Before you give out the Internet from your phone, you need to make sure that this function is not blocked by the cellular operator. Now in MTS, Beeline, and Tele2 on many tariffs it is an additional service and will cost about 50 to 100 rubles per day. This is true even if the connected tariff plan implies unlimited Internet. Megafon remains the most loyal in this regard - it blocks only UDP-traffic (used for downloading/distributing torrents), reducing the connection speed to 128 Kbps.
Distributing Internet from Android smartphone
To distribute WiFi from the phone you will need:
- open "Settings";
- Go to "Wireless Media and Networks" (sometimes referred to as "Connection and Sharing");
- select "WiFi hotspot" (may be referred to as "hotspot mode");
- in Access Point Setup, enter any Wi-Fi Network Name (SSID) and Password (minimum 8 characters);
- switch Access Point to On.
After that, you can connect your laptop, other smartphone, tablet, or even a PC with WiFi. The function is available for all devices with Android version 4 and higher.
Internet sharing can also be done via USB or Bluetooth connection.
How to bypass sharing
If the mobile network operator blocks the internet sharing on the Android device, this can be done by changing the TTL value. But this will require root rights, as well as a program that allows you to change the TTL (TTL Master or its analogues).
And the operator Tele2 now uses a more advanced way of blocking, which additionally analyzes the traffic. This restriction is bypassed by any VPN running on the device connected to the mobile access point. In this case, the operator will not be able to analyze the traffic, as it will be encrypted.
Playing Internet from iPhone
On iPhones running iOS 7 or later, you enable the hotspot as follows:
- open Settings, click Modem Mode
- toggle the slider to On
- tap the WiFi Password
- set your Wi-Fi network name and password, then select Done.
When you connect third-party devices to your iPhone, the iPhone status bar displays the number of active clients.
Advanced tips
Withdrawing the phone cover is recommended to increase coverage. Using the function quickly drains the battery (especially with a 4G connection), so it is recommended to connect the phone to a charger. And when connecting to a laptop WiFi, it is recommended to turn on the "limited connection" mode in the latter. It will save traffic and temporarily ban downloading of Windows update files.
To sum up, you don't need to install any additional software from your phone to share the Internet with your laptop or any other device. The "hotspot" function at the operating system level is supported in Android 4 and iOS 7 (and newer OS versions). This allows you to turn your smartphone into a portable router, but you can't block clients by IP or MAC address. Traffic consumption can be monitored in "Data Transfer Statistics".
