Personal Hotspot on iphone 3gs

Untmdsprt wrote:

lonesailor89 wrote:
Does anyone know the reason apple is not allowing the personal hotspot feature to be enabled on the iphone 3gs?

Could also have to do with your carrier. I'm using Softbank and the "hotspot" feature hasn't shown itself with the new update on my 3GS.

There is no expectation for the 3GS to get Wi-Fi tethering. Apple has already stated that only the iPhone 4 will get Wi-Fi tethering.

The only control that the carrier would have is whether they support Wi-Fi tethering. It is possible that if the carrier does not support it that the feature would not show under the Hotspot menu.

I'm using an iPhone 4 and it hasn't shown up. I'm assuming Softbank have given it a no no. Probably so they can carry on shifting ipads with a contract. Stingy gits!

It was just a figure of speech. There's no way to electronically ignore anyone on this forum.

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere but I could not see it in a search....

Is there a difference in what Apple call "Personal Hotspot" compared to what O2 (in the UK) call "internet tethering". i.e. will I still need to pay an extra £7.50 per month to O2 for Internet Tethering on top of my existing £35 per month plan? Or does "Personal Hotspot" work in a different way which will allow me to get my wireless only Ipad connected to the internet using up part of my iphone4 3G data allowance, without having to pay for an extra "tethering" bolt-on?

jhrichmond wrote:

Is there a difference in what Apple call "Personal Hotspot" compared to what O2 (in the UK) call "internet tethering". i.e. will I still need to pay an extra £7.50 per month to O2 for Internet Tethering on top of my existing £35 per month plan? Or does "Personal Hotspot" work in a different way which will allow me to get my wireless only Ipad connected to the internet using up part of my iphone4 3G data allowance, without having to pay for an extra "tethering" bolt-on?

Personal Hotspot is a form of tethering. It will require your cellular provider to support it and most (if not all) providers will require you to have a tethering data plan.

Apple do say +"Personal Hotspot requires a supporting hotspot tethering plan"+ on the main info page of iOS4.3 but I wouldn't imagine many users will add that amount to their monthly bill just to allow their partner to occasionally check in on Facebook on their iPod when you are both out enjoying the park or at the beach.

Essentially, your phone network charges you for using a data plan up to a limit and then charge an additional £7.50 to use one of your Wifi-only devices via the package you have already paid for.

Imagine for a second if broadband providers charged you an additional fee for each device you access with your home wi-fi...

paulcb wrote:
It was just a figure of speech. There's no way to electronically ignore anyone on this forum.

Ah that's too bad. It's a nice feature on other forums that I'm a part of.

there is one workaround that I've found with Softbank. If you have a Mac or this may work with an iPad, you can put the browser into debug mode and set the browser to an iPhone version, then log onto the mobilepoint website. You do have to enter in your username/password that Softbank gave you.

Unfortunately, most mobilepoint wifi access are located at McDonalds.

I'm the same i.e. am on a O2 Pay&Go tariff. When put my sim into Nokia N900 it automatically allows me to share internet with my MBP via USB or Bluetooth. No problems at all. With iPhone 3GS it's never worked. We tried two different 3GS connecting via Bluetooth to iMac and MBP. It hasn't worked for 2 years and after successful pairing is throwing "Connection Unsuccessful, COMPUTER_NAME is not supported" where COMPUTER_NAME is Apple latest MacBook Pro! It forces me to "Forget Device".
Also, Personal Hotspot is not showing up at all. The eyePhone is locked to O2 and carrier settings seem to be set to O2 too. There is nowhere to update or change on the handset nor iTunes. I'm getting frustrated more and more with this. Has anyone had problems like me and got it to work?

R, David

This Macworld article details personal hotspot options for all UK networks.

http://macworld.co.uk/;s=6mdobJOtYwe1nsrBrrDDxQ06/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?new sid=3265185&pagtype=allchandate

Try this link :

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?newsid=3265185

My 3GS has hotspot feature but I do not have a tariff that allows me to turn it on. The text on the screen below the 'Set Up Personal Hotspot' button clearly states 'Personal Hotspot let's you share your iPhone's internet connection with your computer via WiFi, Bluetooth or USB'. I am in the UK by the way so may be it can be carrier enabled on a 3GS?

Functional with iOS 4.3.1 🙂

You have personal hotspot on 3gs? It works natively on 4.3.1? Thanks!

About the WIFI that the 3GS does not support. Is this the case because there's some new hardware in the iPhone4 that the 3GS doesn't have? If this is the case, then I understand. If not, then I'm immensely frustrated with Apple. Anyone know?

Thanks,
Mike