Smart Phone Tethering

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Retired CSIGuy

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Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Posts
101
Location
Madison South Dakota
Anyone out there tether your smart phone to your computer, as oppsed to using a USB antenna?  USB antenna service is about 60 bucks a month with AT&T.  Tethering is only 20 bucks a month....wondering how good it works.  Thx
 
You should get the same speeds that you get when you use your smartphone to browse the internet.

With my service provider, tethering is considered different then using the internet with the phone as far as billing is concerned, ie it costs more.  Just make sure that the 20$ a month gives you what you want.
 
Tether?  NO!  My smart phone has a wi-fi app that turns it into a mobile hit spot.  I can run up to five items from it.  Speed is just find for general web surfing.  Plus there are no other things to drag around with me and lose.
 
When I bought my BlackBerry a year and a half ago, I found the same thing; that it was cheaper to tether than pay for the internet card & and the phone service. I used Bluetooth to connect the notebook and smartphone for over a year, and experienced a problem that wouldn't allow me to connect.

Went to Verizon, and the techs set it up so my BB and Mac connected via data cable, which more than doubled the connection speed. You may find that the case with your setup too.

Another thing, when using my BB as a modem, it draws laptop battery power down about twice as fast as when using WiFi.
 
With the DROID from Verizon I use an app called PDANet that is free.  It allows me to tether my laptop to the phone for internet access.  It also keeps the phone charged.  Pay version allows Secured site access.
 
I too use PdaNet for my Android phone, it works very well.  Sooner or later you'll need to access a secured site so go ahead and purchase the full version, it's worth it!
 
Mike how did you do the wireless tether?  What operating version and what model is your droid or did you "customize" it.  All I found for the newer version was it had to be 'hacked' to be a hot spot.  I would like to do this for my wike to connect through at times.
 
I have a Droid. Go to a app called June Fabrics. It is easier to down load it to your laptop and then your Smart phone. There is a small fee for the full version. Once downloaded it will show up as PDNET. They have a version for most smart phones. Be aware that the big 3 phone companies will charge you if the notice large amounts of bandwidth data being used.

It works well just not super fast although my phone is several years old.
 
I have my Droid rooted.
By the way rooted is like you go to the Ford dealer and buy a new Mustang and get a few friends in it and you kick it and it runs 45 mph down the road and you only have 2 radio stations, one of your friends ask whats wrong. you tell them nothing but that is the way the dealer wanted it to run. So you get out and take a Governor off and then it runs the way Ford built it to run. But you voided the warranty when you did it. Now my Droid runs the way Motorola built it to. But I did void the warranty bu doing so.
 
Read the fine print on your phone service - while Verizon may not "notice" unpaid tethering, if they ever decide to, they can bill you back for tethering charges and data overage charges. I would rather pay up front for the service than to get an unexpected bill for a couple thousand dollars... Without tethering their dataplan for the driod is "unlimited", so no overage charges, with tethering you are "limited" to 2GB.
 
First post, so forgive me if I violate any RV forum netiquette.

I work on the Internet for a living, so I have a lot of stuff pertaining to that and have done a ton of research on it.  I currently run a pretty sophisticated setup, with two different wireless carrier cards (one AT&T unlimited Express Card, one Verizon USB) connected at various times to a laptop or two, phones, iPad, occasionally even a server, and a Cradlepoint router which I can use as a standard wireless router for about as many devices as I want to run (phones, iPad, laptops, even desktops).  I also have a DroidX that I sometimes tether using PDAnet (paid version - its worth it). 

I use A LOT of bandwidth when I can.  Some months, with everything working, I find I can use upwards of 20GB/month, and I don't even belong to netflix ;)  I really like having two providers, and that my ATT contract was written before limits.  I'm hopeful I can keep it that way. 

