What is this forum?

This is the Open Garden community forum. You can discuss the Open Garden app here. If you have a question or something doesn't work as you expect, please read this FAQ, and, if your question is not covered, post a thread. If you have something Open-Garden-related to discuss, please post, too. In particular, we would love to know how you are using Open Garden: what are you trying to do, how it works for you, what problems are you solving with Open Garden, etc.
If you have something related in topic to Open Garden (i.e. other peer-to-peer or crowdsourcing technologies) to post that could fuel a discussion in our community then please do!

What does Open Garden do?

Gives you Internet through mesh networking.

How is Open Garden different from tethering?

Besides the fact that Open Garden and tethering are technically almost completely unrelated, this is how you use tethering:
1. Get your phone out of your pocket.
2. Unlock screen.
3. Go to Settings.
4. Tap MORE...
5. Tap Tethering and personal hotspot.
6. Tap Enable personal hotspot.
7. Pay $20-30/month.
8. Open your laptop.
9. Select your hotspot's SSID from the list and join.
10. Use the Internet ← this is what you actually wanted
11. Unlock phone.
12. Turn personal hotspot off.
(If you forget to turn it off, your battery will be dead in less than two hours.)

Here is how you use Open Garden:
1. Open your laptop
2. Use the Internet

In other words, Open Garden, even if used just to provide connectivity to a laptop from a phone, removes all the silly boring steps that tethering has. Additionally, Open Garden can provide connectivity to the phone as well, plus version 2 of our app has implemented "channel bonding" (using multiple sources of connectivity together) and "multi-hop" (extending the range of Internet access through a daisy-chain of devices) features.

Where do I need to install Open Garden?

You need to install Open Garden on every device that will use it, whether to provide connectivity, consume it, or both. This includes Android phones, Android tablets, Windows PCs, and Macs. iPads, iPods, iPhones, and Linux are not currently supported.

I am stuck on the "Install Open Garden on your laptop" screen. What now?

Assuming you did install it on your laptop, just let it sit for a good while, like 30 minutes. Or hit Connect on both devices and wait two minutes. And obviously if it's not installed on your laptop/tablet, it will not work.
Gather as much info about your situation and post a new discussion (or find an existing similar discussion and add a comment) with details of your troubleshooting. This information should include but not be limited to: device type, model and operating system for all devices you are trying to use with Open Garden, the version of Open Garden on your devices, detailed steps to reproduce the issue and how this affects your device. Of course, the more detail the better... but don't be shy about posting basics. We will inquire for more info if need-be.

My devices used to connect, but now they don't. What do I do?

If the automatic connection doesn't seem to work for you, hit "Connect" on both devices to attempt a force connection.

We have seen reports of connectivity issues since version 2. If this is the case, gather as much info about your situation and post a new discussion (or find an existing similar discussion and add a comment) with details of your troubleshooting. This information should include but not be limited to: device type, model and operating system for all devices you are trying to use with Open Garden, the version of Open Garden on your devices, detailed steps to reproduce the issue and how this affects your device. Of course, the more detail the better... but don't be shy about posting basics. We will inquire for more info if need-be.

I am trying to use Open Garden to access the Internet from my laptop, which has no Internet connectivity at all. How do I get Open Garden onto it?

You will benefit from at least temporary Internet connectivity, perhaps in a library or cafe.
If you managed to get the Open Garden app to your laptop through USB stick or something similar, it should work but you'll need to connect these devices via traditional Bluetooth pairing first or have at least connected them in the past. You can check to see if the devices already "know" each other by checking in your Bluetooth settings.

Downloading it from our site and running the first connection attempt over existing network connectivity is the most reliable method.

Why do most apps on my Android tablet work OK through Open Garden, but some say there is no connectivity?

Short story: Try doing whatever you were trying to do through the browser. Also, help to draw Google's attention to the problem by hitting the star on the relevant Android issue.

Long story: You have Internet connectivity on the "client" tablet. Any app can call any normal network functions and they will work. Many apps do just that: they establish a connection and if that fails, give you an error.

Some apps, however, call a system function that basically checks whether Wi-Fi or 3G is on. If that function says there's "no network", the app doesn't even try connecting. This is generally pointless and not a good coding practice, but some apps, including Google Voice, have this check.

Since it's Google Voice doing the check, there's really not much that we can do to convince it to just try on Android. (A similar problem exists on the Mac, where we create a network interface that doesn't do anything to convince apps like this to try. Not possible on Android.)

We have alerted Google to this problem and they recognize that the network check function should return true when there is a VPN, but that is of little help to you in the short term, since the fix would come only in a future version of Android, after Jelly Bean.

Since Chrome doesn't have the problem, you could just load whatever you were trying to do as a web app.

Why am I having trouble receiving internet with my device that runs a version of Android older than ICS (4.0)?

At this time any Android before 4.0 (ICS, Ice Cream Sandwich) is limited to the use of mobile Firefox browser, so installing a mobile Firefox browser + the Open Garden FF addon will be necessary.

*Note this is only necessary for Android devices attempting to receive internet through Open Garden and NOT for primary Android devices sending out internet to share with others.

Open Garden is prompting to enable Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/location. How do I avoid doing that?

When the app asks for something, it really does need it. It would help us understand why you want the service turned off.