can i somehow use mobile phone as dongle

mrs_baggins

if i connect to net on laptop wirelessly via a pay as you go dongle can i also somehow connect via a mobile phone which has broadband?

reason why is that mobile has unlimited internet useage wheras dongle is limited to monthly allowance. I am not sure if it even can be done i was just curious to see if i can? if it can be done could somone tell me how?

thanks very much

mr_fishbulb

What make/model is your phone? My HTC Legend creates a wifi hotspot you can connect your laptop to and use the 3G internet.

I don't have unlimited internet though, and I suspect you don't either. It will probably be limited to fair usage of 500MB or 1GB or similar. Check before you rack up a huge bill.

Derivative

Depending on the phone it can sometimes be done (I can do it on my Blackberry quite easily using the free software), however your "unlimited" cell phone provider will be giving you a ring quite sharpish if you use a decent amount (there will be a fair usage policy and fair generally applies to .. using it as a phone :P)

fitshase

I do the same with my Nokia on a Vodafone contract. Bear in mind that the speed might be slightly slower than a dongle.

Also, there is no such thing as unlimited internet usage on your phone contract. There will be a "fair use policy" which normally limits the data to about 500mb per month.

If you have a Nokia, download the Nokia PC Suite and there is an option on there to connect to the internet.

mrs_baggins

hi there, yes sorry I realise there is a fair use policy . I wasnt doing it to use loads just curious as to if. It was a friend who asked not sure of exact madel but i know its an android samsung one. How exactly may it be done any ideas or even tried.

BillScarab

It works on my HTC Desire running Android 2.2. It turns the phone into a hotspot and you can connect up to 8 devices to it.

If your friend's phojne is running 2.2 it may well work on that as well.

jai-dee

Given that it's the sim card in your phone that has the unlimited internet useage and not the phone itself, could you not just take the sim card out of your phone and put it into your dongle when you want to use the laptop?

Saltire_2

If you're wanting to look it up further I believe the full name for it is "tethering"

mrs_baggins

jai-dee wrote: »

Given that it's the sim card in your phone that has the unlimited internet useage and not the phone itself, could you not just take the sim card out of your phone and put it into your dongle when you want to use the laptop?

I hadnt thought of this!!!! its something to try. thanks

JasX

Plus sometimes they can be trick about 'tethering' and have something buried in the Ts & Cs, only one operator used to explicitly allow it, heard rumors the others could sometimes tell if you were using the net via a tethered device but not sure how they would have done that or if it was true (they could have just caught someone accessing a ton of sites incompatible with the handset and put 2 and 2 together....

nzseries1

My T-Mobile contract says clearly that it is forbidden to connect my phone to my PC with the intention of using my mobile's "unlimited" internet via my PC.

However, I have done it briefly on one occasion where my fixed-line broadband and mobile dongle were both not working, and it works well!