<-- Mobile Hotspot lets you connect your laptop, tablet, or other Wi-Fi devices to the internet using your phone plan's cellular data connection. To learn more, see What is Mobile Hotspot? –>
One of the most popular mobile phone features is Mobile Hotspot.
Mobile Hotspot lets you connect your laptop, tablet, or other Wi-Fi devices to the internet using your phone plan’s cellular data connection.
Why Would You Want To Use Mobile Hotspot
Sometimes you want to use your laptop or tablet in places where you don’t have access to Wi-Fi Internet. For example, if you are traveling for business you might want to connect your laptop to the Internet to get some work done. Or maybe you are on vacation and would like to watch some Netflix or YouTube on your iPad. Maybe the hotel you are staying at charged for Wi-Fi or you are unsure if the Wi-Fi networks around you are safe.
With Mobile Hotspot, you connect your device to your phone using Wi-Fi and your phone connects your devices to the internet using it’s cellular data connection. This works pretty much the same way your home wi-fi works, except at home you have a “Wi-Fi router” that is connected to either cable, Rios, or DSL home internet service.
To use Mobile Hotspot, your phone must have the mobile hotspot feature and your wireless plan also needs to include mobile hotspot as part of your plan. Most wireless companies call this feature Mobile Hotspot. On the iPhone its called Present Hotspot and on my Android phone it’s called Wi-Fi Hotspot. Note that your cellular plan may include no hotspot, a fixed amount of data for hotspot, or in a few cases unlimited hotspot. Your wireless plan also may put some restrictions on your use of hotspot. They may limited the upload and download speed of devices using hotspot. They could also limit the overall quality of the video you watch online.
How Do I Setup Mobile Hotpsot
To use mobile hotspot, turn on the feature in your phones settings. In your settings, you also have the option to set you hotspots Wi-Fi network name and password. Once turned on and set up, you’ll then connect your laptop, tablet, or other device to the internet using that name and password.
iPhone Setup
To set up mobile hotspot on iPhone, Tap Settings > Personal Hotspot > Allow Others To Join. This will allow devices to connect. Tap Wi-Fi Password to change the password needed. Note that on iPhone, the hotspot name is the name of your phone.
iPhone also offers special features for people using iPhone and other Apple devices. If you want to connect your Mac or iPad to hotspot to your other personal Apple devices you don’t need to enter the password. You just need to be logged into the same iCloud account. You can also tap Family Sharing to turn on Family Sharing to let other family members using Apple devices and :Family Sharing” use your hotspot. There is also an option to approve all hotspot connections to your device.