I do this all the time, in fact it's the only internet connection which I use at the moment. Obviously you need a very large (or unlimited) data plan to do this, but if you have access to that then it can provide you with substantial savings. Basically all you need to do is activate the hotspot feature on your smart phone (be sure to put a password on it!) and you can connect to the internet through your phone with any device capable of wifi connections. (other phones, tablets, computer) One connection, one bill to pay, internet for all the devices.
This isn't a bad idea for some people. My phone only gets 2G service where I live, so it's too slow to use as my everyday Internet connection. For those who have 4G, however, it really isn't a bad idea.
I use this feature on my phone at home too and find it works well considering I am on PAYG. I also let my partner share my data when he's has run out. It comes in quite handy it dies drain by battery tho.
It will definitely drain your battery. It won't so bad if you plug it in to your computer and charge it while you're doing it, though. By the way, what is PAYG?
I was doing this from time to time, when I was still under an unlimited plan with Verizon. But I still tried to keep it to a minimum, because it would drain my battery very quickly and even if I was near an outlet to plug everything in, it would cause my phone to get extremely hot after long periods of usage. I was worried this would permanently damage my phone. At the time, Verizon was trying to block people from being able to do this with apps from the Chrome store - so you had to buy their mobile hot spot instead, but I think this was later deemed to be illegal.
I wanted to do this when my husband and I were looking for the best choice of Internet connection at home but because he loves watching videos online, we needed a larger data that would not get the speed down so fast and also cheaper of course. I still occasionally use a mobile Internet but that is when we are away from home and we are somewhere where there is no WiFi available for free.
I'm with Virgin Mobile and I have to pay extra for this service. I tried some workarounds, but I couldn't do it. It seems that many people were using Virgin Mobile just for the hotspot capability and were abusing the unlimited data.
I have Virgin Mobile also, the phone I have does not have hotspot capabilites, I will be moving my service this month from VM because I need the unlimited hotspot. I don't like the way they dropped the speed down to nothing. A few times I needed to swipe a card for a sale and the phone was too weak to process the order.
Have you tried tethering the phones via a USB cable instead? Many of the carriers these days are placing limits on how much data you can use through the phone as a wireless hotspot, but they are offering "unlimited" data usage for the phone itself. I've read that there are some ways you can trick the phone into not letting the carrier know you are using it as a data connection for your laptop/desktop. One of the methods involved using a browser extension to change the User Agent of your browser to make it look like it's on a mobile device. Another method suggested using a VPN, which would hide that you weren't on a mobile device.
I use to do this months ago but the internet provider of my iphone will send message to me saying i am using more than what is required and that they will adjust my bandwidth which is something what will make us all slower. If you don't do torrent i guess it will be fine. How much clients in the network can it have by the way?
I've heard about people using this method, but I've never done it myself considering my mobile internet is incredibly low. Sure I could pay double what I do for my phone bill at the moment for unlimited internet and a decent phone, but it's not worth it in the long run.
We have that option on our phones but we don't use it. Our provider doesn't offer unlimited data so we stick to 2 GB per month and then when we are home, we connect to wi-fi through our cable provider. I am home 90% of the day so the only one really using the data plan is my husband and its not like he can use that much while at work.
I have used my smartphone as a hotspot in the past when I didn't have any other form of internet access available. It cost me quite a bit, but I didn't have any other option at the time. Most of the time it worked really well for me, even when I was talking with my family via video on Skype.
My phone hotspot is really the only internet connection I have at the moment. With my iphone jailbroken, I really do not need any specific tethering plan added. I am with a prepaid service that only offers me 3GB of 4G data a month and the rest is 2G, which is slow. Even with my internet slow most of the month, I still am able to use my phone's hotspot.
It works well technically for me. I have Verizon and an iPhone 5. I don't ever use it from home, though. I only have 2 gigs of data available per month. After that, the cost is $15 per gig in overage. Our internet bill is $39.95 for unlimited. Since it is football season and we only have one television, I do a lot of streaming these days. But, I used to live in a rural area where any internet service at all was extremely expensive and also unreliable. Using your phone as a hotspot would be a good alternative in that case.
After reading the title of the thread, I came here to gripe about it, but after reading the opening post, I've been converted. Wow, that does sound like a way that I could shave some money off the bills. Darn, I might have to give it a shot. How far do you have to be from the phone for it to work? And (this was my initial misgiving about the idea) what are we talking about here in terms of radiation or who-knows-what-waves? I'm already a little uneasy about being those little satellite-connected tumor generators 24/7.
I used to do this all the time when I had to suffer a month without internet connection when I made my move to a new house but to be honest it's not really that convenient still because I had to charge my phone by the hour, that hotspot feature drains your battery in no time. It is a rather cool way to have your bills on the leash and it will save you up a lot of money in the long run since you don't have to pay monthly for a separate internet connection and you don't have to deal with buying routers and all that stuff.
I only do this when I'm somewhere else, usually on a vacation. At home, it's better to have a cable Internet plan and use their router for stable, fast and more reliable connectivity. Using your phone as a WiFi hotspot will cause the battery to drain easily. Also data plans tend to be limited. You can't surf as much as you'd want to.
I had not considered the radiation risk, Trex78. I suppose, like everything else related to modern electronics, we are the guinea pigs for the long-term effects. Because of the amount of energy it requires to operate, I would imagine the portable hotspot is a riskier feature. Maybe, keeping it across the room when in portable hotspot mode is advisable.
