[Jerryg50]

Tethering via USB between the Z10 and a laptop or PC can be a bit tricky.

On the Z10 do the following:

On the Z10 go to the Settings.
Go to Network Connections.
Go to Internet Tethering.
Select USB.
Turn on Tethering.


On the computer run the Blackberry Link software for the Z10:

Once the software starts, connect the Z10 via the USB cable to the PC.
Open the browser.
You should now be able to cruise the net, and do emails.

With the Playbook, the Bluetooth tethering does not yet work. This may be an OS or communications issue.

The best way to tether the Playbook for full speed and functions is using the WiFi option. Simply turn on the WiFi hot spot option and follow the instructions. The Playbook WiFi must also be properly set up. The Z10 USB and Bluetooth tethering mode must be turned off when using the WiFi mode. You can leave the base Bluetooth active on the Z10. There is a lot of available information about using the WiFi hot spot from the Z10. The process is very similar to the past models of Blackberry phones.

If you use the Bridge mode to tether, the Playbook email client software does not work very well. The browser will work fairly well, but slower with the Bridge mode. With WiFi the Playbook can brows at very high speed. With Bluetooth it is restricted to about 1.5 to 2.5 mb/sec. Take care that the WiFi mode burns through battery time very fast on both the Playbook and the Z10. Using the Bridge mode uses less power consumption than WiFi.

To use the Bridge mode, make sure the Playbook and the Z10 are first Bluetooth mated. Also the Bridge mode has to be set up between the devices. You will have to first install the Bridge software in to the phone for this to work.

I did extensive testing between the Z10 and the Playbook. They function well together as far as Internet and email are concerned, in consideration of using either tether or Bridge, depending on what you want to do.

From what I understand the Bridge mode uses some compression. It will not be as fast as using WiFi or Bluetooth tethering. The data cost using the Bridge mode is probably a bit lower because of the compression.

As far as the Bridge phone options are concerned, these features are not yet available. From what I read in a number of articles there are going to soon be some updates coming out to fix this. The Bridge options are a big part of the tablet application with the Blackberry phone. This was the big original application point of this tablet, otherwise any generic tablet would do the job.

[susu222]

very helpful run through and options, thanks

[yecam]

This worked perfectly for me until I got a surprise - somebody phoned me and my tether session closed. When I tried to reconnect while I was still on my cell phone call I got a message stating that I cannot use tethering while talking on the phone.

On a further note, on my now retired Blackberry 9800 I was using the tether application from tether.com. On their web site, buried in their user forums and also confirmed from their customer support, their tether application is supported. However, the installation method provided involves the same tether.jad download used on the older Blackberry models. I don't think that they realize that the Z10 is another beast. It's a pity because this application really works nicely in the older environment and is a workaround when a provider does no officially allow tethering.

[b320]

This worked perfectly for me until I got a surprise - somebody phoned me and my tether session closed. When I tried to reconnect while I was still on my cell phone call I got a message stating that I cannot use tethering while talking on the phone.

On a further note, on my now retired Blackberry 9800 I was using the tether application from tether.com. On their web site, buried in their user forums and also confirmed from their customer support, their tether application is supported. However, the installation method provided involves the same tether.jad download used on the older Blackberry models. I don't think that they realize that the Z10 is another beast. It's a pity because this application really works nicely in the older environment and is a workaround when a provider does no officially allow tethering.

If Tether is serving you a .jad file, then that's not for a BlackBerry 10 device.

Tethering sessions may intermittently disconnect with phone calls, for instance, if your device tries to hold on to the phone call and the signal drops down to 2G/GSM/EDGE. However, most of the time, you should be able to perform both simultaneously. Do your tethering sessions always disconnect?

The above, of course, assumes that you're on 3G via WCDMA or H+. Correct?

[webmeister]

Tethering via USB between the Z10 and a laptop or PC can be a bit tricky.

On the Z10 do the following:

On the Z10 go to the Settings.
Go to Network Connections.
Go to Internet Tethering.
Select USB.
Turn on Tethering.


On the computer run the Blackberry Link software for the Z10:

Once the software starts, connect the Z10 via the USB cable to the PC.
Open the browser.
You should now be able to cruise the net, and do emails.

With the Playbook, the Bluetooth tethering does not yet work. This may be an OS or communications issue.

The best way to tether the Playbook for full speed and functions is using the WiFi option. Simply turn on the WiFi hot spot option and follow the instructions. The Playbook WiFi must also be properly set up. The Z10 USB and Bluetooth tethering mode must be turned off when using the WiFi mode. You can leave the base Bluetooth active on the Z10. There is a lot of available information about using the WiFi hot spot from the Z10. The process is very similar to the past models of Blackberry phones.

If you use the Bridge mode to tether, the Playbook email client software does not work very well. The browser will work fairly well, but slower with the Bridge mode. With WiFi the Playbook can brows at very high speed. With Bluetooth it is restricted to about 1.5 to 2.5 mb/sec. Take care that the WiFi mode burns through battery time very fast on both the Playbook and the Z10. Using the Bridge mode uses less power consumption than WiFi.

To use the Bridge mode, make sure the Playbook and the Z10 are first Bluetooth mated. Also the Bridge mode has to be set up between the devices. You will have to first install the Bridge software in to the phone for this to work.

I did extensive testing between the Z10 and the Playbook. They function well together as far as Internet and email are concerned, in consideration of using either tether or Bridge, depending on what you want to do.

From what I understand the Bridge mode uses some compression. It will not be as fast as using WiFi or Bluetooth tethering. The data cost using the Bridge mode is probably a bit lower because of the compression.

As far as the Bridge phone options are concerned, these features are not yet available. From what I read in a number of articles there are going to soon be some updates coming out to fix this. The Bridge options are a big part of the tablet application with the Blackberry phone. This was the big original application point of this tablet, otherwise any generic tablet would do the job.

Nice how-to. I will add that you don't need BlackBerry Link for tethering once it's been installed. Subsequent tethering sessions work fine without it running. Just turn on tethering on the phone and the USB cable connected and budda boom, budda bing...it works.

A slightly more technical explanation for how it works is that the installation of the drivers creates a virtual IP address via DHCP, with your phone acting as the default gateway / router. Slick!