Why Use A Hotspot
In many parts of the country, even in London, some areas have poor internet connection speeds, especially those not yet connected to the Fibre network. But, mobile network coverage is often pretty good, so you may get faster speeds by connecting your laptop wirelessly to your mobile phone.
Of course, slow landline internet speeds might not be the only reason you need to connect to a mobile network. This is a great way to get online if you have a service outage, or even when you simply don’t trust the public wireless provision in the café you’re working in to take a break from working from home.
One thing to note before continuing – make sure you have enough data in your plan! Connecting your laptop may use significantly more data than your phone by itself. Many websites and apps are configured to deliver content differently for mobile phones. Other applications like Outlook and OneDrive may download significantly more data in the background than phone.
Configuring the Hotspot?
Configuring on both iOS and Android is really straight forward. Do note that different versions of both operating systems may look slightly different to the below, but should be virtually identical.
iOS
Simply go to
- Settings
- Personal Hotspot
- Enable ‘Allow Others to Join’
On your laptop, you will see the name of your phone as a new Wireless network. Enter the wireless password to connect.
You can also connect via Bluetooth or using your charger cable (note that this will charge the phone too, so might drain the battery on your laptop).
Android
Simply go to
- Settings
- Connections
- Mobile Hotspot
- Switch it On
On your laptop, you will see the name of your phone as a new Wireless network. Enter the wireless password to connect.
You can also connect via Bluetooth or using your charger cable (note that this will charge the phone too, so might drain the battery on your laptop).
