Tethering Questions on AT&T

[Sean Dempsey]

I am considering turning on the tethering option. I want to be able to use my laptop while at work, connected pretty much all day for IM and email. If I have the tetherig turned on on the iPhone, can I stay connected to it without burning through my data plan?

How does that work, does it only use up data when you're actively sending and receiving things? Or if it's tethered to a laptop, will it constantly be sending and receiving anyways since there's things that constantly get very small streams of data, like an IM client or gmail checker?

Also, can the phone be locked and still stay tethered all day, so it could be in my pocket or sitting on the desk and still work? What does the tethering setup look like on the laptop, will I just see a new wifi network that I connect to?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I went ahead and activated the tethering, the 4gig a month plan.

I historically only used a couple hundred megs of data on the phone, but if I leave the iphone tethered to a MacBook all day, will that eat up my data if it's all just idling? Or can you leave it as a fulltime connection 6-8 hours a day as long as you're not transferring data, it won't matter, since I'm mainly doing this for light browsing and instant messaging.

Thanks

 

[rjohnstone]

You can leave it tethered for as long as you want.
You're only billed for actual data sent and received, not how long you're connected.
Now keep in mind what apps you have running on your laptop and any background apps that go out and grab data when a connection is present.
Like email syncing and such.

Typically I only turn on tethering when I need it.
Saves the battery and prevents unwanted data usage.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

You can leave it tethered for as long as you want.
You're only billed for actual data sent and received, not how long you're connected.
Now keep in mind what apps you have running on your laptop and any background apps that go out and grab data when a connection is present.
Like email syncing and such.

Typically I only turn on tethering when I need it.
Saves the battery and prevents unwanted data usage.

I leave it connected through USB with the laptop plugged in, so there's no battery worries.

Mostly I want Adium open all day for IM's, and so I can just reply to emails and browse reddit and forums during downtimes, and I don't want to have to turn it on or off.

There are some services that probably have trickles of data, and I better watch out for a huge Dropbox sync. I suppose I can check the data plan after a few days of usage and see what I've burned through? Does it show the data in the app or the website on a daily basis? I guess it should just the same as it does when it's a phone alone.

 

[rjohnstone]

It shows on the website, but there is some lag between actual usage and when it gets posted.
I've noticed the website numbers are typically off by as much as 24 hours for data usage, but phone calls and sms are updated within minutes.