What is iphone tethering

iPhone tethering

Unless disabled by your provider, it is possible to share your iPhone’s mobile data connection over WiFi, USB or Bluetooth:

• WiFi requires no additional configuration provided your computer can connect to wireless networks,
• Instructions for USB and Bluetooth tethering are provided below.

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Tethering over USB

Tethering natively over USB is the optimal choice as it provides a more stable connection and uses less batteries than bluetooth or wifi.

To tether your iPhone over USB, you will need to install libimobiledevice .

Next enable Personal Hotspot on your iPhone and plug it into your computer. At this point you will have a new ethernet device available and should be able to use any network manager to connect to the internet through the new iPhone ethernet device, just like you would any other ethernet connection.

Using systemd-networkd

If systemd-networkd is used for network management, you can easily configure it to connect to the internet through the iPhone, as you would with any other adaptater.

If for example enp0s26u1u2c4i2 is the name of the network device that is created from the iPhone as displayed by networkctl list , create the following .network file:

Troubleshooting

If the iPhone appears in the device list but does not connect, it is possible that you may need to connect your iPhone and pair it with your computer before connecting (iPhones using a PIN unlock?):

Tethering over Bluetooth

Tethering over Bluetooth will drain the batteries relatively quickly, but simultaneous charging from an USB port works well.

Hardware Requirements

• iPhone running OS 3.0 with tethering enabled. See Settings >General >Network and turn on the tethering option.
• Bluetooth adapter or similar, preferably with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) for acceptable speeds. Tested with a Belkin F8T016NE.

Setup

See the main article Bluetooth and setup the bluetooth daemon.

Gnome/XFCE

Install the Blueman GTK Bluetooth manager.

A Bluetooth icon should appear in your notification area. Note: the icon may not appear if bluetooth was not turned on at startup. Click it, and search for nearby devices, adding your iPhone (note, you may need to have the Bluetooth setting screen up on your iPhone for discovery to work).

Once the iPhone has been added to the devices list, open the Device menu and select pair. This will require the usual entering of a PIN on the computer then the iPhone. Now open the Device menu again, and choose Network Access > Network Access Point. If everything goes well, blueman reports a success and the status bar on your iPhone should glow blue, indicating a successful tether.

Blueman will have created a new network interface, typically bnep0. To connect to it, run the following as root.

netcfg

This article or section is out of date.

Alternatively, you can create a netcfg network profile to allow easy tethering from the command line, without requiring Blueman or Gnome. Assuming an already paired iPhone with address ’00:00:DE:AD:BE:EF’, simply create a profile in /etc/network.d called — for example — ‘tether’:

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How to Set up and Use iPhone Tethering

Get Wi-Fi on the go courtesy of your cellular data provider

​Tethering allows you to use your iPhone or cellular-enabled iPad as a wireless modem for a computer when it is not in range of a Wi-Fi signal. When you use tethering to set up a Personal Hotspot, anywhere your iPhone or iPad can access a cellular signal, your computer can get online too.

Personal Hotspot requires an iPhone 3GS or later or a 3rd-generation Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad or later and a compatible cellular service provider.

Before you can set up a Personal Hotspot, contact your cellular provider to add this service to your account. There is usually a fee for the service. Some cellular providers do not support tethering, but AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Cricket, US Cellular, and T-Mobile support it.

Turn on Personal Hotspot

After you set up the service with your cellular provider, following that company’s instructions, it is time to turn on the Personal Hotspot service on your iPhone or Wi-Fi compatible iPad.

To set up Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad:

Tap Settings on the Home screen.

Select Cellular. (Some iOS versions skip this step.)

Tap Personal Hotspot. (In iOS 13, you must also tap Allow Others to Join).

Tap the slider next to Personal Hotspot to the On/green position to turn on the feature.

If Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is turned off on your iPhone, you are prompted to turn them on.

Tap the Wi-Fi Password field. Your password is set up as your mobile phone number by default, but change it to something appropriate that is at least eight characters long.

The Wi-Fi password, in this setting, isn’t related to your Apple ID or your usual Wi-Fi password. It is for use only with Personal Hotspot.

Deactivate the Personal Hotspot when you aren’t using it by moving the slider to the Off/white position to reduce your security risk and battery drain.

