OK, my internet computer gurus, how do I make a smart phone into a wifi hotspot?

All the hardware is there in your phone provided it’s a smartphone so it just takes a software app to run it. You can find that software, jailbreak or root your phone or pay your provider to enable it. It’s probably going to violate some rule in your contract if you have hacked it to work and if they find out you can get charged the max rate which can lead to insane bills. There may be other legal issues as well. IMO it’s simply not worth the risk when you can just pay your provider $10—$20 monthly to enable your hotspot feature. I think it’s B.S. that they want to money grab on this when it’s data usage you are already paying for. Unless you have unlimited data you’ll want to also make sure you watch your usage.

I must also add that while apple is pretty good about keeping malware out Android is not. If you are using an app like this that has not been graced by your provider you put your security and privacy at risk.

Have you looked in the settings? My last two smartphones had it as standard as does this iPhone

Those apps are often just ways to turn on hotspots without rooting your phone. Tethering often gets picked up by your phone company but they won’t actually do anything to punish you aside from tacking on that extra $10–20 on your monthly bills when they catch you.

Also, @ARE_you_kidding_me is right about watching the usage. Just because you didn’t save it to your drive, that doesn’t mean that you didn’t download it and thus transfer data. Just as people on diets make up all sorts of ways for food to not count towards their calorie limit for the day, they think that not keeping a copy makes it not count towards your data allotment. They are just as wrong too; the only difference is whether they find out at the scales or when their phone bill comes.

Looking at the sizes of some of the videos I’ve downloaded, watching HD streaming video is good for about 10MB/minute. That’s about a gig every two hours. My wife and I share 4GB/month, and between me updating apps and her checking Facebook, we go through most of it already. At $10/GB for overage, just one episode of Doctor Who would get us to the cap, so every episode we streamed on our phones would cost about $5.

@Stinley Many phones have the feature. It’s whether you get charged for using it.

@jerv found some info here I figured this was quietly going on behind the scenes so I’m surprised I have not heard about it earlier since it’s been three years. Before this Verizon could basically take you to the cleaners.

I used to do this with my dad’s phone when I needed to use my laptop real quick while driving. No app needed to be downloaded, it was in the phone to start with. What I’d do is go into the settings, and one of the things on the list is “mobile hot spot”, and there’s a slide-y thing that you would slide to the “on” position. If you click on it, you’d see the name of the wifi, and the password. I think the default password was just the phone’s phone number. My dad always told me to make sure to shut it off when I was done since it uses a lot of the data.

So, I don’t think it will work for my friend. What’s the best deal we can get for internet for her desktop computer?

@ARE_you_kidding_me I get the feeling that that isn’t the end of it though; things will probably change at least a couple more times.

Oh, and just an FYI, between my gaming, my wife’s video watching (on wifi so that it won’t eat up our data plan) and all that, we go through about at least a gig a day, and that doesn’t count things like downloading new games at 5–25GB each or 4–5GB Linux ISOs. Tethering a laptop may make sense for those that just want to check e-mails or do a little surfing, but for general home use, the data caps and overage fees are more than a little problematic.

While the $1.4m phone bill that people claim astronaut Chris Hadfield racked up was false, I’ve heard many stories like the guy got a data roaming bill for a couple gigs 10 cents per megabyte when he went out of the country for a bit.

@Dutchess_III I don;t know your local area well enough to say for certain. Personally, I have Frontier 30Mbps fiber for $45/month, but I don’t know if you have comparable deals in your neck of the woods.

I burn up my 10 gig plan just streaming audio and youtube on my phone anyway. I have had a three thousand dollar cellular bill for a work device that went over once. Explaining that to management kinda sucked but it was an emergency so it was just a small slap on the wrist.

@Dutchess_III you can get a cellular hotspot or dongle for like $40 a month depending on how much data is needed.

They can get actual internet service for less than that @ARE_you_kidding_me. They just can’t afford it.

Well, then finding an open access point would be about the only option then.

Freedompop will give you a small amount of free internet per month (500MB), with a cell service hotspot device.

You would have to be very careful with your usage to keep under the limit.

2GB is $20/month.

McDonald’s WiFi.

She needs it from home. She has 4 kids.

Some cities have free wifi in certain areas. I can open up my laptop anywhere near downtown Seattle and hook up to the ‘net. Sometimes quite a bit of distance from the “official” borders of the coverage area like where I live. (Phht! Like I could afford to live downtown…)

Is it safe to assume that your friend does not live in such an area? I know that you probably wouldn’t have asked if you knew that was an option, but since I don’t know that you know, I just had to ask that obvious question.

Yeah, I’m sure. In fact, until about 10 years ago they could barely get cell phone service in that town.

@Dutchess_III
Check Cheap Internet they list the plans available to low income families, most are costing about $9.99 per month and are supplied by large ISP’s.

Awsome Trop Willie! I sent that to my friend.

@Dutchess_III I figured, but I had to make sure.

But of course, Jerv!