A beginner needs help with creating a wifi hotspot for HTC incredible

[July]

Hi. I need some help and unfortunately I'm a beginner and so I haven't understood most of the answers already posted on this site.

I have an HTC Incredible on a Verizon data plan. What I want to do is turn my phone into a wifi hotspot (so that my ipad and other wifi devices can connect to it). From what I've read, this is possible -- there's supposedly a free app called "Barnacle wifi tethering" that apparently can do it -- but the instructions say that the phone must first be "rooted", which I don't understand or know how to do. Even if I was able to root I still don't really understand the Barnacle instructions either.

As someone who is pretty confused by what this all means, is anyone able to help with REALLY simple, step-by-step instructions starting from the very beginning as to how to create the wifi hotspot? (As I said, I've tried reading the other threads on this but just don't really understand the answers very well.)

(Also, I don't know whether it matters, but I don't know if my HTC Incredible has the old operating system or if it's been updated to "Froyo" , nor do I know how to find out or whether it matters.)

Thanks for any help you can give me!
July

[dcook12]

Hi. I need some help and unfortunately I'm a beginner and so I haven't understood most of the answers already posted on this site.

I have an HTC Incredible on a Verizon data plan. What I want to do is turn my phone into a wifi hotspot (so that my ipad and other wifi devices can connect to it). From what I've read, this is possible -- there's supposedly a free app called "Barnacle wifi tethering" that apparently can do it -- but the instructions say that the phone must first be "rooted", which I don't understand or know how to do. Even if I was able to root I still don't really understand the Barnacle instructions either.

As someone who is pretty confused by what this all means, is anyone able to help with REALLY simple, step-by-step instructions starting from the very beginning as to how to create the wifi hotspot? (As I said, I've tried reading the other threads on this but just don't really understand the answers very well.)

(Also, I don't know whether it matters, but I don't know if my HTC Incredible has the old operating system or if it's been updated to "Froyo" , nor do I know how to find out or whether it matters.)

Thanks for any help you can give me!
July

That is a lot of questions and like you say rooting and tethering are two of the more common questions. They both take some work to do, but if you go to the Faq's section in this site, I have found the most helpful step by step instructions for these.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-faq/

[enlightened]

July, I recommend you come on over to HTC Incredible Forum where we have tons of sticky notes and tutorials to walk you through this. You're certainly not the first person to be confused by terminology, etc. but we can help you over the bump in the road and get you on the way to tethering in no time at all.

[July]

I appreciate your suggestions.