Is anyone tethering?

[argold]

I ask because mine is not working. I have no trouble connecting my notebook to the GPE either by USB or the WiFi hotspot and I get connection, an IP address via DHCP and I can ping the phone from the notebook. But the Internet Connection Sharing seems to be borked. I can get routing out through the phone's WiFi connection but not via the cell phone network. It's as if my network does not allow tethering, except that it does - they sell me GBs and they explicitly say that they care not how I use them. And if I take the same SIM out from the GPE and put it back into to my old Nokia E72 then tethering works perfectly. So I ask - who is successfully using tethering with their GPE?

 

[planoman]

I normally do not use it, but mine does works as I am sending this from my laptop while using my S4 GPe was a wifi hotpot. I made sure I was using the network and not wifi.

 

[argold]

Thanks, and so I continue to wonder why I am having this problem. BTW if you are using the phone's hotspot then you are most certainly using the phone's network connection because the phone's WiFi client is disabled whenever its hotspot is enabled. You would have to use a USB cable for tethering in order to share the phone's WiFi connection.

 

[kjnangre]

I've used USB tether, both with 4.2.2 and 4.3. No problems

 

[billo14]

How do you like the speed of the tethering hotspot versus the WIFI speed? My tests of the hotspot seemed to be awfully slow vs the WIFI speed.

I was hoping with the S4 specs of processor and RAM, that the hotspot might allow me to drop the cable broadband (I have UNLIMITED DATA plan) to offset the mobile plan somewhat. We are a two location (summer - winter) family and the cell net here is probably just 3G. Here's hoping our winter location will test out as 4G and maybe be a big difference.

 

[KayleZ]

Can anyone tell me if prolonged tethering will ruin your phone? I am thinking of using my phone as my main hot spot for my home network. It is cheaper and much fast than my local service.

 

[KayleZ]

I have a question about ongoing tethering. Does anyone know if it will shorten the life of your phone if you use the hot spot / tethering as your main internet connection?