OT - tethering over Bluetooth between tablet and handset - Xpost

[David.WE.Roberts]

Seeing as the advice is flowing well today :-)

I bought an Android tablet without the SIM card bits because I have an Android phone with an unlimited data tariff so I can use this for my data when I am away from WiFi.

O.K. - let's test it out.

My phone offers three tethering options:

USB (which IIRC installs some drivers on a Windows PC to make it a network device)

WiFi Hotspot (which should work for any WiFi capable device so is the easy option).

BlueTooth

I am assuming that the WiFi option will be fine because I've used the phone as a WiFi hot spot before and the tablet has working WiFi. However I will double check.

O.K. - Bluetooth. Pairing the two devices is pretty straightforward. Turn Bluetooth tethering on in the phone. Look for the tethering (or similar) option in the tablet - something to say 'use the Bluetooth device for network access'. Nothing obvious - in fact no network configuration as such in 'Settings'.

Google tells me how to use a mobile-enabled tablet in the same way as I would use the phone - as the network (server?) side of the tether.

I can't find anything which tells me how to use the Android tablet as a client of a tether.

Possibly nobody has bothered - or doesn't want to encourage this because they sell less expensive tablets.

Anyone solved this?

Cheers

Dave R

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

You might need to turn BT tethering on at the phone first, *then* connect the tablet to it. This way, the tablet should get told that one of the services the phone provides over BT is Internet access.

If it doesn't work next time, delete the BT connection at both ends, then recreate it while tethering is enabled.

Cheers - Jaimie

[newshound]

Any special reason you wanted to use bluetooth? I have various phones, hotspots, tablets, laptops and they all inter-connect painlessly by wifi. Does Bluetooth actually match the bandwidth of wifi?

[David.WE.Roberts]

I've solved the first level problem - I thought I was pressing the 'tools' icon on the tablet to try and configure the phone's Bluetooth details but I must have been missing it because it kept asking me if I wanted to unpair. Tried it again and this time it shows an additional menu.

I can now see that 'Connect to device for Internet access' is ticked so it should be working.

However I am getting 'Firefox can't find the server at

' which suggests no network connection or DNS problems.

An attempt to use an IP address doesn't work either so probably no network connection.

Checking on the phone the Bluetooth link to the tablet shows that it is set up for internet connection sharing.

The phone can connect over 3G to the Internet - web browser working O.K.

Chrome on the tablet reports 'Error code DNS_PROBE_POSSIBLE' which I will Google.

All in all it looks as though I've done what I should, and it ain't working.

So probably a bug.

Cheers

Dave R

[David.WE.Roberts]

Main reason is that Bluetooth is alleged to use less power than WiFi.

I don't know about the bandwidth but probably more than the Internet connection.

Cheers

Dave R

[Roger Mills]

The only reliable way is to use your phone as a personal WiFi hotspot.

I have a USB dongle which I was hoping to use for internet access with my WiFi-only Nexus-10 tablet in the same way that it works with a laptop. Although I can physically connect it with an OTG cable, and have installed some relevant Aps (forget what they are, now!) I've never made it work. Some sources say that the tablet needs to be rooted - but I'm reluctant to go down that road.

The tablet's Bluetooth is almost certainly restricted to certain functions - like file transfer and audio stream transfer. It's very unlikely that it can connect to the internet over Bluetooth (maybe it can if it's rooted, as per USB)

I don't have a phone which is capable of becoming a hotspot but I have bought an unlocked Huawei E5332 Mobile WiFi device, which will work with any data SIM. That works like a dream! In my case, I'm using a Samba SIM

- which works on the '3' network, and uses internet access credit which I earn by watching (or pretending to watch!) lots of adverts on my PC. But if you've got a phone with lots of data credit which can be used as a hotspot, that should work equally well.

[David.WE.Roberts]

Working now - I did the 'belt and braces' thing.

Turned WiFi off and Bluetooth on for the phone, same for the tablet, rebooted the phone, rebooted the tablet, paired them up again and checked through all the settings and this time it worked.

I suspect the tablet can't cope with changing networks in mid stream.

Or something.

Checking everything through with a new device is proving very time intensive - but better to do it now than a few days before we set off.

Cheers

Dave R

[Roger Mills]

Excellent. I was dubious whether Bluetooth would work, so it's good to see that it does. It's worth checking the speed though. I've a feeling that BT is limited to 1Mbps whereas a good 3G/HSDPA connection will provide several Mbps. You may be better off using WiFi even if it does use more power.

[What facilities will you have for charging your devices - mains, 12v from car, Solar, etc.?]

[Dave Liquorice]

I agree with this, things have to be enabled in the correct order. I also use Bluetooth to connect to my phone and thence to the 'net.

Just played:

Turn off WiFi on tablet. Turn on mobile data on phone. Turn on Bluetooth tethering on phone. Turn on Bluetooth on tablet. Connect to Phone over Bluetooth from tablet. Open browser on tablet, browse web, just works...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Bluetooth goes way faster than 3G. I don't know how it compares with 4G.

[newshound]

According to Wikipedia different flavours do 1, 3, or 24 Mbit/sec. It also says this:

"Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are to some extent complementary in their applications and usage. Wi-Fi is usually access point-centered, with an asymmetrical client-server connection with all traffic routed through the access point, while Bluetooth is usually symmetrical, between two Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth serves well in simple applications where two devices need to connect with minimal configuration like a button press, as in headsets and remote controls, while Wi-Fi suits better in applications where some degree of client configuration is possible and high speeds are required, especially for network access through an access node."

Personally I don't find battery life a problem even with WiFi left enabled, phones and tablets certainly don't need charging every day and if you sleep next to 13A sockets it's easy to check at bed-time and charge overnight.

[Michael Chare]

Yes, I found that connecting my laptop to my Android phone using Wifi very much easier than connecting it to my Symbian phone using Bluetooth.

[Reentrant]

You might want to check that your contract allows tethering; some do and some don't (even "unlimited" ones).

Even if not, I gather they tell by the kind of data transferred, so if the tablet is also Android I suspect they'll never know.

[David.WE.Roberts]

Yes, it does allow tethering. I checked this before I bought it - tethering was one of the requirements.

I have used it a few times when I have had ISP problems, and also on the train with a laptop.

I had read that Bluetooth uses less electrical power than WiFi so was testing the configuration to see if I could make it work.

Thankfully it does.

Cheers

Dave R