Making Connections

You can connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer (or another iOS device) to provide it with access to your cellular connection in three ways.

• Wi-Fi: Both devices must have access to the same Wi-Fi network. On your computer, select the name of the iPhone or iPad from the Wi-Fi settings.
• Bluetooth: To connect by Bluetooth, the computer (or another iOS device) must be discoverable. On your iOS device, go to Settings and turn on Bluetooth. Select the device you want to tether to the iOS device from the list of discoverable devices.
• USB: Plug in your iOS device to your computer using the cable that came with it.

To disconnect, turn off Personal Hotspot, unplug the USB cable or turn off Bluetooth, depending on the method you use.

In iOS 13, you can use Control Center to turn Personal Hotspot on or off quickly. Hard press the airplane icon to expand the options and then tap Personal Hotspot.

Using Instant Hotspot

If your mobile device is running iOS 8.1 or later and your Mac is running OS X Yosemite or later, you can use Instant Hotspot to reach your Personal Hotspot without entering a password. It works when the two devices are near each other.

• The iOS device must have Personal Hotspot turned on at Settings >Personal Hotspot.
• You must have a cellular plan for Personal Hotspot.
• Both devices must be signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
• Both devices must have Bluetooth turned on.
• Both devices must have Wi-Fi turned on.

To connect to your Personal Hotspot:

• On a Mac, choose the name of the iOS device that is providing the Personal Hotspot from the Wi-Fi status menu at the top of the screen.
• On another iOS device, go to Settings >Wi-Fi and select the name of the iOS device providing the Personal Hotspot.

The devices disconnect automatically when you are not using the connection.

Instant Hotspot requires iPhone 5 or newer, iPad Pro, iPad 5th generation, iPad Air or newer, or iPad mini or newer. They can connect with Macs dated 2012 or newer, with the exception of the Mac Pro, which must be late 2013 or newer.

Personal Hotspot can go missing from your iPhone in some circumstances. Learn how to get it back in how to fix iPhone personal hotspot on iPhone & iOS. In other cases, Personal Hotspot might just stop working. For that problem, check out How to Fix It If iPhone Personal Hotspot Is Not Working.

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Personal Hotspot on iPhone: What You Need To Know

Answers to all your questions about tethering your iPhone

One of the iPhone’s best features is its ability to share your cellular data connection with other devices, which is known as Personal Hotspot, or tethering. Personal Hotspot may be easy to use, but there’s a lot to understand about it. Get answers to common questions and troubleshooting issues about Personal Hotspot on the iPhone in this article.

What Is Tethering?

Tethering is a way to share an iPhone’s 3G, 4G, or 5G data connection with other nearby computers and mobile devices (iPads with 3G, 4G, or 5G can also be used as Personal Hotspots). When tethering is enabled, the iPhone functions like a cellular modem or Wi-Fi hotspot and broadcasts its internet connection to other devices that are connected to it. All data sent to and from those devices is routed through the iPhone to the internet. With tethering, any computer or another device that can connect to a Wi-Fi network can get online anywhere you can access the web on your phone.

How Is Tethering Different From Personal Hotspot?

They’re the same thing. Personal Hotspot is just the name that Apple uses for the generic tethering feature on the iPhone. When using tethering on your iPhone, look for the Personal Hotspot options and menus.

What Kind of Devices Can Connect Via iPhone Tethering?

Almost any kind of computing device that can use the internet can also connect to an iPhone using tethering. Desktops, laptops, iPads, gaming systems, and other tablets are all compatible with Personal Hotspot.

How Do Devices Connect to Personal Hotspot?

Devices can connect to the iPhone via Personal Hotspot in one of three ways:

When you tether a device to the iPhone, you connect that device to the iPhone using just one of these options at a time. Tethering over Wi-Fi works just like connecting to any other Wi-Fi network. Using Bluetooth is similar to pairing to a Bluetooth accessory. Simply connecting the iPhone to a device with a standard cable is enough to tether over USB.

What Models of the iPhone Support Tethering?

Every model of the iPhone starting with the iPhone 3GS supports tethering.

What Version of the iOS Is Required for Personal Hotspot?

In order to use Personal Hotspot on your iPhone, you need to be running iOS 4 or higher (Because iOS 4 came out way back in 2011, virtually every iPhone still in use today is running that or higher).

