iOS 4.3 Hotspot Personal Observations

[George Knighton]

My personal observation about the personal hotspot activation in iOS 4.3 is that it is better than the jailbreak MyWi 4.0 application.

There seems to be no difference in speed one way or another, and no difference in latency one way or another.

However....

When connected via USB, there is no longer the occasional system OSX 10.6.6 crash the way that there was with iOS 4.2.1 + MyWi 4.0. Works effectively for extended periods with no issues.

Bluetooth: It has been easy for me to connect via Bluetooth networking on both the iMac and the MacBook Pro. It was impossible for me to do this with MyWi and iOS 4.2.1. I have no idea why...I just never could do it.

An extra advantage with Bluetooth appears (in my observation) to be very low battery consumption when compared to WiFi. If you cannot tether to your computer, this seems to be a good way to go, just to save the battery.

WiFi: Just as good as MyWi. Same speed, same easy connectivity.

Provided you don't think you have a need for more than 4GB of data, I can definitely recommend this!

 

[BacklitFirefly]

After having used it for a day, I agree with your statements. The personal hotspot is very, very good. I'd been using a Virgin Mobile Mifi recently, but had a jailbroken 3GS last summer with mywi -- this is at least as good as the Virgin Mobile broadband. Now that you can actually tether a wifi-only iPad to it, it's useful.

 

[mo25]

I don't have ATT nor do I use Apple's OS but in windows I've never gotten a crash when using MyWi.

 

[cujimmyusa]

After having used it for a day, I agree with your statements. The personal hotspot is very, very good. I'd been using a Virgin Mobile Mifi recently, but had a jailbroken 3GS last summer with mywi -- this is at least as good as the Virgin Mobile broadband. Now that you can actually tether a wifi-only iPad to it, it's useful.

BacklitFirefly, i am trying to decide whether to:
a) keep my $40 virgin unlimited data plan and mifi ( i can return mifi and get refund but has to done in a few days ) I have been happy with it so far but not so happy with them changing plans, I cannot change to another or I will lose unlimited.
b) buy my very first iphone now for only $50 ( the 3GS ) but restricted to bluetooth and no wifi tether for laptops that do not have bluetooth ability.
C) wait for the iphone 5 and hope it 'looks' better to me than the iphone 4 does.

My household has 2 ipads, ipod touch and 2 laptops and only need for when we are away from home wifi and in the car. I am also going to start a thread but saw you had a virgin mobile and would have good comparision with me

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

A question I have been trying to get an answer to is - if one is using AT&T and using the iPhone 4 as a hotspot on 3G; and you move in to one of AT&T's FREE wifi spots - does the iPhone 4 hotspot allow the use of the AT&T wifi hotspot? Or would it still force you to use the 3G network?

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

A question I have been trying to get an answer to is - if one is using AT&T and using the iPhone 4 as a hotspot on 3G; and you move in to one of AT&T's FREE wifi spots - does the iPhone 4 hotspot allow the use of the AT&T wifi hotspot? Or would it still force you to use the 3G network?

Don't think it broadcasts via wifi signal...what would be the point if you can just join the wifi hotspot outright? I think it only converts 3G data into a "wifi" signal...but I haven't tried it yet so I don't know for sure

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Don't think it broadcasts via wifi signal...what would be the point if you can just join the wifi hotspot outright? I think it only converts 3G data into a "wifi" signal...but I haven't tried it yet so I don't know for sure

The reason is IIRC is that the AT&T wifi spots are only FREE if one has a data plan on either the iPhone or the iPad. I want to cut the cord to my iPad 3G network and rely on the iPhone 4 with it's hotspot broadcasting....

 

[AuroraProject]

I've never gotten a crash when using MyWi.

This. I do run OS X and I've never had it crash at all, even when using MyWi.

 

[QuarterSwede]

A question I have been trying to get an answer to is - if one is using AT&T and using the iPhone 4 as a hotspot on 3G; and you move in to one of AT&T's FREE wifi spots - does the iPhone 4 hotspot allow the use of the AT&T wifi hotspot? Or would it still force you to use the 3G network?

The iPhone's wifi can't connect to another wifi network if it's routing wifi itself.

