Wifi Hotspot vs Tethering

[xrayguy123]

First off, Im a newbie to Crackberry just today so hello!

I am getting a BB Bold 9780 from my company and one of the things I absolutely need to do is connect it to my laptop and other devices to get internet access when a wifi hotspot is not available. So, this means the TETHERING option which requires software to be loaded and running on my laptop (BB Desktop Software). There is a lot of confusion out there that TETHERING and a wifi hotspot are the same thing. They are not. The BB Bold can NOT at the present time be used as a wifi hotspot. This option is available on other smartphones (ie: iPhone 4) and is so much easier. You simply enable wifi hotspot on your phone and then connect to it with your laptop (or any other wifi device like ipod, ipad, etc) through your regular wireless N connection.

The limitation with TETHERING is that you cannot connect multiple devices at the same time and you must have the corresponding software loaded and running on the laptop to connect. So, I can TETHER my laptop but I cannot WIFI HOTSPOT connect my laptop (or other wifi devices).

So, to those people replying to wifi hotspot posts saying you can tether your BB to your laptop, this is not the samething as using your BB as a wifi hotspot.

Ok, now that my rant is done there MAY be hope on the horizon. There have been leaks that very soon (May 2011), OS 6.1 will be announced by RIM. It has been rumoured that this version of the OS will have wifi hotspot capability for up to 5 wireless N client connections. There is however no confirmation on which BB devices this may work with. So, I suppose we just wait and see. That being said, the BB bold can send/receive information to/from the 3G network and wifi connection. This means that technically, in theory, it is possible for the BB bold or any other BB that has 3G and wifi to be used as a wifi hotspot. I sure hope that someone, RIM or 3rd party, writes this code soon!

[kbz1960]

So who would like to connect several devices to their phone for internet? Won't the carriers charge you per connected device? If not how can they charge for tethering one device?

Your phone being a wifi hotspot is more data being used then tethering. Do carriers charge more for a wifi hotspot than they do to tether?

[xrayguy123]

I know several people that would love to use the BB as a wifi hotspot. It would be very helpful in a situation when we are at a site with no internet connectivity and you would like to have a few devices connect through the BB to the internet. For example, if you are on site with some colleagues that need simultaneous connectivity or if you are by yourself but would like to connect your laptop and iPod at the same time. With tethering, you cannot even connect a device like the iPod/iPad. With the iPhone 4 (I have actually tested this), you can simply turn Personal Wifi Hotspot ON and then ad-hoc connect up to 5 devices to the iPhone (laptop, iPod, etc) using standard native wireless N (password protected WEP) connections, just like a router. No proprietary software to load, it just works.

Just curious, why do you think using the BB as a wifi hotspot would use more data than hard-wired tethering? If I am tethering my laptop to the BB or connecting the laptop to the BB using wifi, Im still accessing the same email, web sites, etc regardless of the connection method?

As far as the charges are concerned, my company pays for the voice/data plan so Im not sure how this works. I would think however that it wouldnt matter how many devices you have connected, but rather how much data you use. It doesnt make sense to me that a carrier would charge by the number of devices connected, rather it seems more plausible to me they would charge by the amount of data that was collectively used by all the connected devices.

[kbz1960]

Originally Posted by xrayguy123

I know several people that would love to use the BB as a wifi hotspot. It would be very helpful in a situation when we are at a site with no internet connectivity and you would like to have a few devices connect through the BB to the internet. For example, if you are on site with some colleagues that need simultaneous connectivity or if you are by yourself but would like to connect your laptop and iPod at the same time. With tethering, you cannot even connect a device like the iPod/iPad. With the iPhone 4 (I have actually tested this), you can simply turn Personal Wifi Hotspot ON and then ad-hoc connect up to 5 devices to the iPhone (laptop, iPod, etc) using standard native wireless N (password protected WEP) connections, just like a router. No proprietary software to load, it just works.

Just curious, why do you think using the BB as a wifi hotspot would use more data than hard-wired tethering? If I am tethering my laptop to the BB or connecting the laptop to the BB using wifi, Im still accessing the same email, web sites, etc regardless of the connection method?

As far as the charges are concerned, my company pays for the voice/data plan so Im not sure how this works. I would think however that it wouldnt matter how many devices you have connected, but rather how much data you use. It doesnt make sense to me that a carrier would charge by the number of devices connected, rather it seems more plausible to me they would charge by the amount of data that was collectively used by all the connected devices.

Hummm let me see, one device using data compared to 5 devices all using the same thing for data 5 times the data if they are all being used.

[demosAD]

Hi, I'm newbie about blackberry, before a buy this phone I'm using cheapest android, but in my place! My BB always lost connection signals, then I using my android to be wifi hotspot, so I can use my BB, but in other place I lost my android signal, but I must using android to connect to internet, just because the screen is bigger then my curve 3G so how can I make my BB to be hotspot so my android can connect to internet by wifi? Is there any app can do? Phone to phone tethering like my android, thanks anyway

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