Demand an internet connection for your PC or laptop, but don't have admission to public Wi-Fi? The solution is unproblematic: connect your smartphone'due south mobile cyberspace connection to your PC. This process is known equally tethering.

While tethering with your laptop or tablet may be faster than the public network in your favorite buffet, it can have its own problems. Hither's what you need to know about tethering with Android and how to connect your mobile net to your PC.

What Is Tethering?

Tethering is the term for connecting your mobile device to your computer, and so your PC tin get online via your phone's mobile information connection. Information technology works via USB, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.

In the pre-iPhone days, this meant using an old-fashion feature telephone to call a number that gave internet admission anywhere. Some prison cell phones could share their internet connection, enabling you lot to get online via the device network'south APN.

Post-obit the release of the iPhone in 2007, many cell phone networks began charging extra for tethering plans. Fortunately, this money-grabbing practice has since been phased out nearly completely---these days, tethering is unremarkably gratis aside from using your data allowance.

Android Mobile Tethering Options Explained

Android owners have three tethering options to share a mobile internet connectedness with their laptop, tablet, or fifty-fifty desktop PC:

  1. Connect via Bluetooth
  2. Use your telephone as a wireless hotspot
  3. Connect your telephone to your estimator via USB

Below we'll look at each of these to detect which method volition drain your battery quickest, and which transfers data fastest.

Before proceeding, make sure you accept enabled mobile cyberspace on your phone. It's important to notation that mobile signal force will impact your connexion speed. Using tethering tin also result in your phone's bombardment level decreasing quickly; wireless tethering is peculiarly power-intensive.

We provide speed results from speedtest.net for comparison.

ane. How to Connect Mobile Internet to a PC With a USB Cablevision

Mobile phones accept long had a modem feature, allowing you to claw upward the device to your computer using USB tethering. This lets you share the mobile cyberspace connectedness over a wired connection with your laptop or other devices.

It's easy to do. Connect the USB cable that shipped with your telephone to your calculator, and then plug it into the phone's USB port. Next, to configure your Android device for sharing mobile cyberspace:

  1. Open Settings > Network and cyberspace > Advanced > Hotspot and tethering.
  2. Tap the USB tethering slider to enable it. If this appears grayed out, make sure the USB cablevision is properly connected on both ends.
  3. The Hotspot and tethering alert will announced, informing you that continuing will interrupt any existing data transfers between your phone and PC.
  4. Tap OK to continue.

A notification icon should appear to ostend that tethering is active. In testing, we found the following results:

  • Speed: 97Mbps download, two.02Mbps upload, with an average ping of 66ms.
  • Battery Impact: The effect on your phone's battery depends on whether your laptop is plugged in or not. If it is, battery subtract should be wearisome to non-existent, equally the phone will slowly charge through the USB connection.

Note: If your computer is running on its battery, your phone volition potentially drain the computer's battery, rather than its own.

2. Use Bluetooth Tethering With Mobile internet

Desire to know how to connect mobile internet to a PC without a USB cable?

The answer is to use Bluetooth. The short-range wireless engineering has plenty bandwidth to route information to and from your phone and a paired device.

Start by pairing your telephone with your reckoner:

  1. Open your Android telephone's Bluetooth settings. You can exercise this by long-pressing the Bluetooth icon in Quick Settings, or browse to Settings > Connected devices.
  2. Select Pair new device, which will make your device discoverable.
  3. Now, on your Windows 10 organization, press Win + I to open the Settings app.
  4. Hither, select Devices > Bluetooth & other devices.
  5. Switch Bluetooth to On if it's non already. Click Add Bluetooth or other device followed by Bluetooth.
  6. Select your phone when information technology appears and walk through the pairing steps. If yous run into problems, see our guide to setting up Bluetooth in Windows x---the same steps can be used in Windows 11.
  7. Once paired, on your telephone, open Settings > Network and internet > Hotspot and tethering and turn on Bluetooth tethering.

In one case the phone is paired with your computer, you tin can share the mobile internet connection:

  1. Expand the Windows System Tray to detect the Bluetooth icon, right-click this, and select Join a Personal Expanse Network.
  2. In the resulting menu, observe your phone's icon and right-click it.
  3. Choose Connect using > Access point.

Your phone should and then brandish a notification that Bluetooth tethering is active. Our testing found:

  • Speed: 35Mbps download, 0.78Mbps upload, with an average ping of 289ms.
  • Battery Impact: Heavy Bluetooth utilize actually puts pressure on your battery. X minutes of usage ate upward five percent of the accuse on my telephone.

3. How to Connect Your Mobile Internet to a PC Wirelessly

Combining the wireless benefits of Bluetooth with the speed of USB, connecting your telephone as a Wi-Fi hotspot is peradventure the near popular tethering selection.

Using your mobile internet and Wi-Fi connection, your phone creates a private network to connect your devices with a secure password. It's definitely the almost convenient choice. To fix upwards Wi-Fi tethering:

  1. Open Settings > Network and Internet > Advanced > Hotspot and tethering.
  2. Tap Wi-Fi hotspot (called Portable hotspot on some phones).
  3. At the adjacent screen, switch the slider On.
  4. You lot can then conform options for the network on this page. For example, change the Hotspot name, Security blazon, or open the Advanced options to turn off the hotspot automatically when no devices are using it.
    1. On some devices, you'll need to open up the Configure hotspot menu to change these options.
  5. Tap the Hotspot password (sometimes called Prove password) box to view the countersign, if needed.

Then, on your Windows PC:

  1. Printing Win + I to open Settings.
  2. Go to Network & Internet > Wi-Fi.
  3. Click Prove bachelor networks and browse to notice the network your phone created. (Y'all can too do this by clicking the wireless internet icon in the Arrangement Tray).
  4. Select the network and click Connect.
  5. Input the countersign equally displayed on your phone (making any other changes as required) to found the connection.
Tether phone in Windows

Here are the results we institute from this pick:

  • Speed: 10Mbps download, four.45Mbps upload, with an average ping of 55ms.
  • Battery Impact: Equally with Bluetooth tethering, heavy use reduced bombardment by effectually five per centum in 10 minutes. Standard usage seems better with Wi-Fi tethering, however, and could potentially terminal around 5-6 hours.

Once yous've set up wireless tethering for the first time, it'south easy to actuate once more. Open the Quick Settings panel on your phone by swiping downwardly from the top twice. Tap the Hotspot button, then wait for your computer to connect. As long every bit yous don't modify the network name or password, it should reconnect automatically.

How to Connect an iPhone Mobile Hotspot to a PC

Not using Android? Need to borrow a phone to connect your PC to the internet and simply take an iPhone available?

iPhones have a hotspot style that y'all can enable at Settings > Personal Hotspot. This is a Wi-Fi hotspot that whatsoever wireless-enabled device can connect to.

For farther compatibility, iOS also supports Bluetooth and USB tethering, simply like Android. For full details on how to connect the mobile internet from an iPhone to your computer, check out how to use the hotspot feature on your iPhone.

Mobile Tethering? Use USB for Best Bombardment Life

Now you know how to connect mobile internet to your computer, using Wi-Fi, USB, or Bluetooth.

But which is best?

Our tests show that USB tethering is the option that drains your phone'southward battery the slowest. Meanwhile, Bluetooth offers the worst speeds. Cheers to improvements in Bluetooth technology, though, its bear upon on battery is adequate.

Stuck choosing between a Wi-Fi hotspot and USB tethering? Well, USB isn't the fastest at everything, making Wi-Fi the best all-around selection. Only if Wi-Fi isn't available, relying on USB tethering is your best alternative.