Accessing localhost of PC from USB connected Android mobile device

Question

I have an android device (Samsung galaxy tab) connected to my PC via USB .

I want to use WebServices and run a web page which is located on my local xampp server of my PC on my android device .

I can achieve it if I have both , my PC and android device , connected on the same wireless network .

However is it possible to access the localhost page without any wireless connection , using only USB connection .

(PS : This same scenario works when I run the app on an emulator and use the ip 10.0.2.2 to access the localhost on my PC)

Answer 1

Google posted a solution for this kind of problem here.

The steps:

• Connect your Android device and your development machine with USB debugging enabled
• Open Chrome in your development machine, open new tab, right click in the new browser tab, click inspect
• Click the three dots icon on right top side , -> More Tools, Remote Devices.
• Look at bottom of the screen, make sure your device name is appeared on the list with Green colored dot.
• Look below at the settings part, check the Port forwarding mark
• Add rule. Example, if your python web server is running on your machine localhost:5000 and you want to access it from your device port 3333, you type 3333 on the left part, and type localhost:5000, and click add rule.
• Voila, now you can access your web server from your device. Try open new browser tab, and visit http://localhost:3333 from your device

Answer 2

I finally solved this problem. I used Samsung Galaxy S with Froyo. The "port" below is the same port what you use for the emulator (10.0.2.2:port). What I did:

1. first connect your real device with the USB cable (make sure you can upload the app on your device)
2. get the IP address from the device you connect, which starts with 192.168.x.x:port
3. open the "Network and Sharing Center"
4. click on the "Local Area Connection" from the device and choose "Details"
5. copy the "IPv4 address" to your app and replace it like: http://192.168.x.x:port/test.php
6. upload your app (again) to your real device
7. go to properties and turn "USB tethering" on
8. run your application on the device

It should now work.