Using phone as a WiFi Hotspot?

[labdogs42]

If I have a phone that I can use as a wi-fi hotspot, do I still need my cable modem? Any idea if it would be cheaper to do something ike this? Or is the 3G/4G connection way slower than my home cable internet? It just occurred to me that this might be an option, so I haven't really researched the numbers. I thought someone here might already have explored the options! Any thoughts?

 

[pintamino]

I wouldn't consider it to be a replacement for a couple reasons.

1) yes, 3G is probably going to be slower than your home connection. I don't have experience with 4G.

2) There's an extra fee to tether your phone, I believe it's about $20 for most carriers.

3) along with your tethering fee, you will have a severely limited amount of data. I think for verizon you get 2gb tethered for the $20, and you do still have to pay the $30 data fee on your phone. Unless you're only checking email, 2gb doesn't get most internet users very far on a computer/laptop.

You could always try it for the month. I have friends who use it to work and travel mobile, but wouldn't consider it a replacement for a hard line/wifi attached to a hard line. HTH.

 

[Marionnette]

If I have a phone that I can use as a wi-fi hotspot, do I still need my cable modem? Any idea if it would be cheaper to do something ike this? Or is the 3G/4G connection way slower than my home cable internet? It just occurred to me that this might be an option, so I haven't really researched the numbers. I thought someone here might already have explored the options! Any thoughts?

There are ways to tether a device to your cell phone. I don't know how to do it but my too-tech-savvy son did it with his iphone and his ipad. I don't think that he needed to physically connect the two. There was some sort of app that could be used on a jailbroken phone to work it out.

For most data plans, doing this would not make sense because you are limited to the amount you can use each month without jacking up the price too high. My son has had an iphone data plan from the early days of iphones so he has unlimited data for $30/month. For him, it would make financial sense to use the phone for internet access. But tethering another device to it is not supported by Apple and I made him reset his phone to factory settings to remove the jailbreak. He now pays another $25/month for his ipad data plan.

 

[Dell]

If your cell phone has the capability of creating a wi-fi hotspot, (usually at a cost from the provider) then you would be able to share your phones internet connection with others -ie; laptops with wireless card, other smart phones etc. As long as the other device has wireless that is all you need. Just make sure you set up security on your wi-fi connections.
3g/4g will probably be slower than the average cable connection you have at home, but if your signal is strong enough, then it should provide an decent internet connection for general browsing - email type stuff. Movie watching ??? large downloading ??? probably not so good.

Also, watch out if your provider has caps (limits) on the amount of data you can get in a month.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

I use the $20 Verizon plan to hot spot my Samsung Fascinate to my iPad. It works well for me. I'm usually using the wireless Internet at home or work, so I don't need a high usage plan.

It so easy to use. Just hit the app on my phone.. Open settings on my iPad .. And pick my phone from the list.

You can add it and take the feature off from your phone plan any time you want. I'm glad I tried it.

 

[SarahKate]

For the iPhone, I think it's around $20/month. But it's not month to month, it will mean you're locked in for the rest of your contract period. I verified this with a guy at the Apple Store.

I know there are some programs out there that allow you to do it cheaper, but I think you have to jailbreak your phone.

Personally, we'll just pay to have FAST and reliable service through Comcast. It's worth it for us.

 

[labdogs42]

Yeah, it probably wouldn't work, but girl can dream, can't she? I saw an app for my Droid that made me think this might work. Also don't have to jailbreak to use it. I have unlimited data on my T-mobile plan.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I use my iphone as a personal hotspot- I have the 4gb tethering plan and use it mainly for my wifi ipad. Works very well.

 

[kristenrice]

Try tether.com or look for the Tether app in the android market. They have a 7-day free trial and then it is a one-time fee of $30 if you choose to keep it. It is not a wireless connection, but if you only want to use your phone as a modem for your laptop and you have unlimited data, it is a great deal.

