Bluetooth tethering in WP8?

[Bahamen]

Is it possible to Bluetooth tether my laptop to my Lumia 1020 for the laptop to access 3G data via the phone?

 

[hopmedic]

No - there is no Bluetooth tethering at this time. Only Wifi

 

[foxbat121]

GDR3 update added this feature.

 

[link68759]

GDR3 update added this feature.

except is uses WiFi

 

[Bahamen]

except is uses WiFi

I thought WP always had wifi tethering, i.e. via internet sharing. What is different in GDR3?

 

[link68759]

In GDR3 / win8.1, if bluetooth is enabled on both PC and phone, 8.1 will see a wifi network with your phone's name, which if connected to, will prompt WP8 to start the internet sharing utility that has been in WP since WP7.

So it just activates wifi tethering automatically for paired bluetooth devices.

 

[Bahamen]

Any chance that Bluetooth tethering will be enabled in WP at some point? Seems like a pretty useful feature since it takes up less energy than wifi tethering.

 

[gwinegarden]

Not sure why I would want to us Bluetooth. WiFi works well and tends to use less battery.

 

[link68759]

Not sure why I would want to us Bluetooth. WiFi works well and tends to use less battery.

Wifi uses more battery, always.

 

[link68759]

Any chance that Bluetooth tethering will be enabled in WP at some point? Seems like a pretty useful feature since it takes up less energy than wifi tethering.

Actually I don't think there's anything stopping a developer from making an app that can do this.

 

[gwinegarden]

Wifi uses more battery, always.

I stand corrected.

I have seen tests that indicate that WiFi is much faster, though.

Depends upon your priorities.

 

[link68759]

I stand corrected.

I have seen tests that indicate that WiFi is much faster, though.

Depends upon your priorities.

WiFi is faster generally, regardless of what version you're using. Bluetooth 3.0+HS basically uses WiFi, but only at 24Mbps which seems painfully low still (wireless G is 54Mbps, N can be 300, and there's some newfangled WiFi standard I hear).

However that speed is plenty for "4G" aka H+ which has a theoretical maximum of 21Mbps. Lte has a theoretical max of 100Mbps, so you certainly won't get your full lte speed tethering Bluetooth.... But if I recall correctly the iPad was really slow to adopt wireless n, so depending on the model you have you might only have WiFi speeds of 54Mbps.

All numbers are theoretical maximums. In practice you'll get nowhere near the number

 

[meathead88]

In GDR3 / win8.1, if bluetooth is enabled on both PC and phone, 8.1 will see a wifi network with your phone's name, which if connected to, will prompt WP8 to start the internet sharing utility that has been in WP since WP7.

So it just activates wifi tethering automatically for paired bluetooth devices.

I'd like to try this but want to rename my Nokia 928. Rigth now it's bluetooth broadcasts "Windows Phone" as the name. If I set Wi-Fi to use "Windows Phone" as the SSD everyone at work will know its me and i don't need that kind of attention to my phone.

 

[meathead88]

This is great! I just told everyone i knew!

Why are things like this so hidden?! The android friends of mine are jealous, but promptly found an app that immitates this to shut me up, lol >