Using a cell phone as a wifi router

[Windwalker55]

I just discovered that you can pay a monthly fee and some of the newer cell phones will act as a wifi receiver/router. As long as you have cell phone coverage you can get internet. Does anyone do this? How does it work?

[srt20]

nazpaz wrote:

srt20 wrote:
It is not illegal and never has been illegal to use a tethering app such as PDANET, regardless of if you have/had an unlimited plan or capped plan. You cannot get into trouble with the law, no tickets, no probation, no jail time.

What Verizon COULD do is rip up your contract and kick you out. They might also try charging you more money.
Though I have never ever heard of any person ever getting the boot. I have heard of VZW sending out a text message warning. But even that was second hand heresay.

At first I thought you were wrong but now I get your point. A person on a grandfathered plan who is tethering might be breaking their TOS but they aren't in danger of having the police knock at their door.

Good point.

For those who are interested, here's the grandfathered unlimited data/no tethering information as is reported by Zdnet.

Pretty good link. The only thing they are somewhat coy about is the throttling sentence. They lead you to believe that 4G can and is being throttled. Which clearly isn't the case. And following their own link about throttling shows that 3G is the only service with VZW that can be throttled.
Just wanted to clear that up, because there are so many people that aren't exactly clear on what issues or non issues there are with tethering on a VZW phone.

In the end, unless a person has unlimited data, which can only be had in a real roundabout way and a big pain in the rear, none of this really matter to a new subscriber.
New subscribers will be on a capped data plan, and included on those plans is free tethering, as required by the FCC.

[nazpaz]

srt20 wrote:
It is not illegal and never has been illegal to use a tethering app such as PDANET, regardless of if you have/had an unlimited plan or capped plan. You cannot get into trouble with the law, no tickets, no probation, no jail time.

What Verizon COULD do is rip up your contract and kick you out. They might also try charging you more money.
Though I have never ever heard of any person ever getting the boot. I have heard of VZW sending out a text message warning. But even that was second hand heresay.

At first I thought you were wrong but now I get your point. A person on a grandfathered plan who is tethering might be breaking their TOS but they aren't in danger of having the police knock at their door.

Good point.

For those who are interested, here's the grandfathered unlimited data/no tethering information as is reported by Zdnet.

[Hank_MI]

1775 wrote:

skipnchar wrote:
T Mobile offers this service as WELL as WIFI calling at no additional charge. You simply turn on the mobile hot spot service and the device you're wanting to use with the phone scans for available WIFI and you just sign on with your password. With WIFI calling, you just turn on WIFI and select allow WIFI calling and with some phones also select WIFI as the default calling method.

That very much depends on your TMobile Plan. I do not get free Wifi calling - it uses my minutes and I am not on an unlimited minutes plan - and if I tether through TMobile they want $15 a month.

The latest T-Mobile plans include tethering, no charge, regardless of how many gigabytes you signed up for. We do not have an annual contract. It's cheaper to go no contract. Contract plan, you're paying for a new phone even if you don't upgrade. No contract, you pay for the phone when you upgrade. I ran all the numbers, no contract is cheaper even when you do upgrade your phone.

Wifi calling was always free for us, when we had a contract and now with no contract. We've never had unlimited minutes. Don't see how they can charge you for not using their networks. Not sure how they could even tell when you're Wifi calling since you're disconnected from their network when Wifi calling is on.

[magicbus]

I had my AT&T hot spot on 8 hours a day all week supporting 3 laptops from my Android phone. They give me an app to do that. We do this regularly when traveling to allow us to work on the road (well technically water). I use bluetooth headset for simultaneous voice calls.

Dave

[srt20]

It is not illegal and never has been illegal to use a tethering app such as PDANET, regardless of if you have/had an unlimited plan or capped plan. You cannot get into trouble with the law, no tickets, no probation, no jail time.

What Verizon COULD do is rip up your contract and kick you out. They might also try charging you more money.
Though I have never ever heard of any person ever getting the boot. I have heard of VZW sending out a text message warning. But even that was second hand heresay.

I have been using either PDANET or a rooted app for wifi hotspot on my phones for 4 years or so. My phone is my only source of Internet and I use ~20GB of data a month. I am unlimited plan.
Also, I can use BOTH voice calling and the phones wifi hotspot at the same time.
My hotspot is secure. Though if somebody really really wanted to hop on my hotspot, it wouldn't be real hard to figure out my password. But my phone give a notification sound when another device connects to it. So I know the exact second before you actually get to use my data.
Verizon, as part of the FCC deal, also cannot throttle any 4G service either. Even unlimited plans. They still can throttle 3G service if you are among the top 5% data usage per tower. Now if you are using that much data, I highly doubt you would be on 3G service yet. You would have to be an extremely patient person.
Anyway, unless you need the 20GB plan from millenicon, there is nothing wrong with using your phone as a hotspot. If your phone data doesn't get service, neither will a verizon Mifi.

[1775]

skipnchar wrote:
T Mobile offers this service as WELL as WIFI calling at no additional charge. You simply turn on the mobile hot spot service and the device you're wanting to use with the phone scans for available WIFI and you just sign on with your password. With WIFI calling, you just turn on WIFI and select allow WIFI calling and with some phones also select WIFI as the default calling method.

That very much depends on your TMobile Plan. I do not get free Wifi calling - it uses my minutes and I am not on an unlimited minutes plan - and if I tether through TMobile they want $15 a month.

