <_< not interested,

Or for those who have not yet been initiated, this call to action heralds at minimum, this much: that the paid data plans, or, for that matter, the free and no charge data plan allotment, in and of itself, (which is unlimited, [true], yet at times, when lots of data has been consumed, the service allotment throttling speed goes down to 15 KiloBytes per second, which is okay, if you’re patient like I am. I get through those tough times of data unlimited, long-gone and forlorn, with a perseverant attitude-positive about it; other phone benefits providers promise less data per month, and when the data is used up, its definitively dead data link [gone 🙄]). In this framework of consideration of General Relief | welfare beneficiary phone service plans - and beyond, considering major service provider’s phone plans for the general public - this is truly unlimited data tethering for your base model iPadOS device (ostensibly from Target’s holiday sales (or otherwise). I simply imagine that somebody else could conceivably latch on to the same productivity-on-mobile model that I’ve gotten, with a SafeLink Wireless free subsidized phone service plan, with $5.78 - $25.00 data plans that can tether an iPad, iPhone, or Android mobile device with unlimited service throughout the extent of the data plan. 

Typical phone service providers charge an arm and a leg for service recharges, and from what I most commonly have seen, the most data tethering any major carrier has offered, up to this point in time (2019), is 10 GigaBytes per month, which, for data-intensive device users, could be used up in a matter of several days, on an iPad, or other tablet device. 

I suppose that the SafeLink Wireless data tethering plan could be allotted to a desktop or laptop, as well, although in truth, I’d have to say that the iPad is truly where it’s at, as far as investing your time and money in to a long-standing device á la mobility tech and lifestyle development “thing,” a tablet is much more fruitfully enjoyed than a small-screen device, and an iPad is the most fulfilling device implementation for taking in to consideration the most common and popular mobile device usage personas that I imagine most users take on, inasmuch, to consider that there’s all sorts of mobile device users.

Hopefully, if words on a device couldn’t sell you on heading over to the Department of Public and Social Services in your local neighborhood, the simple imperative I’m preaching of that being that SafeLink Wireless is free phone service, as well as true unlimited tethering, for up to the amount of data allotted to the phone service per month. I believe it used to be 5 GigaBytes, perhaps now 3 GigaBytes.

Update:

It turns out that the free wireless data tethering workaround option, detailed below, will apparently work with any Android device, which is very useful with prepaid plans such as Kroger Wireless, whom I’m currently with. They offer a 25 GB data plan for $45 a month. They’re currently also offering the Google Pixel 4a phone for $349. Not a bad deal. 

Okay, 

now - for the über-data-intensive users who had been tethering data from their Android government subsidized phone service beneficiary “LifeLine” plan (such as SafeLink service), who now find themselves “locked out” of being able to tether any more data to their iPad device, after using up a HUGE 40 GigaByte data plan, over several days, for example, here’s the fix. Pay attention, because it’s going to come quickly and it’s only a few steps.

1. Download NetBridge - No root tethering on your Android source tethering device from the Google Play Store (or likewise, other SafeLink service-provided phone - they offer iPhones, also). 

NetBridge - No Root Tethering

Ninja Net StudioTools

Everyone

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This app is compatible with all of your devices.

Actually, nix that, if you have an iPhone as your SafeLink device. The App Store doesn’t have a NetBridge ported app, yet. 

2. Once NetBridge downloads, open it up and turn on the tethering mode. It couldn’t be simpler, as an app interface - but, in addition, turn on Wi-Fi on both your source [check 1] Android device, and your [check 2] iPad. There’s no need, just yet, to configure the Wi-Fi parameters.

This one’s important! This is what your iPad’s Wi-Fi proxy and DNS server settings should look like when you configure the connection (last step).

3. Drag down from the top of your Android device, and swipe left. If you haven’t toyed around with this drop-down window previously, you’ll see the Hotspot activation icon. Press and hold it. When the tethering window comes up, turn on Bluetooth tethering only.

4. Now, for the Wi-Fi settings. On your source Android phone, no need to do anything with Wi-Fi, except have it turned on and scanning.

?????? [okay for Wi-Fi here, in this case, on your Android device]. The NetBridge connection requires that you have Wi-Fi scanning, but not connected through your Native Android interface.

On your iPad device, go in to your Wi-Fi settings, and configure from scratch (if needed), the Wi-Fi connection. (Add Wi-Fi connection). 

If you see the NetBridge tether Wi-Fi link in your available Wi-Fi networks, on your iPad Wi-Fi settings, (it (settings Wi-Fi available) acts as if you had turned on Wi-Fi tethering already), go ahead and connect to the NetBridge Wi-Fi connection. The NetBridge Wi-Fi connection will be named something similar to your Android device’s “Cast | mirror screen” setting to mirror an Android device’s screen to another host device. You can also change the name of this Direct Wi-Fi network in the Cast Screen Settings tab on your Android Device. 

5. 😅 I told you it’s simple stuff, right? But still, just a bit complicated, if you have no internet service on your mobile tech and lifestyle kit duo setup of an Android and iPadOS device internet service mainstays.

Okay.

The only thing left to do now, is configure the iPad’s direct Wi-Fi tethering settings to suit the settings offered in the Android device’s app’s instructions for you. I believe that the settings would be unique, compared from mine to yours, and I’m not really so fond of giving out my IP address information to an open public forum, for security reasons. 

But, to offer a nudge in the right direction, you’ll have to change the settings on the bottom two form fields of the iPad’s Wi-Fi connection settings (where you’re connected to the Android’s Wi-Fi advertised service). 

6. Done. That’s all.