What Is the Range of a Personal Hotspot?

The distance that tethered devices can be apart from each other while still working depends on how they’re connected. A device tethered over USB only has a range as long as the USB cable being used. Tethering over Bluetooth gives a range of a couple of dozen feet, while Wi-Fi connections stretch a little farther (throughout a house or office, for example).

How Do I Get Personal Hotspot on My iPhone?

The Personal Hotspot feature is built into the iOS that comes on every iPhone. But you need more than just the feature to use Personal Hotspot. You also need a data plan from your phone company that includes it.

These days, tethering is included as a default option on most monthly plans from most major phone companies. In a few instances, tethering requires an additional monthly fee. Contact your phone company, or log into your phone company account online, to see if you already have Personal Hotspot or if you need to add it.

How Do I Know if Tethering Is Enabled on My Account?

Checking with your phone company is definitely one way. But probably the easiest way is to check on your iPhone by following these steps:

Tap the Settings app to open it.

Scroll down to the Personal Hotspot section. The simple presence of this option should indicate that you have Personal Hotspot on your phone, but continue to the next step to be totally sure.

Tap Personal Hotspot. If the next screen has a slider (whether it’s set to on or off), Personal Hotspot is available to you.

What Does Personal Hotspot Cost?

In most cases, Personal Hotspot itself doesn’t cost anything. Generally speaking, you just pay for the data used by it along with all of your other data use. This all depends on what monthly plan you have and what phone company you use. If you’ve got an unlimited data plan, Personal Hotspot is almost definitely included. In a few cases, it may cost $10 or more dollars per month extra.

Can I Keep Unlimited Data With Personal Hotspot?

Good news: unlimited data plans that support tethering are back! For a few years after the debut of the iPhone, unlimited monthly plans were common. Then phone companies changed to plans that capped the amount of data that any one person could use and charged people more for exceeding those caps. In those situations, you often had to choose between having tethering or unlimited data.

These days, phone companies are offering unlimited data plans that include tethering. These plans still have caps, but not the same kind. The difference is that, when you exceed the cap, your data speeds — including tethering — are drastically slowed until the next month.

Does Data Used by Tethered Devices Count Against My Data Limit?

Yes. All the data used by devices tethered to your iPhone over Personal Hotspot counts against your monthly data limit. This means you’ll want to keep a close eye on your data use and ask people tethered to you not to do data-intensive things like streaming movies.

How to Set up and Using Personal Hotspot

To learn how to use Personal Hotspot on your iPhone, check out these articles:

How Do You Know When Devices Are Tethered to Your iPhone?

When a device is connected to the web via tethering, your iPhone displays a blue bar at the top of the screen on most models that reads Personal Hotspot and shows how many devices are connected to it. On the iPhone X series phones (the X, XS, XR, etc.), a blue bubble appears around the time in the top left corner.

Can You Sync the iPhone While Tethered?

Yes. You can sync via Wi-Fi or USB without the syncing interfering with the Internet connection.

Can I Use Personal Hotspot If My iPhone Has Been Ejected?

Yes. After you connect your iPhone to your computer via USB, it will sync (unless you’ve disabled automatic syncing). If you prefer, you can then eject the iPhone by clicking the arrow buttons next to it in iTunes without losing your connection to the Internet.

Can I Change My Personal Hotspot Password?

Every iPhone Personal Hotspot is given a randomized, default password that other devices have to have in order to connect. You can change that default password if you prefer.

Can I Change the Name of My iPhone for Personal Hotspot?

Usually, the name of your iPhone is something like «Sam’s iPhone» and that’s what people look for when they try to connect to your Personal Hotspot. If you use your Hotspot in public a lot, you may want to change the name to something more fun or less personally identifying.

How Do I Fix a Personal Hotspot That’s Not Working?

There are lots of reasons Personal Hotspot might stop working on your iPhone. Some of them are minor and easy to fix, others are complicated and require a number of steps. We’ve got solutions for all of them in How to Fix It If iPhone Personal Hotspot Is Not Working.

I Have Personal Hotspot, but It’s Missing From My Phone. Help!

Sometimes, the Personal Hotspot option will go missing from your iPhone even though you have the feature available as part of your monthly phone plan.

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