You have surely had to use your PC outside your home and business network, and at the same time need a stable and fast internet connection. If there are no Wi-Fi networks available around you, you only have one card left to play: your faithful smartphone. In this guide, we will therefore explain to you how to use mobile internet on a PC, and thus solve your need for a network connection quickly and painlessly. Before proceeding however, remember one thing: depending on your contract and your phone's SIM manager, you could partially or totally erode the data bundle of your phone contract, thus temporarily losing the ability to navigate on your smartphone. The personal hotspot service that we are about to explain to you could also be partially or totally inhibited by your manager, thus rendering all your efforts in vain. Our advice is therefore to carefully read the specifications of the contract relating to the SIM installed on your phone, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises and unforeseen limitations. After this verification, you are ready to use your mobile to share the connection with your pc. Take a seat in a position where your phone has the best possible reception, in order to exploit the full potential of your connection on your computer as well. Also keep a fully charged PC and telephone close at hand and, if possible, a USB cable compatible with your mobile device, which could be useful later in this guide. So let's see what you have to do based on the operating system mounted on your mobile.
Index
How to use mobile internet on pc with Android
Your Android mobile phone can provide you with the internet connection you need on your PC without any particular problems. To make all this possible, go to your phone's settings using the appropriate icon. At this point, select the item Connections, then press on Wi-Fi Router and Tethering. At this point, depending on how you want to use your mobile phone connection on your PC, you can select one or more of the options presented to you.
By clicking on the Wi-Fi router, you will create a real Wi-Fi connection, visible to anyone within a few tens of meters of you. To allow you an effective browsing experience, don't forget to configure the hotspot you are creating on your phone according to your needs: therefore make sure you set a network name that you recognize, the band to use (2.4GHz or 5GHz) , the password to enter to connect and, if you deem it useful, also the maximum number of users connected at the same time and the maximum period of inactivity after which the hotspot will be deactivated. Just select the network you created from the list of networks visible on your PC and enter the password that you yourself created just now to start surfing.
By selecting the USB Tethering option, you will have to physically connect your smartphone and your computer via a USB cable compatible with your mobile device. This mode will also allow you to recharge your phone's battery and make sure that your phone's connection is only used on the PC you connected it to. Once this feature is activated, you will find your phone among the network connections available on your computer. Just select it to start surfing on your PC too, through your mobile phone connection.
There is a third possibility, which is bluetooth tethering. By activating this option, you will be able to share the connection with all nearby devices that support Bluetooth technology. So remember to set a password known only to you and to people you think you trust, so as not to share your phone's connection with strangers or malicious people.
You are now ready to navigate on your PC using the network of your mobile phone with the Android operating system.
How to bypass the tethering block on Android
As we have already anticipated in the introduction of our guide, some telephone companies can block the tethering function for all or some types of contract. If you still need to share the connection of your mobile with Android operating system on your computer, you just have to turn to some third-party application that allows you to bypass this block. Among the many useful apps in this sense, we recommend ClockworkMod Tether. This app requires neither root privileges nor special computer skills, and does a job of disguising your phone's connection, preventing the phone company's procedures from understanding that you are sharing this connection.
To make this procedure work, you need to download the app for your phone and the program for your computer from the Play Store (versions for Windows, macOS and Linux are available) and install both. Don't worry, both are simple and intuitive installations. At the end of this, connect your smartphone and PC with the USB cable, making sure you have activated USB debugging mode on Android. Start the app on the phone and press the relative USB icon. Launch the program on your computer and then click on Start. In a few seconds, network sharing between mobile phone and PC will begin, bypassing the tethering block by your telephone operator.
Both ClockworkMod Tether and other similar apps are free. However, we remind you that to use some advanced functions of the app or to benefit from them for a consistent period of time, you may be forced to pay a small amount in exchange for using this program without limitations.
How to use mobile internet on PC with iPhone
Now let's see how to use your trusty iPhone to share the connection with a computer. To begin, go to the settings of your iPhone by pressing the appropriate icon. Now select the Personal Hotspot item and in the following menu press the appropriate lever to activate this function. Now all you have to do is enter a key known only by you and trusted people under Wi-Fi Password, which you can use to connect to your iPhone and take advantage of its connection. Even for Apple devices, you can use the hotspot function via the USB cable or bluetooth connection. In this case, however, you don't have to select anything. It will be the iPhone itself that will recognize the option you have chosen and allow you to navigate.
However, we remind you that if you choose to use bluetooth, you will first be asked to pair your mobile phone and your pc through the procedures made available on devices for this technology. You are now ready to navigate on your PC using the network of your iPhone.
How to bypass the tethering block on iPhone
Similarly to what we have seen previously with regard to mobile phones with the Android operating system, the tethering procedure for iPhones could also collide with a block of this mode by the telephone operator. Unfortunately, at the time of writing there is no third-party app for Apple devices that will successfully and reliably bypass your carrier's tethering block.
The only card at your disposal is the TetherMe app, available on the Cydia store, which however requires a previously jailbroken iPhone. Even if it could take some chestnuts from the fire, we strongly advise against this solution, which makes your device more unstable and less secure, also invalidating any possibility of official Apple technical support.
We will update this guide if a third-party app is released that allows you to bypass the tethering lock without jailbreaking.
How to use mobile internet on a PC with Windows Phone
Let's now come to the case in which your only chance of connection is a mobile phone with the Windows Phone operating system. Even if devices with this operating system are no longer produced and support for it will officially end on December 10, 2019, you can still use the hotspot function. To do this, just go to your mobile phone settings through the appropriate gear icon and then select the Shared Internet item from the next screen.
Slide the Sharing toggle to yes and select Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, whichever you prefer, from the Share via submenu. At this point, all you have to do is change the network name and password to access it by pressing the small pencil-shaped icon at the bottom of your mobile phone display. You are now ready to navigate on your PC using the network of your Windows Phone.
How to bypass the tethering block on Windows Phone
Even on Windows Phone you can run into the annoying blocking of the tethering function by your telephone company. Unlike what we have just seen for Apple, Microsoft's operating system allows you to get around this limitation through a third-party app.
Among the many available for this operating system (at least until the official end of support), we recommend Tether-X, available for free on the Windows Phone Store. After downloading the app, carefully follow its official guide, which will guide you through some necessary computer-side modifications to allow you to bypass the tethering block and share the connection between your Windows Phone and PC.