If you want to surf the web with your notebook on the go, you don’t need a UMTS stick. Instead, connect to the Internet with your Android smartphone or iPhone. The notebook then accesses the smartphone hotspot via WLAN, which acts as a WLAN router or mobile phone modem.
Use your smartphone as a mobile modem. Your notebook can access the Internet via the smartphone hotspot.
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You can easily access the Internet on the go with a notebook (Windows, Linux, Mac OS), a desktop PC (Windows, Linux, Mac OS), a tablet (Android, iOS, Windows) or any other WiFi-enabled device – without that the notebook or the desktop computer or the tablet must have its own SIM card / UMTS / LTE module. The only requirement: your laptop or PC must be able to establish a WLAN connection. Because via the WLAN you connect the computer to an iPhone or an Android smartphone, which takes on the role of the modem. This solution is also known as a cell phone modem.
To do this, set up a WiFi hotspot on the smartphone. And you are already surfing the Internet with your notebook via the smartphone hotspot. This process, i.e. surfing the Internet with a computer via a smartphone hotspot or a cell phone modem, is called tethering.
For iOS and Android, we explain how to set up a smartphone hotspot as a modem for the PC. The exact menu name may differ slightly from the names given here, depending on the operating system version on your smartphone, but the procedure is always identical.
How to set up the WiFi hotspot on an Android smartphone
The Android operating system has integrated the “tethering” function since version Android 2.2 Froyo – that is, for ages. From a technical point of view, nothing has stood in the way of using an Android smartphone as a cell phone modem for years.
Here you turn on the hotspot on the android. This turns your android into a cell phone modem.
To do this, select in Android “Settings, Wireless & Networks (this menu item may be under” More “), Mobile network sharing (alternatively, this menu item can also be called” Tethering & mobile hotspot “)”. On Samsung- Galaxy devices, the correct way is: “Settings, connections, mobile hotspot and tethering”. The exact designation of the menu items can therefore vary depending on the smartphone manufacturer and Android version, it is only important that you finally go to “Mobile WLAN hotspot ” land.
Then activate “On” for “Mobile WLAN hotspot”. You can switch off the hotspot here at any time.
Here you can configure the smartphone hotspot on the android.
Then tap on “Portable Wi-Fi hotspot” to check the settings and change them if necessary. You will now see the hotspot name (SSID): This name then appears as the WLAN name in the notebook.
You will also see the password. If a password has not yet been set, please do so now. Otherwise, anyone who discovers your WiFi can connect to it and surf on it.
In addition, the “Mobile WLAN hotspot” menu shows you whether and how many devices are connected to the hotspot and what the names of these devices are.
Under the menu item “Advanced” (accessible via the three points at the top right) you can specify whether you want to hide the SSID, which security standard is selected (all current devices are WPA2 PSK) and which WLAN frequency band is set . You can also see the energy mode here: After how many minutes of inactivity the hotspot switches off.
You can only make changes to the hotspot configuration if the hotspot is switched off.
Your Windows, Linux or Mac OS notebook or Windows, Linux or Mac OS computer will automatically recognize the new WLAN, provided that the WLAN function is activated on the laptop / PC. Select the SSID of your hotspot and enter the password. You only have to enter the password once, the computer remembers the setting.
Click here for the hotspot menu on the iPhone. WLAN must be activated on the iPhone for this.
How to set up WiFi hotspot on an iPhone
Select “Settings, Personal Hotspot” on the iPhone. Activate the hotspot with “Allow access for others”. You can deactivate the hotspot here at any time. Then enter a password the first time you use it. You will then find the SSID of this smartphone Wi-Fi hotspot on your computer in the Wi-Fi display area. Alternatively, you can only set up a “family share”.
Here you turn on the hotspot on the iPhone and set the password.
Most mobile network providers do not allow tethering via a smartphone or mobile phone by default or require a significant monthly surcharge if you want to tether your mobile phone contract. However, if you only use tethering occasionally and the resulting traffic volume remains manageable, your provider should not notice this.