# Wi-Fi From Cell Phone



## Springer (Dec 21, 2004)

Does anyone have the WI-FI option from their cell phone? Can a guy dump the internet at home an just use the phone for the internet for my laptop at home? I really only use it for email and surfing the net, my kids do play some ps3 online thought. Will this work?


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## Pikeguy (Oct 16, 2006)

Springer said:


> Does anyone have the WI-FI option from their cell phone? Can a guy dump the internet at home an just use the phone for the internet for my laptop at home? I really only use it for email and surfing the net, my kids do play some ps3 online thought. Will this work?


I have Wi-Fi on my phone, but it works the other way around. It picks up my home based internet on my cell phone, allowing to surf on my phone at faster speeds.

If you're talking about a wireless card to get internet through your cell phone connection...you better have pretty great cell reception.


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

Your thinking of two different things. Pikeguy, he is talking about using his phone as a wireless hotspot, your talking about using wifi on your phone.

However, mines is a useless post as well as I have not used my phone for that purpose. I do however have a pretty good feeling that your are going to run into issues trying to run the ps3 at an acceptable level through your phone.


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## Pikeguy (Oct 16, 2006)

870 XPRS said:


> Your thinking of two different things. Pikeguy, he is talking about using his phone as a wireless hotspot, your talking about using wifi on your phone.
> 
> However, mines is a useless post as well as I have not used my phone for that purpose. I do however have a pretty good feeling that your are going to run into issues trying to run the ps3 at an acceptable level through your phone.


Right, that's what I was getting at with the second part of my post. And, I agree, anything higher than email type activity with the phone's internet is probably going to be unsatisfactory..especially for the kids


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## GSPMIKE (May 28, 2010)

Not to mention some of the carriers charge dearly for an unlimited data usage plan.


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## Springer (Dec 21, 2004)

Yea I meant the Wi-Fi Hotspot, Verizon charges a $20/month fee for this. I really didn't figure it would work for the kids gaming,
But as far as just useing the internet?


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## walleyeguy13 (Jul 27, 2010)

I wouldn't do it Springer.

A couple of things just to be sure we are talking about the same things... If your phone is like mine, you have two options; 1. You can use your cellular service to connect to the internet, or 2. You can use the wifi radio in your phone to pick up a signal from any nearby wireless access point to surf the internet. Part 2 requires that you already have regular internet access and an existing wireless access point at home.

If you want to turn your phone into a wireless access point (or hot spot), you will probably need some extras depending upon the type of phone you have. Regardless, it means that your phone connects to the internet through your cell service, and then your laptop can piggyback on that by connecting to the wifi radio on your phone. So your laptop will only be able to surf as fast as the cell network will allow. This can be a pretty touchy, and pretty slow connection. Latency is the enemy of most internet applications and this sort of connection is fraught with latency.

If the internet is used with any regularity, I'm guessing you and your family would not be satisfied with the quality of the connection. A 3G connection typically provides download speeds that are about 1/20th the speed of a fairly standard household internet connection. Upload speeds are even worse.

Some cell providers offer those little broadband devices that you can plug in to your laptop to directly access the internet via their cell network, but you pay a monthly fee for those that probably surpasses what you would pay for your internet at home.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2010)

Where I live either I use my phone as a hot spot or we use a wireless card (also cell phone technology).We will be canceling the wireless card as soon as the contract is up. We don't have DSL or cable internet available in my area. As far as speed for surfing no issues at all. I have Verizon and have 1-2 bars of 3G coverage sometimes no bars and still have 54 MBPS which is as fast as some DSL's that I use while traveling and staying in hotels.

Downloads can take a while and on my Droid HTC Incredible and my wifes Palm Pre you can't talk on your phone and use the internet. Other than that I love it and we save a buunch of money. No extra equipment is needed with our laptops or phones.

One other nice thing is I can use the internet on my computer out on the road too.


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## striped1 (Aug 17, 2005)

I use a windows smartphone on verizon net work. I can use it as a hotspot for multiple computers at same time. It burns battery, but it works very well. The Mifi that verizon sells is good for normal web - not heavy game play. It works well. use it plugged in though as it will use battery.


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## makin it rain (Apr 2, 2009)

LabGuy what are you running for an App to get your wireless remotley?


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## knutson24 (Feb 16, 2009)

If you are using a blackberry I would suggest downloading the app tetherberry. I know verizon charges extra to use your phone as a modem but with tether berry it uses the same internet that is included in the blackberry plan and you just connect your phone using your phones USB cord. Tether berry has a one time activation/ download fee of 49.99. I have used tether berry and the modem service through verizon and couldn't tell a difference between speeds. Your not going to download large items very fast but it is about as fast as some DSL's. Plus tether berry is cheaper in the long run.

knutson


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## Guest (Oct 27, 2010)

I have a HTC Incredible that has a 3G hotspot program that allows me to use my phone as a hot spot. I surf the web and email useing Outlook and it is sweet. I am not a gamer and don't down load a bunch either.


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## eliminator (Sep 18, 2007)

I have altell for a provider and when I am traveling in the winter, I use my blackberry connected to my laptop and use the internet. I have not had a problem doing this---anywhere I have cell coverage it works and traveling around the country, I haven't found where it didn't work. I am not a gamer but surfing the net and email etc it is fine and has good speed. I believe their fee is about 25-30 a month for this and they furnish you the software also.


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## knutson24 (Feb 16, 2009)

eliminator said:


> I have altell for a provider and when I am traveling in the winter, I use my blackberry connected to my laptop and use the internet. I have not had a problem doing this---anywhere I have cell coverage it works and traveling around the country, I haven't found where it didn't work. I am not a gamer but surfing the net and email etc it is fine and has good speed. I believe their fee is about 25-30 a month for this and they furnish you the software also.


This is the same way tether berry works accept its only a one time payment and works equally well.


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## dogdonthunt (Nov 10, 2005)

heres what I did... and am doing as I write this... pdanet.com... I have the first droid... I downloaded the app on my phone and found a temp wifi spot to download it on my computer.... pretty straight forward... no lag time... no extra fees... however there is a fee after so long but you can keep getting it for free but just cant use any secure sites... so far so good.. hope this helps


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