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Help Newbie Question Optimus s

O

Optimus s

Lurker
Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and new to android world! just got my optimus a week ago and can not complain cause i am a begginer but i have one quick question about tethering. HOT SPOT FEATURES

I have downloaded the hotspot widget from the droid market and tried it and it really works great, tried to connect my laptop and works terrific.

is this going to be free? using a hotspot widget from droid market? i know sprint charge 30 buck/month for hotspot if they enable that features. i have unlimited data plan so if use that 3rd party app will it be free of charge with no additional charge on my monthly plan? helop anybody!! i need to know cause i dont wanna pay extra 30/month for hotspot..

thanks
O
 
I dont get it why would sprint charge $30/month and people are takng advantage of that app from droid market. why would you pay 30/month if you could get it for free, will they be able to find out if i am using hotspot a lot thru hotspot widge app? thanks, please people i need your response into this.. thanks again
 
I thought Sprint charges an additional 10.00 for the Hotspot?

` If you got a limited plan, do you think tethering on to the Hotspot is free or goes against your data?

I am awaiting for my Optimus, wished it ad front video cam LOL.
 
roadster said:
I thought Sprint charges an additional 10.00 for the Hotspot?

` If you got a limited plan, do you think tethering on to the Hotspot is free or goes against your data?

I am awaiting for my Optimus, wished it ad front video cam LOL.
Click to expand...

i have a friend that uses the PDANET for free and he's been using it for about almost a year now and never had problems, and no additional charges on his monthly bill, i just installed the pdanet as well, connection is ok , hotspot is more convenient and faster internet... hopefully hotspot widget will stay free. but as what everybody says , i guess do not abuse it.
 
roadster said:
I thought Sprint charges an additional 10.00 for the Hotspot?

` If you got a limited plan, do you think tethering on to the Hotspot is free or goes against your data?

I am awaiting for my Optimus, wished it ad front video cam LOL.
Click to expand...

My understanding is ...
1) the additional $10/month is for a 4G capable phone, ex: the Evo or Epic.
2) the additional $30/month is for the Sprint sanctioned hotspot availability
3) Internet access via the phone (hotspot or physically tethered) does count against your minutes. Not sure what you mean by 'goes against my data' (?)

Hope this helps... and that it is correct. It is what I have gotten from our local Sprint store on multiple questions.
 
Spark5091 said:
My understanding is ...
....
3) Internet access via the phone (hotspot or physically tethered) does count against your minutes. Not sure what you mean by 'goes against my data' (?)

Hope this helps... and that it is correct. It is what I have gotten from our local Sprint store on multiple questions.
Click to expand...

Having been on Sprint for about 3 years on a plan that included Data, I can tell you right now, Data is not counted against your minutes. You can browse all you want.

Now, regarding using your phone as a Mobile Hotspot; I expect that Sprint would claim that using an application like that to circumvent their tethering fee would circumvent their terms of service. That being said, I suspect they are not going to check for that sort of thing (The P.R. issues would be a nightmare if it came out that they were poking their noses into what people were doing on their phones). On the flip side, if they notice big increase in data usage, they might take a closer look at your usage...

--
Bill
 
This will definitely show up on your bill. If you launch the free hotspot widget, go into your portable hotspot option in network settings, and your portable hotspot is turned on... just tested it myself, hopefully i eat my words and it doesn't show up on the bill, but chances are good that it will
 
Alright, I've been a Sprint Customer for 10 years, and I would like to clear up a few issues. It seem I understand Sprint better then Sprint Customer support.
The LG Optimus S must have the all you can eat data plan to get the phone activated. Now that means you get 'unlimited' data access, now unless you use more then there over usage limit (rumored to be 250GB/Month) they wont care how you use it. Now using the free WiFi tethering is not a WiFi hotspot. Let us get that clear first.
WiFi tethering is one to one. The same as using the USB only your using the WiFi, that is not blocked by Sprint.
Using the phone for WiFi hotspot is, that is to have more then one WiFi device using the phone for internet data access.
You can see the difference now between WiFi Tethering and WiFi hotspot, I hope. There is no reason one can not use 3rd party apps for WiFi tethering.
I hope this clears up any confusion with Sprint data plans for there android phones.
 
ccurtis3974 said:
This will definitely show up on your bill. If you launch the free hotspot widget, go into your portable hotspot option in network settings, and your portable hotspot is turned on... just tested it myself, hopefully i eat my words and it doesn't show up on the bill, but chances are good that it will
Click to expand...


Yeah that is interesting. I wonder if it has shown up on anyone elses bill after doing it. I have not tested it yet.
 
exactly what app. hoptspot. or quicksetting?

I say use it and then shut it off, see bill other than that ...
 
I assume (I haven't verified this) that if you use the widget, you cannot set any sort of wireless security (like a wpa password) on your mobile hotspot. I suppose that's the advantage of getting it from Sprint. But there's no point to paying a $30 a month fee if you are not going to use the phone as the main internet source for your computer(s).
 
hopefully i can answer a few questions i see here.

first off sprints hotspot feature is $30 and it has a 5gb softcap on it.

using the hotspot widget, you are basically going around their feature so you can use hotspot without having to pay $30 for it.

the data used while doing hotspot comes out of your unlimited data. this also has a 5gb softcap.

sprint can not tell the difference between data used while tethering or while on the phone itself. it all looks the same to them.

while this feature is available to us for free via the hotspot widget, it is expected that sprint will close this hole in a future update.

from what i can tell, using the hotspot widget from the market, you are able to use security settings to connect (wpa).

using the hotspot widget is a bit different than the hotspot found in wifi settings. this setting sprint has locked to users that pay the $30.mo fee.

i have never heard of anyone getting charged from sprint for tethering. the most i have "heard" is people going over the 5gb softcap and sprint adding the tethering charge to their acct. extremely rare (i think i've heard of this happening once in the past 5 years or so). i know people that have tethered 250gb without issue. of course the risk is there but as long as you don't abuse it, the odds of getting caught are very low, and the penetalty for getting caught is a $30 charge for tethering.

hopefully this clears up a few questions here.
 
Optimus s said:
Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and new to android world! just got my optimus a week ago and can not complain cause i am a begginer but i have one quick question about tethering. HOT SPOT FEATURES

I have downloaded the hotspot widget from the droid market and tried it and it really works great, tried to connect my laptop and works terrific.

is this going to be free? using a hotspot widget from droid market? i know sprint charge 30 buck/month for hotspot if they enable that features. i have unlimited data plan so if use that 3rd party app will it be free of charge with no additional charge on my monthly plan? helop anybody!! i need to know cause i dont wanna pay extra 30/month for hotspot..

thanks
O
Click to expand...


Do you know why after download Hotspot Wigit for the LG, it didn't show up in the apps menu? some of my download apps didn't show up. any help really appreciated. thanks.
 
the name of the app is hotspot widget by harald muller.

the app won't show up in the app drawer. it is a widget app only. long press on your homescreen and select widgets and pick hotspot widget.
 
thank you. I am not confused just seeing which may be the best choice
Quick setting, or hotspot, which one is better.

As I read the site it is not a tethering, but of swapping back and fourth the wifi and tether.
 
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