[MrWizard]

to Elaborate
to use WiFi phone calls aka VOIP
you must be near a wifi access point, McDonalds, coffee shop, pandera, campground wifi ... etc, home cable/dsl wifi router

[skipnchar]

T Mobile offers this service as WELL as WIFI calling at no additional charge. You simply turn on the mobile hot spot service and the device you're wanting to use with the phone scans for available WIFI and you just sign on with your password. With WIFI calling, you just turn on WIFI and select allow WIFI calling and with some phones also select WIFI as the default calling method.

[nazpaz]

Keith Haw wrote:

It is legal to use PDAnet. FCC slapped Verizon for not allowing customers to use tethering. Here's a like that can explain it a lot better than I can. If you Google it you'll find several other sites that tell you the same thing. Best I remember Verizon got hit with something like a $1.25m fine for blocking it.

PDAnet on Verizon

Keith - you are right unless a person has the grandfathered unlimited plan. The FCC ruling impacted only those who had data limits - the ruling was that if you were paying for data you could access it by tethering or otherwise. Those with grandfathered unlimited plans weren't included. However, Verizon still offers the old tethering add on to grandfathered customers at $30 a month.

Many with grandfathered plans are using apps and just going ahead and tethering. I've heard stories about people being "caught" and stripped of their unlimited data plans however I've never seen anyone say it happened to them.

I pay the $30 probably for the same reason RoyB does. It's just the way I roll.

[1775]

Windwalker55 wrote:
Good information. I appreciate the input.

I'm kind of tech ignorant. Can I check on my phone to see how much data I have used? I have an android phone.

This will come from your cell provider. Some cell providers put an app on their phones that will tell you how much data you have used in a month. You can always call the carrier about your account and ask.

Keep in mind that a laptop uses a lot more data when browsing webpages than the cell browser will use. And streaming movies, etc. will use an excessive amount of data - about 1 GB per hour. So unless you have truly unlimited data - and few companies provide this even though they say they do - be very careful about what you do on the laptop once connected to your phone.

[wa8yxm]

Many of us do it, I do it minus the monthly fee (Tethering/hotspotting is part of my data plan).

WOrks great.. now I'm not with Verizon which just got a #1 consumer rating again (Considering their cuss-some-more non-service department I fail to understand how that happened. but they do have the best coverage) I'm with a lesser light. but ....

Where I am THIS week .. Good park Wi-Fi

Where I am 2 weeks from now.. NO park Wi-Fi.. GOOD 4G.

It works very well.. I can link both my computers and my tablet to it.. I have never tried linking my printer to it though, IF i need to print I switch back to the "house router" (Easier than programming a 2nd WI-Fi password into the printer)

[Hank_MI]

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
...Then almost certainly, you have an aluminum structure of wall studs and supports. Even though aluminum isn't a good conductive metal - the wiring for your rig and the AC creates a electrically grounded 'box'.

Aluminum is a great conductor of electricity. Used in most power company transmission lines. No longer allowed for home because it corrodes at the connections, causing hot spots and potentially a fire.

I use the tethering built in to our T-Mobile phones, don't need any apps, works good. WiFi sharing will run down the phone battery quickly. If you can use a UBS cable between PC and phone you can turn off WiFi on both and both batteries will last longer.

[Keith_Haw]

RoyB wrote:
I wanted to use the PDANET application as well a few years back but found out this was not legal to use on my VERIZON DROID cellphone. How did I know this - I asked VERIZON to install it for me.

Further research I found alot of folks are using the PDANET application but seemingly at their own risk. Most folks went with the idea if they did not use alot of DATA they would not be flagged and therefore get away with using something illegal running from their cellphone account....

I am not wanting to use things that are not legal just to save a couple of bucks or get away with something... Just not my nature...

After hearing all of this and with the thought in mind to be as legal as one can be I ended up going with the VERIZON MIFI plan and accomplished the same thing at a modest monthly cost which was a 3GB dataplan for $27 a month. I have been grandfathered using this plan ever since... I think the cheapest Verizon dataplan available now is a 5GB Dataplan for around $60 a month. The MIFI plan shows up on my cellphone account as another CELLPHONE with its own cell phone number assigned.

The VERIZON MIFI plan was just what we needed to have as it allows up to five devices to be connected to the internet at the same time. This does not interfere or require the use of our CELLPHONE to use the internet.

The 3GB dataplan works very well for us for all of the things we want to do with checking emails, paying bills on-line and some surfing the internet. The MIFI plan coupled with the WILSON Cradle as a docking station gives us a nice secured WIFI HOTSPOT signal around our RV Setup just about anywhere we go in the US. If more serious down-streaming of data for movies and HDTV signals is desired etc we would upgrade to the Millenicom 20GB dataplan for around $70 a month which uses the Verizon network.

At home the MIFI plan is a great PLAN B for when the cellphone service has been disrupted for some reason. Logs right into the internet and continues to work for you...

This was a few years back so I don't know if it is legal to use PDANET application now or not. I suspect it still remains NOT LEGAL to use on the Verizon network Cellphones.

Just my thoughts

Roy Ken

It is legal to use PDAnet. FCC slapped Verizon for not allowing customers to use tethering. Here's a like that can explain it a lot better than I can. If you Google it you'll find several other sites that tell you the same thing. Best I remember Verizon got hit with something like a $1.25m fine for blocking it.

PDAnet on Verizon

[atodalen]

For those that think that you need to pay Verizon to be able to use your phone for wi-fi access, that is no longer true. In July of last year Verizon was required to pay a large fine to the FCC for blocking the free tethering apps. They can no longer require you to pay for tethering using the free apps like PdaNet, however they may still offer their own app at a price in the event that you'd like to pay them for the privilege. Here's an article that explains the tethering agreement between Verizon and the FCC. clicky
I use the full version of FoxFi/PdaNet+ app myself and am happy with it. ymmv
Al