How to connect to a phone hotspot

Want to connect your laptop to Wi-Fi while you're on the go? Or maybe you're working from home and your internet connection is less than stellar. If so, no need to rely on public networks—use your smartphone as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to share internet with other devices using your mobile data. 

Asurion Experts help millions of customers fix their tech fast and find solutions to their everyday tech care needs. In this article, they'll be sharing how a hotspot works, how to use your iPhone® or Android™ phone as a hotspot, and how to block others from using your hotspot network. 

A friendly reminder: Verizon®, AT&T®, and Sprint®, among other carriers, offer hotspot plans, so check with your wireless provider to find out whether additional data charges apply. 

What is a mobile hotspot? 

Using your phone as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot lets you share your smartphone's mobile network connection with your other devices, letting them connect to the internet anywhere that you have mobile service. Most smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy® and iPhone, have built-in features that allow you to quickly turn on a Wi-Fi hotspot from the Settings or App menu. 

Sure, free Wi-Fi can be found everywhere from coffee shops to national parks, but using public Wi-Fi always carries certain security risks and often requires you to give out personal information, like your email address, in order to use the service. Using your smartphone's mobile hotspot allows you to put extra security measures in place to help protect you and your private information. 

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How to turn your iPhone into a mobile hotspot 

1. Tap Settings, then Personal Hotspot. 
2. Tap Allow Others to Join, and then tap Wi-Fi Password to change the password for your shared network. 
3. Connect your computer to your phone's internet—you can choose to connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, or USB. 

Note: Your iCloud® devices will be able to use it automatically. 

How to use your Samsung Galaxy as a mobile hotspot 

1. Tap Settings, then Connections. 
2. Tap Mobile Hotspot and Tethering. 
3. Tap Mobile Hotspot to turn it on. 
4. Once it’s on, tap Mobile Hotspot again, then tap Configure, where you can change the password to something difficult enough to help keep unwelcome guests from joining. 

How to use your Google Pixel as a hotspot

1. Tap Settings > Network & internet > Hotspot & tethering. 
2. Tap Wi-Fi hotspot, and tap the switch to turn it on.  
3. Once you’ve turned it on, you can tap Hotspot password to change it to something difficult enough to help keep unwelcome guests from joining. 

How to block others from using your mobile hotspot 

The easiest way to block others from using your personal mobile hotspot is to protect it with a strong, complex password. Combine uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and special characters like, $, @, and #, to create a password that's at least 8 characters long. Don't use personal information, like your anniversary or your pet's name, and avoid using repetitive characters. 

If you suspect someone is using your mobile hotspot without your permission, you can check to see who is on it by going to the Hotspot section in your phone's Settings and looking at Connected Devices. If someone is on your network that you don't want to be on it, disconnect your mobile hotspot and reactivate it using a completely different password. Some devices also offer you the option to select the user under Connected Devices and tap Block to prevent them from using your hotspot. 

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For more than 25 years, Asurion has helped 300 million customers protect, connect, and enjoy the tech they love most. And smartphones are no exception. Your life is on your device, make sure it’s protected. Learn more about Asurion phone insurance plans today.

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Most Android phones can share mobile data through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB. Here are the steps you can follow to share a mobile connection by tethering or hotspot on Android.

Here is how you can share a mobile connection by tethering or hotspot | Representational image

By India Today Web Desk: Your Phone's data work as a saviour when you need a Wi-Fi connection on your laptop when you're out of range of a network or public hotspot. You can use your phone's mobile data to connect another phone, tablet, or computer to the internet.

Sharing phone's data this way is called tethering or using a hotspot. Most Android phones can share mobile data through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB.

Here are the steps you can follow to share a mobile connection by tethering or hotspot on Android

Note: Some of these steps work only on Android 9 and up.

Tether by Wi-Fi hotspot

This is one of the easiest and most used methods. Follow the below-given steps to turn on your phone's hotspot.

Step 1: Open your phone's Settings app.

Step 2: Next, tap Network & Internet.

Step 3: From the given options select Hotspot & tethering.

Step 4: On the next page you need to turn on Wi-Fi hotspot.

As soon as you flip the toggle to on, your phone will begin sending out its own WLAN network that other devices can find in their network list. By default, a random password will be assigned, but both that and the name can be changed. You just simply need to choose the correct name and enter the password, you'll be connected to the Internet.

Nowadays most of the devices directly show the option of Potable hotspot. From there you can directly make the changes.

You can share your phone's mobile data with up to 10 other devices via a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Tether by Bluetooth

Step 1: First you need to pair your phone with the other device.

Step 2: Next, head over to your Bluetooth settings, tap Pair new device and select the device you want to pair.

Step 3: Now, you need to open your phone's Settings and flip on the Bluetooth tethering toggle.

This method is significantly slower than a hotspot but will use less battery life.

Tether by USB cable

Before you follow steps remember that Mac computers can't tether with Android by USB.

Step 1: Using a USB cable, connect your phone to the other device. A notification, "Connected as a" will be displayed on the top of the screen.

Step 2: Open your phone's Settings app.

Step 3: From the given option tap Network & Internet.

Step 4: On the new page select Hotspot & tethering.

Step 5: Next, turn on USB tethering.

Nowadays mostly device directly shows Hotspot & tethering option when you tap setting. Once you plugged in and toggle on, it instantly recognizing the new network and connecting to it.

When you plug in your devices while tethering it starts charging. When you are done with then you can turn off tethering connections. Just keep in mind that, whatever work you do will use your allotment of mobile data, so if you have a limited plan, be mindful of what you're doing.

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