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How do I connect my iPhone to a Personal Hotspot?
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There are several ways to connect other devices to your Personal Hotspot: Connect your other device to your iPhone through Wi-Fi settings. Pair your two devices with Bluetooth ®. Connect your other device to your iPhone with a cable. You can share the Personal Hotspot on your iPhone with another iPhone, an iPad, a Mac, a Windows device, and more.
- How to set up a Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad
You can connect to a Personal Hotspot using Wi-Fi,...
- How to set up a Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad
Mar 8, 2024 · You can connect to a Personal Hotspot using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB. And with iOS 13 or later, devices that are connected to a Personal Hotspot will stay connected, even if the screen is locked, so those devices will still get notifications and messages.
Oct 31, 2018 · The iPhone works great as a mobile WiFi Hotspot, but it performs even better when plugged in with a USB cable. This guide will show you how to use the iPhone as a personal hotspot over USB.
Jan 17, 2024 · By enabling the personal hotspot feature on your iPhone and connecting it to your device, you can enjoy internet access on the go without relying on traditional Wi-Fi networks. In this guide, we will walk you through the process of setting up and utilizing the USB connection with your iPhone hotspot.
- What You Need to Know About Tethering
- How to Turn On Your iPhone's Personal Hotspot
- Connect to Your Hotspot Over Wi-Fi
- Connect to Your Hotspot via Bluetooth
- Connect to Your Hotspot with a USB Cable
- Which Method Is Best?
- The Best Tech Newsletter Around
Related: How to Tether Your Android Phone and Share Its Internet Connection with Other Devices
First of all: not every cellular carrier includes this feature in every plan. If your cellular data plan doesn't allow for tethering, you may not see the Personal Hotspot option at all on your iPhone’s settings screen. You may have to pay extra to gain access to it.
Second, it's important to remember that when you use your iPhone as a data connection, you are using your mobile data plan and as such, if you have a data cap, then it will count towards that. If you have unlimited data or a large cap, then this might not trouble you, but you'll otherwise want to be mindful of what you're using you computer for when connected to your iPhone as a hotspot.
Even if you have unlimited data, there’s a good chance you have a limited amount of tethering data — or, at least, high-speed tethering data. Your carrier may charge you extra if you need more tethering data. Check your cellular plan for more details about your plan’s hotspot, or tethering, capabilities.
There are three ways to connect to your iPhone and use its data connection: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB. When you turn Personal Hotspot on, it will allow you to use any of these three options--you don't need to alter any settings.
First, open the Settings app and tap "Personal Hotspot" to access the Personal Hotspot settings.
Before you do anything else, you can (and should) tap "Wi-Fi Password" to change the password of your hotspot. Without a strong password, anyone within range could potentially connect to your phone. So, you should add a strong password here even if you don't plan on connecting via Wi-Fi, since turning Personal Hotspot on will broadcast the Wi-Fi network regardless.
When that's done, you can turn Personal Hotspot on using the switch along the top of the Personal Hotspot settings.
The most familiar (and common) way to connect to your iPhone is over Wi-Fi. To do so, you just connect to it like you do any Wi-Fi access point, whether you're using a Windows PC, Mac, iPad, or any other device. Just select your iPhone from the list of Wi-Fi networks.
If you're connecting for the first time, you'll need to enter the password you assigned earlier.
If all goes well, you should have internet on your laptop or other device.
When you or anyone else is connected to you iPhone's Personal Hotspot, a blue bar will appear along the top and show you how many connections there are.
On Windows
To connect via Bluetooth from a Windows computer, first click on the Bluetooth icon in the system tray and select "Join a Personal Area Network". Next, click "Add a Device" in the upper-left corner. Choose your iPhone from the resulting screen and click "Next" to continue. Like any other Bluetooth connection, you'll be shown a pair code on your computer and your iPhone. Compare the two passcodes, and if they are the same, tap "Pair" on your iPhone's screen and "Yes" on the Windows pair screen. Allow your Windows machine to install the necessary files on your system. Once finished, you can right-click on your iPhone to connect it as an access point. You're ready to surf the Internet, check e-mail, chat, and so on.
Connecting via USB is by far the easiest method to tether your phone. As long as you have your Personal Hotspot turned on, all you need to do is plug your phone in with a USB cable and you should be good to go.
On our Windows' network adapters, we can see we're connected via "Apple Mobile Device Ethernet".
Of all the methods, USB is the fastest but most inconvenient, requiring your iPhone to be physically connected to the computer. Still, it's super simple to set up, requiring zero configuration.
Using Speedtest.net and conducting some basic tests, we saw speeds on our own personal mobile data connection 3.7mbps down, 4.3 up, with around a 60ms ping time.
Bluetooth is more secure than Wi-Fi, but the slowest of the three, also requiring the most configuration, though once it's done, you don't have to worry about it again.
We saw speeds around .8mbps down, .8 up, and again, 60mg ping times.
Wi-Fi will be the most popular way of connecting, but is insecure if you don't use a strong password--so make sure you set one. It's also very easy to connect to, needing only to enter said password once, and almost as fast as USB.
Overall, speeds for our Wi-Fi hotspot were 3.7mbps down, 2.7mbps up, and 30ms ping times.
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May 4, 2022 · To connect to a hotspot using USB, first make sure you have the latest version of iTunes on your Mac or PC. Then connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer with the USB cable you use to...
Mar 18, 2022 · Set up a Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) and share your cellular connection with other devices so you can get online, wherever you...
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