For something that simply works without any painful hacks, Android 2.2+ has a built-in WiFi hotspot feature. Turn it on and you've got a personal WiFi network

For something that simply works without any painful hacks, Android 2.2+ has a built-in WiFi hotspot feature. Turn it on and you've got a personal WiFi network that goes out to the world over your mobile's data connection. I've used it for about a year with no problems at all. If you're using the WiFi hotspot for a long time and you find you're running out of battery, you can just plug it in to your laptop to charge over USB.