Getting confused by rooting and enabling wifi tethering

Question

I'm trying to activate wifi tethering on my (verizon) Samsung Galaxy S4 mini through rooting. I'm getting a bit confused by the myriad ways to do this that I'm reading about on the web.

Could somebody help clarify the choices for me?

Here are some of my specific questions:

1) To the best of my understanding the process of enabling the wifi tethering begins with rooting your phone then enabling the "Mobile Hotspot" setting (under "Settings>Connections>More networks>Wireless and networks"). Then just installing a tethering app e.g. FoxFi, PdaNet, 1-Click-Tether etc, etc. Is this correct?

2) Is that all there is to it or is there more. For example, I've encountered a lot of posts talking about needing to flash a custom ROM for this. I understood that the purpose is so that you don't mess with your stock ROM so that you don't void the phone's warranty. But to flash a new ROM don't you also need to root your phone thus mess with your stock ROM?

Thanks much for any help.

Answer 1

1. If you have the Settings > Wireless and networks > More > Tethering and portable hotspot menu item (which is present from Android 2.2 onwards, so I assume you do, since your phone ships with 4.2), you do not have to root your device to turn on tethering. Just use that menu and WiFi tethering will work. Those apps are for phones with earlier versions of Android which did not have this menu item.
2. Your phone only has one ROM on it at a time. If you modify or replace it, your warranty is gone. It makes no sense to "flash a custom ROM to avoid messing with the stock ROM and thus preserve the warranty", because by flashing a custom ROM you erase the factory one. (There MAY be highly dangerous procedures which restore the device to a state that the former modification is undetectable, but you could assume that if you do anything that involves flashing or rooting, you void your warranty.)