Guest HenryWaxmansNostrils Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Hi all as title suggests I'm considering using my iPhone 4S as my main internet access. My situation is as follows. I live in a remote location In uk with no landline access. Presently using Three,s mifi with 15 gb dataplan and it works well. I recently acquired my daughters iPhone 4S and have seperate PAYG SIM . Three has a twelve month one plan with all you can eat data plus 2000 minutes phone use. Cost is £15 per month. My present 2 plans cost £25 per month for less data and less minutes. Obviously being a tight git I like the idea of one plan giving me more for less cost. I want to connect the iphone via a dock to my htpc with USB . Ideally I would then like to share internet access from htpc to my router so that other devices can connect through that. Is this possible . I don't really want everything connecting directly to iphone wirelessly as I dont think it would be as solid a connection as my router plus have heard stories of phone overheating. I live on my own so no probs about internet access when I'm not there . I would appreciate any thoughts regards Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 See: http://ipod.about.com/od/usingios4/ss/Set-Up-Use-Iphone-Tethering_5.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HenryWaxmansNostrils Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Hi Wayne Luke thanks for reply.I have been all over the internet and they all talk about using the iphone as hotspot . The link you posted is the same I want to share my internet from the computer via my router not use the phone as a router . I think it can be done with ICS in windows but wasn't sure. I can't test as I can't tether on my current plan hence my post asking for advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HenryWaxmansNostrils Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Well I don't know if the following info will be of use to anybody. The amount of users here with only a mobile broadband solution like me is likely to be small at best. I had thought that tethering my iphone to my htpc would be ok . But and it's a big but I would have to enable internet connection sharing. Seems this interferes with media streaming and file sharing permissions leading to never ending nightmares. So in the course of blundering around on Google for hours I found a link to a firmware update for the Billion 7800x series of routers. This router has wireless and 4 gigabit ports plus a USB port for 3G/4g dongles. The new firmware allows you to tether an android phone or an iphone with iOS 6 or ios7 . Just plug your iphone lead into the USB port simple config set and voila internet connection shared through router. Bonus it charges the phone as well . Can still make and take calls as well. Pity there's no app for controlling the iphone from my ipad mini that would be heaven cos I take the epithet professional couch potatoe seriously. I'll trial the phone with a one month one plan on three and if it proves reliable I'll go for it .i needed a new router anyway so if I do this the money I save will pay for the router in one year. So looks like a good result if all pans out regards Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Unfortunately, it isn't very plug and play. You can only share via WiFi, Bluetooth or USB via 30-pin Connector. So you would have to share to your router via one of those three. Your router would have to be set to use the DNS and Gateway provided by the iPhone. Not sure if those are static though. If you connect the iPhone to the router directly, you'll probably have to use Wifi. You would then set up the router as a bridge. This would allow it to rebroadcast the WiFi signal if capable of wireless and make the signal accessible via its ethernet ports. Bridging is quite common but more so in the business world than home use as one router often covers an entire home. This article gives the basics on bridges: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57529336-285/reuse-an-old-router-to-bridge-devices-to-your-wireless-network/ To use USB, you would need to connect your iPhone to a computer and it would need to provide the information to the Router via the Router's WAN port. In essence it would be your server for the network. Other devices could then connect to the router as normal. The computer would get its Gateway from the phone. It then becomes the Gateway for the router while passing through DNS information. For the DNS on this "Server" machine, you'll probably want to set it to a public DNS like Google DNS or OpenDNS. Will provide more stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HenryWaxmansNostrils Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Hi Wayne Luke . Well I'll be connecting via the thirty pin connector to usb on back of router. As I said above this charges it and shares the connection. According to the forum at whirlpool.au it's virtually plug and play. You set it up just like a 3G dongle just type in your apn and phone no and it's done all the software required is part of the firmware. This update only happened at end of October 2013 . When they release their new lines of ac routers later this year it will be on the tech sheet of certain models so it will be more widely publicised. Asus have implemented something similar for android phones on a few of their routers but sounds like its a bit flaky. Anyway thanks for response regards Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Sounds interesting. Haven't seen a router that takes a network connection via USB. I guess I probably wasn't looking though either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HenryWaxmansNostrils Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I have been using 3G dongles for almost 5 years now. With the first one I bought a small router by solwise which had two Ethernet ports and two USB ports .it was also wireless but at that time it was only a b g wireless so it's too slow now compared with wireless n. It worked well and shared the internet around my various devices. The two USB ports can be set up for the 3G dongle or as a print server or a samba server for external hard drives etc. many newer routers have a USB port for 3G dongles primarily marketed towards small businesses and described as "Failover" meaning if you set it up with a 3G dongle and your land line fails for some reason it just flips over automatically to the 3G connection .nearly all of these routers with USB port can be set up as printer or samba shares as well. This tethering update is really new though and as you say interesting. Regards Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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