Windows Phones

magpiesnest

Hi all, I know we have some windows phone users out there so i want to pick your brains!

Can you use windows phones as wifi hot spots as you can with android phones?
How would you rate the new 7.5 os? is it stable or still a little buggy?
Which phone would you recommend?

I am looking to buy a windows phone outright and look for a good sim only deal. All info would be appreciated.

jayme1

these 2 links may help you out:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/08/windows-phone-mangos-wi-fi-hotspot-secret.ars
http://www.winrumors.com/nokia-working-on-lumia-800-software-update-to-enable-internet-sharing/

magpiesnest

hmmm, so it looks like the carrier has to enable the setting? well i would be using the facility very little but it's nice to have if need be. Wonder if they will carge even if i dont go over my allowance?

gjchester

magpiesnest wrote: »

hmmm, so it looks like the carrier has to enable the setting? well i would be using the facility very little but it's nice to have if need be. Wonder if they will carge even if i dont go over my allowance?

It's called Tethering and is almost always chargable, Three allow you to tether for free and yuse your allowance but the rest of the mobile co's don't.

There are ways to try and fool the systems, and some work well , but if you do it a lot they will catch up eventually.

magpiesnest

Hi, i was not planning to tether a great deal, just every now and then when away from a wifi source and even then would only be for a quick internet browse. Not to download or anything so i would not go over my data plan.
So is the answer to my question that you can have this facility on windows phones? If so is it all of them or just certain ones?

gjchester

magpiesnest wrote: »

Hi, i was not planning to tether a great deal, just every now and then when away from a wifi source and even then would only be for a quick internet browse. Not to download or anything so i would not go over my data plan.

How long you tether for and how much you download is irrelevent.

Iphones are known for the fact they handle tethering differently to phone based data, and you get charged as soon as you download 1 byte of information, it does not normally come out of your allowance. If the mobile co has to enable tethering then I suspect thats the same with Windows 7 phones.

magpiesnest wrote: »

So is the answer to my question that you can have this facility on windows phones? If so is it all of them or just certain ones?

It's not quite that simple.

The Windows 7 "Mango" software release does not allow tethering but has since had a upgrade the "NoDo" patch which does. (Think of it as a service pack for phones)

However like many phones if you get that patch depends on who and where the phone came from.

Microsoft have released the patch but the phone maker will need to produce a phone specific patch. They may or may not choose to do this depending on how old the phone it, (although as W7 is new they should be doing this).


If you got the phone Sim Free and unlocked and it should get it quickly, from the makers web site or download service.

If the firmware has been modified by the mobile company, then it depends when they look at the patch and they may tweak it to turn off some features, or they may choose not to release it.

In all honestly you probably will find it on most phones but you'd need to look at each phone and each network to see what they can and can not do.

chrispafc

I went for a Sony (Ericsson) Xperia Ray instead of a Windows phone for the reasons above - no tethering.