I bought it for my Samsung Epic and I love it. We recently drove from Michigan to South Carolina and I was able to get online with my laptop using my phone's internet connection. There was no problem with losing service or connection. It was 3G the whole way (even though my phone has 4G access, the areas that actually have 4G are still quite limited) but for basic internet browsing, it was hardly noticable. It is not quite as fast as broadband, but not nearly as slow as dial-up. The best part is that once you buy it, it's yours. You do not have to pay any sort of monthly fee.

 

[labdogs42]

Try tether.com or look for the Tether app in the android market. They have a 7-day free trial and then it is a one-time fee of $30 if you choose to keep it. It is not a wireless connection, but if you only want to use your phone as a modem for your laptop and you have unlimited data, it is a great deal.

I bought it for my Samsung Epic and I love it. We recently drove from Michigan to South Carolina and I was able to get online with my laptop using my phone's internet connection. There was no problem with losing service or connection. It was 3G the whole way (even though my phone has 4G access, the areas that actually have 4G are still quite limited) but for basic internet browsing, it was hardly noticable. It is not quite as fast as broadband, but not nearly as slow as dial-up. The best part is that once you buy it, it's yours. You do not have to pay any sort of monthly fee.

That's cool. I saw an app on the Amazon marketplace that sounded similar for $9.99. People were saying it worked great and then other people were saying it was too expensive when you could do the same thing for free. I thought $10 sounded like a great deal for it!

 

[Zephyr]

I've got my HTC Hero rooted and am able to have it be a wi-fi hot spot without an extra charge. It has come in very handy when going on long trips in the car. My son is able to connect his iPod to it and download apps.

It is slower than my home wi-fi, but it is still good.

 

[labdogs42]

I've got my HTC Hero rooted and am able to have it be a wi-fi hot spot without an extra charge. It has come in very handy when going on long trips in the car. My son is able to connect his iPod to it and download apps.

It is slower than my home wi-fi, but it is still good.

Is rooted different than jailbroken? I don't actually know what either of those terms mean, but I keep hearing them in reference to this.

 

[HotDiggityDog]

If you have an Andriod phone you can tether for free using the PDANet App. The only thing you can't do with the free app is access secure (https) sites, but if you need to do this you can upgrade for a small fee. I have used it for business trips many times to avoid the $9.99 hotel surcharges for internet. Using your phone for internet is going to be slower than your cable/dsl at home, but it is workable for doing simple internet surfing.

 

[SandrA9810]

Sprint used to have free Wi-Fi hotspot app on the phone. I remember it being one of their big commercials a couple years ago. All the guys headed to work in a carpool on various wifi devices all surfing from the one hotspot.

But with a recent update to the phone, it's killed the hotspot. Various sites says Sprint is going to charge $40 a month to use it, others say it was a mistake in the update and they're going to fix it, and it will stay free. I use my old smart phone for wi-fi spots to have something to do and it's much easier to use my phone than his touch screen phone (I hate it).

As for speeds, it's not that great, and wouldn't get you far for home browsing. When you use a mobile browser, most sites go to their mobile version which is usually a much smaller web page.

 

[KigerKat]

DH had a Droid phone, but his is a little special since he works for Motorola and they put it on his phone for free. He has the ability to make his phone a mobile hotspot, and it works great! We were doing a scavenger hunt a couple of weeks ago and I was using my netbook in the car to look things up while he was driving. The connection was great! The only downside is that is really drains his phone battery, so I wouldn't do it unless you have someplace where you can charge your phone.

We plan on doing this at Pop next month, because we are way too cheap to pay $10/day for internet use in our room.

 

[Melynny]

I used to use my old palm centro as for tethering.. it worked ok. Now I use a ATT Mifi, which is a mobile hotspot 3G. I use this as my only internet source. I use it at home for my 2 laptops, wireless printer and to stream netflix to our Samsung TV, wirelessly. We also have an RV on a lot in a remote area, there is no wired internet there, so I take my hotspot with me there and use it just like home.

I can say that I don't notice any difference in the speed, it's quick enough for Netflix and works great in the car too. I'd really hate to have to pay for 2 internet services, this works great!