 

[tcusta00]

I have an AT&T iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 (wifi only). What I've noticed after two days of personal hotspot use is that the iPad will disconnect from the hotspot after a period of non-use... Usually as little as five minutes. This isn't really a big deal except that it doesn't automatically reconnect when I start using the iPad again. In order to get it going again I have to go into the iPhone settings and open the Personal hotspot menu. Then it will reconnect after a few seconds. It's set to "on" when I go into it so it's not like it's turning off.

Anyone else noticing this and find a fix? Or is this just how it's supposed to be?

 

[arad]

I have an AT&T iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 (wifi only). What I've noticed after two days of personal hotspot use is that the iPad will disconnect from the hotspot after a period of non-use... Usually as little as five minutes. This isn't really a big deal except that it doesn't automatically reconnect when I start using the iPad again. In order to get it going again I have to go into the iPhone settings and open the Personal hotspot menu. Then it will reconnect after a few seconds. It's set to "on" when I go into it so it's not like it's turning off.

Anyone else noticing this and find a fix? Or is this just how it's supposed to be?

I have noticed the same thing but in my case its been like this since the beginning. Any help in telling what I am doing wrong is appreciated.

 

[sbddude]

I have an AT&T iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 (wifi only). What I've noticed after two days of personal hotspot use is that the iPad will disconnect from the hotspot after a period of non-use... Usually as little as five minutes. This isn't really a big deal except that it doesn't automatically reconnect when I start using the iPad again. In order to get it going again I have to go into the iPhone settings and open the Personal hotspot menu. Then it will reconnect after a few seconds. It's set to "on" when I go into it so it's not like it's turning off.

Anyone else noticing this and find a fix? Or is this just how it's supposed to be?

MyWi on demand connects (and disconnects) automatically without having to touch the iphone when tethering my ipad. Plus it uses bluetooth which has lower battery usage.

 

[tcusta00]

I have noticed the same thing but in my case its been like this since the beginning. Any help in telling what I am doing wrong is appreciated.

I just got off the phone with apple support and they had me reset the network settings. I did that and will report back.

MyWi on demand connects (and disconnects) automatically without having to touch the iphone when tethering my ipad. Plus it uses bluetooth which has lower battery usage.

I tested my connection on both BT and wifi and the results are astonishingly different. Latency is about the same with both but my download and upload speeds are quite different.

Bluetooth down: 0.26 Mbps
Bluetooth up: 0.31 Mbps

Wifi down: 3.72 Mbps
Wifi up: 1.62 Mbps

Battery be damned... This is a huge difference.

 

[tcusta00]

MyWi on demand connects (and disconnects) automatically without having to touch the iphone when tethering my ipad. Plus it uses bluetooth which has lower battery usage.

I just got off the phone with apple support and they had me reset the network settings. I did that and will report back.

No change in resetting network settings. I still had to go back into the iPhone and tap the personal hotspot button and it woke right up. Back to the phone.

 

[sbddude]

I just got off the phone with apple support and they had me reset the network settings. I did that and will report back.



I tested my connection on both BT and wifi and the results are astonishingly different. Latency is about the same with both but my download and upload speeds are quite different.

Bluetooth down: 0.26 Mbps
Bluetooth up: 0.31 Mbps

Wifi down: 3.72 Mbps
Wifi up: 1.62 Mbps

Battery be damned... This is a huge difference.

I agree that BT is slower, but for casual use browsing, reading pulse news, syncing kindle, etc, It works just fine. The convenience of auto on/auto off is worth much more than speed to me.

 

[tcusta00]

I agree that BT is slower, but for casual use browsing, reading pulse news, syncing kindle, etc, It works just fine. The convenience of auto on/auto off is worth much more than speed to me.

So are you saying that the wifi personal hotspot for you doesn't reconnect automatically? I was under the impression from your post above that it reconnected automatically but you used BT solely for the battery life.


I'm on hold with apple again waiting on an answer. It's not a known issue according to this guy, but with three people here reporting the same thing I'd say it should be soon. Holding for second level supervisor who may know more....

 

[sbddude]

So are you saying that the wifi personal hotspot for you doesn't reconnect automatically? I was under the impression from your post above that it reconnected automatically but you used BT solely for the battery life.


I'm on hold with apple again waiting on an answer. It's not a known issue according to this guy, but with three people here reporting the same thing I'd say it should be soon. Holding for second level supervisor who may know more....

