Use iPhone as wireless router without cellular data

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Level 1

8 points

Use iPhone as wireless router without cellular data

Does anyone know how to relay an iPhone's wifi connection to a Macbook? Basically I want to use the iPhone as a wireless router to relay the iPhone's existing wifi connection to the Macbook so that it can get online...but I do not want to use cellular data (which is what the Personal Hotspot option uses and can get costly quick).

The problem I am having is that a certain mega coffee chain automatically and instantly connects iPhones to it's free wifi network, but laptops often have to wait 20+ minutes to be given a "spot in line" before the laptops are even given the option to login to their wifi network. So you're sitting around waiting forever to be able to get your Macbook online (if it ever even does) while, for whatever reason, your iPhone is already connected to the free wifi the second you get in range. Using my iPhone as a wireless router for my Macbook would get around this frustration.

So, again, what I want to do is use my iPhone's wireless connection that is connected to the coffee chain's free wifi and relay this wifi connection through the iPhone to my Macbook. Any ideas/thoughts as to how to accomplish this? Again, I do not want to use the iPhone's cellular data as the gateway to the internet, but rather the wifi connection that the iPhone has with the coffee chain's free wifi.

Thanks in advance.

iPhone 5, iOS 7.1

Posted on Apr 2, 2014 12:13 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,267 points

Apr 2, 2014 12:18 PM in response to joshddt

You don't. That's not a feature of the iPHone.

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Answer 2

joshddt Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 2, 2014 1:26 PM in response to joshddt

Thanks KiltedTim, I did research this for a couple hours prior to posting, so I was at the same conclusion you are at, which is why I posted the question to this forum.

Anyone else that can contribute a potential solution / workaround? Maybe an adhoc network, bluetooth PAN or VPN-type approach? I don't care if it has to be tethered via USB or is accomplished through a wifi/bluetooth connection. Or maybe there is an App from the App Store that performs this function?

This is particularly frustrating because I know this is something that competing mobile OS's perform with relative ease and is something that I've been able to accomplish with older versions of iOS (none of which were jailbroken or even unlocked), which is why I'm asking the question for iOS 7.1 (last iOS I can remember needing to do this was around iOS 3 or 4).

Thanks again for those providing insight/help/suggestions, however incremental they may be.

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Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,267 points

Apr 2, 2014 1:31 PM in response to joshddt

There is no other option that involves your phone.

It has never been possible to do what you're suggesting. No model of the iPhone is physically equipped to be able to both connect to a WiFi network and create a hotspot of any kind at the same time. You are misremembering if you believe you have done this.

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Answer 4

xanadan

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2015 7:45 PM in response to joshddt

apparently you can do this with Android (which i don't use). Hope Apple is listening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpg72OEKaO0

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