By Proxy

January 6, 2012 10:11 AM

Can you help me set up a universal proxy setting on the Galaxy Nexus (Ice Cream Sandwich)?

I am the proud owner of a new Galaxy Nexus. YAY!

But, oh no. The proxy. I am chained to my desk during the day, and our corporate network is only accessible via proxy. Obviously, I don't want to use my data plan when I've got faster and fine WiFi. This was not a problem for my iPhone 3G. I love my Nexus so far, but the lack of universal proxy is definitely most unpleasant. I am aware of the workarounds that allow me to use browsers, but I'm looking for a solution that applies to all my apps/widgets/etc. seamlessly. Is this too much to ask?

I've seen in forums (here) that this is a known issue. However, due to the volume of responses, I'm having trouble parsing what exactly I should do, especially since I've got Ice Cream Sandwich and a lot of the replies seem to cater to Gingerbread or Froyo. I don't know if that's a real issue. Yay fragmentation!

I suspect I will I need to root my phone. I'm totally comfortable doing so, and intended to do so anyway, having rooted and done extensive sweet modifications to my iPhone 3G, and realize I'll wipe my current settings. Can you point me to the tool you used with success (preferably not something with which you have no experience)?

I would also appreciate recs for awesome things I can do with my rooted Nexus. Things like Springboard/Winterboard, Cydia-ish thing -- I know nothing of the Android equivalents!

Thank you!

posted by jacobdezoet to Technology (6 answers total)

I don't know anything about proxies, but on your question "what can I do with my rooted Android phone?", everything is pretty much out there on the standard Android Market.
And rooting Android is not as much of a taboo as jailbreaking iOS is, so there's plentiful info out there.

Here's a recent article from Gizmodo about some of the things you can do with root.

With the Nexus you can already take screenshots (finally ICS lets you do this without root) and you don't have to worry about CarrierIQ, but the rest is useful information.
posted by jozxyqk at 10:39 AM on January 6, 2012

Best answer: When I looked into this during a recent trip, I found autoproxy. Disclaimer: I ended up not using it once I found a spot that had T-Mobile coverage.
posted by introp at 10:59 AM on January 6, 2012

Best answer: Oh, and as far as a tool for rooting Nexus, it (allegedly) couldn't be easier than this:
Wug's Galaxy Nexus root toolkit

But no, I haven't used this tool myself.

(If I get around to rooting my own Nexus, it's what I'll use, but I'm waiting until the official 4.0.3 update gets pushed out before I even think about root.)
posted by jozxyqk at 12:03 PM on January 6, 2012

I got my Nexus just before the new year and rooted it that day with this tutorial (and associated xda posting).

I have had no problems with it in the past week.

Here's some things I've been using it for (and think are pretty cool). Using titanium backup to automatically backup my app and system data and synching it to dropbox. Using keepass and dropbox to store all of my passwords in a master file that I can access from the phone as well as home and work computers. Using the remote control applications to control my roku at home. Using chrome to phone to send links from my browser to my phone so I don't have to retype them in. Everything except titanium backup, you can do with an unrooted phone though.
posted by kookywon at 12:29 PM on January 6, 2012

Response by poster: Thank you all. I'm unlocked/rooted and using Autoproxy to great advantage. Can't believe this required a root, but oh well!
posted by jacobdezoet at 8:38 PM on January 7, 2012

Response by poster: And btw, it was with the Wug tool. A little fiddling with device drivers required for the root, but otherwise super easy (not quite blackra1n but close!).
posted by jacobdezoet at 8:40 PM on January 7, 2012 [1 favorite]