{"id":27022,"date":"2017-09-17T09:06:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-17T13:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/?p=27022"},"modified":"2017-09-05T09:07:37","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T13:07:37","slug":"use-personal-hotspot-tethering-to-avoid-dodgy-wi-fi-while-traveling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/use-personal-hotspot-tethering-to-avoid-dodgy-wi-fi-while-traveling\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Personal Hotspot Tethering to Avoid Dodgy Wi-Fi While Traveling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finding good Internet access for your Mac or Wi-Fi-only iPad while traveling can be maddening. Look in your Wi-Fi menu while sitting in an airport and you\u2019ll see a bunch of networks, most of which require a password or won\u2019t connect for other reasons. It isn\u2019t any better when you reach your destination, since many hotels charge usurious rates for Wi-Fi. And while you might be able to find a coffee shop with free public Wi-Fi, those networks may not be secure\u2014a hacker on the same network could watch your unencrypted Internet traffic.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re like most Apple users, the solution is in your pocket or purse: your iPhone. For a number of years, turning on iOS\u2019s Personal Hotspot feature involved additional fees from your cellular carrier, which dissuaded many people from using it. Nowadays, however, most mobile phone plans don\u2019t charge extra for tethering,<\/i> as it\u2019s often called. If you have an \u201cunlimited\u201d plan, your carrier may throttle your bandwidth if you exceed some usage level because the carrier doesn\u2019t want customers to use tethering for their primary Internet connections. Double-check your plan, but if you won\u2019t have to pay more to use tethering, here\u2019s how to use it to solve Wi-Fi problems while on the road.<\/p>\n

On your iPhone (or cellular-enabled iPad), go to Settings > Personal Hotspot and enable the switch for Personal Hotspot. Then tap Wi-Fi Password, and in the next screen, enter a password. It must be at least 8 characters and can use only ASCII characters (English letters, numbers, and standard punctuation marks). It shouldn\u2019t be trivial (like \u201cpassword\u201d), but don\u2019t worry about making it super strong, since your iPhone isn\u2019t likely to be in any single location long enough for someone to try to crack it. (You can also share a Personal Hotspot connection via Bluetooth or a USB cable, but both are fussier and may not work as well.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then, from your MacBook, click the Wi-Fi\u00a0\"\"\u00a0menu in the menu bar and choose the network named for your iPhone\u2014it may appear under a Personal Hotspot heading and will have a Personal Hotspot \"\"\u00a0 icon. From an iPad or another iOS device, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and select the iPhone\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In either case, if both devices are signed in to the same iCloud account and have Bluetooth turned on, Apple\u2019s Instant Hotspot feature should make it so you don\u2019t have to enter the password. It\u2019s no great hardship if you do have to type the password; the Mac or iPad should remember it for future use.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re connected, everything should work just as though you were using a normal Wi-Fi network. Performance might be a little slow, but since random public Wi-Fi networks are often pokey, it may be better than you\u2019d get otherwise.<\/p>\n

If you worry about using too much data and generating overage charges or getting throttled, pay attention to what apps and services use bandwidth on your Mac. Things like Dropbox, Backblaze, and iCloud Photo Library can slurp a lot of data in the background, so you may want to turn them off. Or install TripMode<\/a> ($7.99), a clever Mac utility that notices when you\u2019re using a new Wi-Fi network and asks which services you want to allow through.<\/p>\n

When you finish tethering, turn off the Personal Hotspot switch on your iPhone to make sure it doesn\u2019t use any extra battery life or allow another of your devices to consume cellular data inadvertently.<\/p>\n

\n

Twitter:<\/b> Tired of searching for a decent Wi-Fi connection while traveling? Try turning on Personal Hotspot on your iPhone!<\/p>\n

Facebook:<\/b> Finding Internet access while traveling can be a royal pain. Here\u2019s the solution!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finding good Internet access for your Mac or Wi-Fi-only iPad while traveling can be maddening. Look in your Wi-Fi menu while sitting in an airport and you\u2019ll see a bunch of networks, most of which require a password or won\u2019t connect for other reasons. It isn\u2019t any better when you reach your destination, since many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,295,39,67,296,48,52,5,297,60,196,298,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-bandwidth","category-blog","category-how-to","category-internet","category-ios","category-iphone","category-mac","category-personal-hotspot","category-productivity","category-restricted-content","category-tethering","category-wi-fi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Personal-Hotspot-enable.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YLEm-71Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33651,"url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/when-it-comes-to-wi-fi-networks-sometimes-its-better-to-forget\/","url_meta":{"origin":27022,"position":0},"title":"When It Comes to Wi-Fi Networks, Sometimes It\u2019s Better to Forget","author":"computeradv","date":"October 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s easy, particularly when traveling, to end up connecting to a Wi-Fi network that doesn\u2019t provide Internet access, requires credentials you don\u2019t have, or lacks access to the network\u2019s printer. 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