Anyhow - I personally use my phone on a tether as a backup modem, or for when I'm on the go and don't want to carry a card.  When I'm running out of my 5GB/mo on my USB and need the connectivity that Verizon supplies in that spot, its a good option.  I've found that using a backdoor app such as PDAnet works pretty well, and if I were just surfing or checking mail periodically, I'd think that it'd be enough all the time.  I agree with the above thoughts on going ahead and spending the extra to unlock the secure sites - you have no idea how much is 'secure' until you can't get to it (Yahoo messenger, several news subscriptions, any banking/credit/etc. site).  I've used upwards of 4GB/mo on my tether, but I try not to go crazy with it.  I wouldn't download any large programs, or do netflix or play poker or such because I don't want to show up on the radar of the phone company and get limited.  I usually run into town and find a wifi hotspot for that (Starbucks, McDonald's, etc.  My favorite on my last stop was the supermarket - 3Gb/sec for free).  I'd download the big files and then take them home.

As far as hotspoting the phone from Verizon - they want to charge too much and place too may limits for my taste, so I didn't even consider it.  I like my Cradlepoint for that.  As far as jailbreaking or cracking my phone, I'm not excited about that either, though I know a lot of people do it.  Kudos to them, but I like my warranty, I like knowing what will work and how without having to tinker.  Its an option for sure, just not one I use.

For me, the bottom line is: Tethering a phone using one of a variety of programs is very worthwhile, but don't try to push too many envelopes.  There are plenty of articles about this via google, and all that I've read say pretty much the same thing - if you're doing it as a regular user without a heavy bandwidth need, or a RIGHT NOW speed attitude, it will work for you.  If you're the other type of user, its probably worthwhile to find a different way.
 
When I bought my Droid 2 (verizon) in Sept the first app that was a listed on the preloaded apps was "3G mobile Hotspot" I didnt have to download anything.  It is also on the home screen where you turn on airplane mode as a icon in the corner.
 
Bobtop46 said:
When I bought my Droid 2 (verizon) in Sept the first app that was a listed on the preloaded apps was "3G mobile Hotspot" I didnt have to download anything.  It is also on the home screen where you turn on airplane mode as a icon in the corner.
My Droid X has this app also preloaded.  To use it I have to pay $20 per month.  I rarely use PDAnet paid version, but I normally use a Verizon air card for internet on the coach.
 
If you activate the preloaded hotspot app, you will be billed $20/month for a maximum of 2GB of data and $20/GB over that amount.
 
Retired CSIGuy said:
Anyone out there tether your smart phone to your computer, as oppsed to using a USB antenna?  USB antenna service is about 60 bucks a month with AT&T.  Tethering is only 20 bucks a month....wondering how good it works.  Thx
Actually you can download an app called easy tether, $10 for the full version which allows you to go on to secure websites, this is all we use right now....
 
I am looking for a new way to connect when traveling.  Right now I have an old LG flip phone ( told you it was old LOL)  I use a tethering cable to connect to Verizon broadband, which I pay extra for.  When I went to Verizon a few months ago nobody there could tell me exactly what I needed to get or do to connect using phone/laptop so I went on ebay and just bought the same phone (old one broke) for $35. new.  It works but it is costing me an extra $49 a month for the broadband.  I would love to get this charge down.  Oh and I can have the broadband turned off when we are at home and I don't need it.  I'm not sure if I should just stick with what I have right now or look for something else. 

I appreciate any information and suggestions from everyone.

JoAnn
 
Well,  With smart phones if they find you are "Tethering" they ding you for the bucks sme as they do now..  There are some aps for smart phones that allow tethering, I believe via Blue Tooth, that "hide" the fact from the provider,, PDA-NET I'm told is one.

But of course, the providers re always trying to figure out how to see through that and ding you.

Also, read the fine print on any telelphone contract.. Just what does "Unlimited" mean?
 
I was using PdaNat  until AT&T noticed all my data usage that wasn't being charged. They pretty much forced me to use there tethering service at $45 a month for 4 gigs of data.
Luckily most MH parks have free wyfy so I only use the tethering when the wyfy isn't available.
 
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