Gnirehtet – Reverse-tethering tool for Android

(gnirehtet author here) I guess that they use the same principles (though I can't check easily since it's proprietary). In that case, the main difference is that gnirehtet is free and open source software.

I could see the use case, even though it may be rare. I've had to hook up a mini WiFi router to my laptop before when I was on an wifi network where I only had a single "access code" for one device. http://pics.campl.us/f/f/f9eb5eb15d62836189e3176e9f93c7d8.jp...

Yeah, easily, over USB on a phone that isn't rooted.

Useful if you want to quickly and easily pipe all the traffic to and from your PC (or VM) for monitoring or intercepting, or need to get your phone online in a restricted environment. (Number of devices limited like a hotel, or wired-only environment or whatever.)

Since it is intended to be controlled from the computer only, there is fonctionally little benefit to install the client from another channel ("./gnirehtet rt" installs it if necessary).

It's the reverse of "tethering"... ;-)

Why not `rehtet` ?

Even "./rehtet rt" sounds better.