Only MyWi reconnects automatically. I don't know if it can do that over WiFi, but bluetooth does connect/disconnect automatically.

 

[rockstarjoe]

Would someone mind answering a question for me? I currently tether natively using Bluetooth on 4.2.1. When I want to connect to the internet from my MBP, I go to the Bluetooth menu and choose to connect to my iPhone's network... I don't have to do anything on my phone. I like this set up. Can I still do this on 4.3 if I want to connect over Bluetooth? Or do I have to keep turning on Personal Hotspot, like it sounds like you have to do for Wifi? Thank you.

 

[tcusta00]

According to the second level guy I talked to at apple this afternoon, it's supposed to disconnect and not reconnect until you "authorize" that in the settings by clicking the hotspot button again (even though the device using the connection needed a password to connect.)

He even went so far to say that both the ipad and iphone manuals say this. I wasn't able to find a word in the user manual about that though.

This is frustrating. I didn't get the 3G iPad because I thought I'd be able to easily tether. This isn't what I expected out of apple.

 

[El Aurens]

According to the second level guy I talked to at apple this afternoon, it's supposed to disconnect and not reconnect until you "authorize" that in the settings by clicking the hotspot button again (even though the device using the connection needed a password to connect.)

He even went so far to say that both the ipad and iphone manuals say this. I wasn't able to find a word in the user manual about that though.

This is frustrating. I didn't get the 3G iPad because I thought I'd be able to easily tether. This isn't what I expected out of apple.

I noticed the same thing with my iPhone. I thought that it might be a way to save the iPhone's battery life if it disconnected after 5 minutes of no use?

 

[Ole'schooliBook]

I don't understand why people aren't more up in arms about the arbitrary differentiation between tethering data usage and 3G data usage on mobile devices on AT&T and Verizon. In Canada, we started a webpage (iphoneincanada.ca) to advocate for unlimited data plans (instead of the initially offered 500mB and 1gB). The main networks made concessions by offering a 6gB plan (effectively unlimited) as a promotion-and have done so after each successive iPhone launch since the 3G.

Since then, we have no additional charges to tether/personal hotspot with other devices as this data has already been paid for and enabled by Apple in the software. Again, why is this legal and allowed to happen!??? It's the same data being used!

I used to be jealous of the AT&T plans but now they are just screwing you guys/gals by double charging you. Ridiculous.

 

[sbddude]

According to the second level guy I talked to at apple this afternoon, it's supposed to disconnect and not reconnect until you "authorize" that in the settings by clicking the hotspot button again (even though the device using the connection needed a password to connect.)

He even went so far to say that both the ipad and iphone manuals say this. I wasn't able to find a word in the user manual about that though.

This is frustrating. I didn't get the 3G iPad because I thought I'd be able to easily tether. This isn't what I expected out of apple.

I think I sound like a broken record by now, but MyWi does not have this problem when you use On Demand.

I don't understand why people aren't more up in arms about the arbitrary differentiation between tethering data usage and 3G data usage on mobile devices on AT&T and Verizon. In Canada, we started a webpage (iphoneincanada.ca) to advocate for unlimited data plans (instead of the initially offered 500mB and 1gB). The main networks made concessions by offering a 6gB plan (effectively unlimited) as a promotion-and have done so after each successive iPhone launch since the 3G.

Since then, we have no additional charges to tether/personal hotspot with other devices as this data has already been paid for and enabled by Apple in the software. Again, why is this legal and allowed to happen!??? It's the same data being used!

I used to be jealous of the AT&T plans but now they are just screwing you guys/gals by double charging you. Ridiculous.

Again, MyWi is a solution for this problem. Unlimited data, no tethering charge every month.

 

[ulbador]

I used to be jealous of the AT&T plans but now they are just screwing you guys/gals by double charging you. Ridiculous.

So you only get charged for home Internet usage now?

 

[tcusta00]

I think I sound like a broken record by now, but MyWi does not have this problem when you use On Demand.



Again, MyWi is a solution for this problem. Unlimited data, no tethering charge every month.

I prefer not to jailbreak though and my understanding is that mywi is only available if you jailbreak.

 

[sbddude]

I prefer not to jailbreak though and my understanding is that mywi is only available if you jailbreak.

That's correct. May I ask what you have against jailbreaking?