How to Use Your iPhone’s Wi-Fi Hotspot Feature and Connect to the Internet Anywhere

How to Use Your iPhone's Wi-Fi Hotspot Feature and Connect to the Internet Anywhere
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While we love our smartphones, there are still some things like typing long documents, or working remotely, that’s best done on a MacBook. That becomes problematic when you’re traveling or otherwise not around any suitable Wi-Fi networks.

But even if you’re not in range of a wireless network, you can still get online using your iPhone’s personal hotspot feature. Here’s how to do it.

1. Go into your phone’s Settings app.

2. From here, tap on the Personal Hotspot option. By default, the toggle should be switched off.

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3. Switch the Personal Hotspot mode to on.

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4. Your phone will ask you whether to turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth or USB Only. We’ll get to this in a second.

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5. Select a password for your new, personal wireless network. This can be anything you want, and can be changed readily.

As far as what method you should use to tether your iPhone to your Mac; there’s pros and cons to each.

USB tethering offers the fastest downloading speeds and reliability— and also doesn’t eat any battery life. But it requires a physical USB connection between your iPhone and the device you want to tether. Make sure to bring along your Lightning cable.

Bluetooth tethering drains less battery than Wi-Fi, and doesn’t require a USB connection. But you can only tether one device at a time. It’s middle-ground as far as upload and download speeds go.

Wi-Fi tethering is convenient, and allows you to connect multiple devices to your personal hotspot. But it’s not as fast or reliable as the other two options, and drains your iPhone’s battery more quickly.

And while the iPhone’s personal hotspot mode is a useful way to get online, you should be careful not to exceed your data allowance for the month. Personal hotspot with multiple devices can eat up your data rather quickly.

Additionally, some mobile providers will charge you extra or cap your data if see you using a personal hotspot. So keep that in mind.

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