Phone tethering basics

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Small business owners are often on the go. And they need connectivity pretty much all the time. In cases where you can’t get a wifi connection, you might be able to use your smartphone to provide the connectivity to your laptop.

Here’s how it works in a nutshell:

  • Tethering is the ability to use your mobile device to connect a computer (usually a laptop) to the Internet. It uses the device’s own cell capabilities to do that, so it will be as fast (or as slow) as your device.
  • You can connect the device using a USB cable, bluetooth or wi-fi connection, depending on the carrier and device
  • Set-up is done on the phone itself, and you may have to sign up for the service through your carrier
  • You connect your laptop similarly as you would otherwise connect to a wi-fi network, bluetooth device or ethernet connection
  • Just watch your usage because this could use up your data plan really fast.

An alternative is to use a mobile hotspot device. ComputerWorld has a great article on that subject