a few questions about tethering

Discussion in 'iPhone' started by pattman247, Jun 14, 2009.

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  1. pattman247, Jun 14, 2009

    pattman247 macrumors regular

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    #1
    So basically with 3.0 we now get two different ways of tethering the iphone to our computers, either USB or bluetooth. By plugging your iphone into your computer you get the benefit of charging your phone PLUS having faster internet speeds, but how much faster?

    With HSDPA, the maximum speed is 7.2mbps, and with 3g it's 3.5mbps. To my knowledge bluetooth has a max speed of 3mbps, which means using it wirelessly it's only marginally slower than regular 3g. But also the iphone renders pages slower than 3mbps due to it having a slow processor, so theoretically bluetooth tethering should be faster than the speeds we get on our phone.

    This is all through the way I see it, anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.

    P.S. If you guys can answer one more question, how much more battery life do you lose when using wifi as opposed to bluetooth, because in that case I would just use PDAnet and have USB speeds minus the US
     
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  2. The General, Jun 14, 2009

    The General macrumors 601

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    #2
    The biggest benefit of USB over Bluetooth is latency.
     
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  3. hotshotharry, Jun 14, 2009

    hotshotharry macrumors 6502

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    #3
    Actually BT is limited to more like 1 Mbps !

    The only real advantage is wireless convenience ... USB connections are almost certainly faster in everyway !
     
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  4. mtehonica, Jun 14, 2009

    mtehonica macrumors regular

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    #4
    I tested the tethering last night and did a speedtest from speedtest.net and got around 1.14mbps using bluetooth and 1.34mbps using USB.
     
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  5. cpnotebook80, Jun 14, 2009

    cpnotebook80 macrumors 6502a

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    #5
    what was 3g speed over phone network?
     
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  6. M-5, Jun 14, 2009

    M-5 macrumors 65816

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    #6
    Well the speeds I get on my Mac with PDAnet are very quick, and it's wireless. But since it's sans https:// websites, it really limits the ones I can browse since I can't even log into many of them.
     
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  7. ruinfx, Jun 14, 2009

    ruinfx macrumors 6502a

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    #7
    pretty sure at&t released a statement a while ago saying you will see data speeds max out at ~1.4 mbps so you dont really have to worry about hitting the usb or bluetooths maximum speed. faster speeds might be possible but depends on your area.
     
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