Tether Air to iPhone 5 questions

[nightlong]

Would appreciate advice from people using tethering from iphone to macbook air.

I'm going to get an iPhone 5 (when there are less than 2 million ordering per day!!), and intending to tether macbook air (as in sig) to this through the iphone's 3g account.

I am in Australia, in rural area, with terrible satellite broadband i'll be dumping - have ipad2 on 3g, a new tower has been built near me and i get full bandwidth for 3g.

Have never had iPhone or used tethering. My questions:
When I set up tethering, will that be sending wifi signal for the Air, and so the iPad2 can use this at home on wifi mode, using only its 3g when out?

Is tethering slower than if i had a 3G modem that put out wifi signal?

I'm not going to have landline phone anymore, as I can't have ADSL internet anyway.

I have access 2 days a week to unlimited, fast ADSL internet in town for updating software and so on, my system at home is for less intensive internet use.

Thanks

 

[kylera]

Would appreciate advice from people using tethering from iphone to macbook air.

I'm going to get an iPhone 5 (when there are less than 2 million ordering per day!!), and intending to tether macbook air (as in sig) to this through the iphone's 3g account.

I am in Australia, in rural area, with terrible satellite broadband i'll be dumping - have ipad2 on 3g, a new tower has been built near me and i get full bandwidth for 3g.

Have never had iPhone or used tethering. My questions:
When I set up tethering, will that be sending wifi signal for the Air, and so the iPad2 can use this at home on wifi mode, using only its 3g when out?

Is tethering slower than if i had a 3G modem that put out wifi signal?

I'm not going to have landline phone anymore, as I can't have ADSL internet anyway.

I have access 2 days a week to unlimited, fast ADSL internet in town for updating software and so on, my system at home is for less intensive internet use.

Thanks

Basically the iPhone would be acting as a hotspot, so you can connect both your iPad and your Air to it. However, I can't comment on speeds since I don't live in Australia.

 

[nightlong]

thanks ... so the hotspot is putting out wifi signal for the Air and iPad?

 

[Cynicalone]

thanks ... so the hotspot is putting out wifi signal for the Air and iPad?

Yes up to 5 devices can use the hotspot at one time.

 

[wolfpuppies3]

I tether most days but

you have an option of tethering via USB cable which I do. Perhaps a touch more secure, perhaps a touch quicker connection. You can as noted above tether up to five devices at once via wifi but each one slows things down a little.

 

[Cynicalone]

Another thing to consider if you tether the iPhone to the MacBook with USB it will keep it charged while you use it as a hotspot.

 

[nightlong]

Thanks for the helpful tips ... Hard to figure out when I haven't actually got the phone yet.

Is it likely that vintage iMac and mini mac in the sig below could work off this hotspot? Or are they too old to care about hotspots?

 

[falterego]

As long as they have Airport cards inside they can connect. Otherwise you would have to do a cabled connection like wolfpuppies3 pointed out. That is assuming you have Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later.

 

[barbz41086]

i tether from my iPhone 4 in rural Victoria. Its not the best, but for what it is its quite good. Web browsing is fine, most low res youtube is fine. Like you i have access to fast broadband 2 days a week. I work away from during the week. So any updates, large downloads i can do on the weekend. But for just day to day web browsing its fine.