iPhone 4s Hotspot

[hephillips]

Is anyone using the iPhone 4s as a Hotspot?

[dwill05]

I have. What do you want to know?

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

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hephillips wrote:

Is anyone using the iPhone 4s as a Hotspot?

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Yep.

1) add the hotspot option to your plan

2) turn on Hotspot in Settings->General->Network

Enjoy

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517

[coolrhyme]

Yes, jsut turn on the personal hotspot on the network settings

[hephillips]

Does it work good, any problems?

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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hephillips wrote:

Does it work good, any problems?

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that is a judgement call - with any cellular or wifi based connection your mileage may vary when it comes to connectivitiy. No carrier will promise 100 percent connectivity 100 percent of the time. Personally hotspot is a emergency on a last resort connection method, it is expensive and can be problematic. For normal web browsing it should be average but if your intent is to use it for fps or any form of gaming, you will be vey disappointed. To utilize hot spot you need the 5GB 50.00 a month data plan

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

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hephillips wrote:

Does it work good, any problems?

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It works as well as the data connection would have worked on your iPhone in the location the iPhone is sitting when you enable it. Your battery will drain at about 15% per hour, or about 6 hours total time, if the phone is not on AC power.

The normal latency you see on your iPhone will still be there when used as a hotspot.

The wifi range (if using wifi for the hotspot) is far less than with an actual wireless AP/Gateway, but sufficent to cover a large room.

If you were going to buy a dedicated wifi hotspot from AT&T, it will work as well as that.

[willsoriano]

I know this is an old post and i've always believed it to be this way but in practice I'm having issues. Using personal Hotspot, and then making calls at the same time. I thought that Att was the only company that allowed that. but every call i make i lose connection.

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

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willsoriano wrote:

I know this is an old post and i've always believed it to be this way but in practice I'm having issues. Using personal Hotspot, and then making calls at the same time. I thought that Att was the only company that allowed that. but every call i make i lose connection.

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Weird. Are you roaming? On Edge?

[cltroyano]

I just began using the hotspot a few days ago on my iPhone 4S. It worked great at first, but the last two days I have had a couple issues. I open one of my apps on the phone & within seconds, the app will close on me, both when I am connected to my laptop & using the hotspot, or not. Quite frustrating! Is this normal or is there a solution to this issue?

Thanks so much.

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

Well, ideally you would just not use the phone while its in hotspot mode, since you're asking a lot of it (in cpu and memory use) just to do the hotspot, and adding extra load from an app is not ideal.

That said, it should work. Mostly. If you really do want to do that, your best bet is to force close all unneeded background apps, or possibly even power off/on your phone - a full "slide to power off" power off - to free up as much memory/resources as possible before attempting to hotspot and run apps.

[cltroyano]

Thanks for your quick reply.  Yes, this is all new to me.  But for now, at my temporary home, using the hotspot to connect online has become my only option.  The other computers in the house work great with the home wifi, my laptop can connect to the wifi, but I still cannot get online.  This situation being only temporary (for another few weeks, hopefully), it is the Hotspot to the rescue.  

In using the Hotspot  for regular internet use, I have noticed my iPhone closes down quite quickly (previously addressed), the phone battery is drained quickly, but even when connected to my laptop for Hotspot connection & to charge, it takes forever to charge.  

Atleast it is temporary.  Any other hints, tips, tricks would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks so much!

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

If possible, use the AC charge cube to power your iPhone while in hotspot mode. There isn't as much power available via a PC USB port, so it may actually still drain the battery, or charge very slowly.

[cltroyano]

Thanks so much.  Yes, I did finally try to plug in somewhere other than directly to my laptop.  Much better solution than waking up to a dead phone or waiting forever for it to charge while connected.

Solved!

But, is there a way to use the hotspot while disconnected from the laptop & pluged into another outlet?  Hasn't seemed to work for me so far.   

Next mystery.

:-)

[johninsj ACE - Wizard]

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cltroyano wrote:

But, is there a way to use the hotspot while disconnected from the laptop & pluged into another outlet?  Hasn't seemed to work for me so far.   

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Wifi hotspot is the "unconnected" method of choice.

[cltroyano]

I can't seem to get a hotspot internet connection unless my phone is connected to my laptop.  (while the phone is using Wifi).  

Also, my iPhone used to sync quite easily with my Outlook 2010 on my laptop, but since using the hotspot, much later in the day it syncs, mysteriously.  Quite frustrating.