So how good is Galaxy S2 as a tethering device?

[techmanc]

Well from thread caption you see I wanted to know...
How good is Galaxy S2 as a tethering device?
I am presently looking for a tablet so I can use at work and I dont know if using the tethering app with my phone will give me enough bandwidth to browse webpages, and read news sites mainly. I not needing it to download or stream things I can do that when WIFI is available but if if could do that it be great. Any thoughts on things I haven't thought of as a perk or penalty to using this setup.

As this thread was developing I thought of this additional question.
When tethered are you losing any speed as opposed to your directly connected phone? If so how much.

 

[Doc]

I guess my first question would be are you rooted, if you are there are a couple good roms that have some fantastic tethering apps and work very well but also depends on the area your in as far as like a 4G Wimax connection...

 

[techmanc]

I guess my first question would be are you rooted, if you are there are a couple good roms that have some fantastic tethering apps and work very well but also depends on the area your in as far as like a 4G Wimax connection...

Rooted using JB but no Wimax where I work or home

 

[Doc]

Rooted using JB but no Wimax where I work or home

Ok I moved your thread to the rooted section for more exposure, so first what rom are you running......

 

[techmanc]

Quote:
Originally Posted by HiredxGunz
I use this personally. Rwilco12's Android Repository - Downloads

You can chose if you want the rooted or unrooted.
The release found in the link is the official Kies release.

So this is what I used doing a full rooted install.

 

[Codegerm]

The phone does work fine for tethering, but performance is totally dependent on the Speed you are getting from your phones connection for 3g and 4g. If you are getting less than 512kbps then you will be doing a bit of waiting for heavy graphic websites. On the other hand, at speeds of 1.5 to 1.8Mbps (still 3g here) then websites load in a decent time. As Doc has pointed out, there are custom ROMs that have it all setup in them and work great.

 

[Doc]

Ok cool, there should be a hotspot app in it and it does work, I actually used it for a while to tether my home computer, but I have very good wimax in my area and the apps works very well on 4G, I have used the addon tethering app in the play store on other roms with a 3G connection and it worked, it just depends on what kinda of signal your getting, plus if you use it without 4G wimax its going to use up your data and being on boost they give you 2.5 gs of data a month before they start throttling your data, just something to think about...

 

[greg schmeg]

Project X has a great tether app built right in the menu. ;-)

 

[Doc]

Project X has a great tether app built right in the menu. ;-)

It is, that one and Touched by S4, both work great.......

 

[rockdoctor1]

I use the hotspot app that comes with the phone and it works fine (not rooted, not necessary). I tether a huge amount of time each month (using it now) but i also pay for to use the hotspot... If you plan to use it a lot you may consider actually adding that onto your account for $10 more a month. The speed is what ever speed you are getting from the cell network. For me 3g has been as slow as 60kbps and as much as 2mbps. The 4g is the best for me. I have seen it as slow as 3mbps and as fast as 16mbps, which is faster then my FIOS.

Now.... if you are trying to do your surfing off the company network then this is a fine way to go. If you are doing this becuase WiFi is not available but your IT people are ok to work with....you can put a USB WiFi adapter in your office computer and bridge the WiFi adapter with your network card and it will act as a WiFi router. In effect letting you share the company network connection with your WiFi devices... But you should make sure IT is cool with it...

 

[greg schmeg]

Pay for hotspot? Cringe** :-D

 

[Doc]

I use the hotspot app that comes with the phone and it works fine (not rooted, not necessary). I tether a huge amount of time each month (using it now) but i also pay for to use the hotspot... If you plan to use it a lot you may consider actually adding that onto your account for $10 more a month. The speed is what ever speed you are getting from the cell network. For me 3g has been as slow as 60kbps and as much as 2mbps. The 4g is the best for me. I have seen it as slow as 3mbps and as fast as 16mbps, which is faster then my FIOS.

Now.... if you are trying to do your surfing off the company network then this is a fine way to go. If you are doing this becuase WiFi is not available but your IT people are ok to work with....you can put a USB WiFi adapter in your office computer and bridge the WiFi adapter with your network card and it will act as a WiFi router. In effect letting you share the company network connection with your WiFi devices... But you should make sure IT is cool with it...

Yep same here my 4g is freaking fast and paying that extra 10 amonth is worth it

 

[Codegerm]

Yep same here my 4g is freaking fast and paying that extra 10 amonth is worth it

It just isn't worth it for me as there is no 4g near me, but then I have decent cable internet at 20Mbps and DSL in my area is not to bad at 3 to 6Mbps depending on price

 

[techmanc]

I use the hotspot app that comes with the phone and it works fine (not rooted, not necessary). I tether a huge amount of time each month (using it now) but i also pay for to use the hotspot... If you plan to use it a lot you may consider actually adding that onto your account for $10 more a month. The speed is what ever speed you are getting from the cell network. For me 3g has been as slow as 60kbps and as much as 2mbps. The 4g is the best for me. I have seen it as slow as 3mbps and as fast as 16mbps, which is faster then my FIOS.

Now.... if you are trying to do your surfing off the company network then this is a fine way to go. If you are doing this becuase WiFi is not available but your IT people are ok to work with....you can put a USB WiFi adapter in your office computer and bridge the WiFi adapter with your network card and it will act as a WiFi router. In effect letting you share the company network connection with your WiFi devices... But you should make sure IT is cool with it...

First Off my main job these days well actually night as I work 4pm to 4am driving cab so i wanted to be able to tether when sitting on stand. Its a slow season in the summer so I could be sitting there for hour without a call. I use my phone there so I know it has good signal and I want to go to mainly news site like Boston.com or CNN and I also want to search job sites where my resume is Monster.com and Indeed.com etc and check email. I work 25 mile south of Boston in Brockton MA that will by tether location mainly.

I could afford to pay $10- a month but I am on a tight budget which is why I got a Boost phone I the plan get cheaper as I use it. It just dropped $5- for my 6 months of service. If I could avoid the fee I would. I dont ever go over the limits they set because I do all my heavy d/l and put my apps using my home network which is 50/25 FIOS so I have all the speed I need for that.

So my main use is trying to get a new job while I am sitting around. The phone is to small for me and tablet would be much easier to read websites using a tablet and kinda leads me to another question.

What would better for me for a 8in or 10in tablet? I so want a Galaxy Note so I can have the pen for input.

 

[rockdoctor1]

Yep same here my 4g is freaking fast and paying that extra 10 a month is worth it

The thing that is interesting is, sprint will not allow (legal) tethering with 4g LTE. None of the LTE phone will legally tether. Only two WiMax phones are allowed to use the hotspot...the S2 and the EVO. I don't mind the $10 as nearly all of the data i pull is though the Hotspot app.

 

[techmanc]

So is there a connection difference between the $10- Hotspot or just using using a tethering app? (e.g. faster, better connection ) or is it just the terms of service situation

 

[rockdoctor1]

So is there a connection difference between the $10- Hotspot or just using using a tethering app? (e.g. faster, better connection ) or is it just the terms of service situation

I am using them interchangeably, which i shouldn't... Typically tethering means a single wired connection to the phone (although now days bluetooth takes the place of the usb connection) and hotspot means a WiFi connection that can support multiple connections (up to 5 devices - app dependent). Hotspot is supposed to be faster but i doubt it...

The difference between paying and not...if they catch you they cancel your account otherwise no difference that i know of.

 

[techmanc]

I figured I post here as this is a continuation of my earlier posts. I am thinking of upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy S III phone from boost link here......

Samsung Galaxy S

 

[Codegerm]

Not any 4g in my area lte or wimax, thoughI get great 3g speeds tethering. I will stick with my S2

 

[techmanc]

Not any 4g in my area lte or wimax, thoughI get great 3g speeds tethering. I will stick with my S2

Just looked at my local map it look good in my area for LTE in purple so if thats the case think be much better speed if upgraded?

 

[jsphmuckey]

Better speed indeed. But, if your a heavy data user like I you will be throttled quickly. I'm sticking with my S2 lol Check out the Remove throttle thread (don't know if it actually works though) Last month I used 5.5 gigs I also use this tether app:

https://db.tt/EAY9kpRg

Worked first time I launched it lol Enjoy!

Oh & just installed a new ROM that was uploaded recently & it's working amazingly

 

[techmanc]

Better speed indeed. But, if your a heavy data user like I you will be throttled quickly. I'm sticking with my S2 lol Check out the Remove throttle thread (don't know if it actually works though) Last month I used 5.5 gigs I also use this tether app:

https://db.tt/EAY9kpRg

Worked first time I launched it lol Enjoy!

Oh & just installed a new ROM that was uploaded recently & it's working amazingly

I want to be able to read webpages as quickly as I can and check my email and go to website forums I follow mainly. I can keep content updated with my home system with my 50/25 Mbps FIOS Internet connection and transferring files via usb connection. I will also be reading ebooks/pdf files. I still not sure if I should get a 10" tablet for those purposes or if a 7 inch would be good enough. I want to be able to read that content without having to zoom it much or at all. Of course be watching TV/Movie content as well as playing some games on it. Might do some remote desktop stuff as well if it seems capable of that. So far thinking I need to get the 10 in. Any suggestions?

A side question. Did I always have the ability to move some content to to SD card? I aways remember I use to get error saying something like could not move content. The reason I found out I could move stuff to was because i kept getting insuffecent storage problems and had to uninstall/reinstall a lot of apps and reemoved a lot of them to make room. Now after moving a lot of apps over picked up like 400mb or space on my phone for more stuff I think it had to do with changing phones rom to 4.1.2 not sure though.

 

[bilgerryan]

Just looked at my local map it look good in my area for LTE in purple so if thats the case think be much better speed if upgraded?

Yes, if you got a phone that supports LTE