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I was wondering if anyone who is much smarter than me with tech (most of you) could tell me if there's a way to use my USB tethered phone connection for downloading something on my PC while I use my Ethernet connection and home broadband for gaming? I cant download anything while I'm gaming without it making everything unplayable because the internet is so bad, I get much better speeds on my phone network when I tether to it but the ping is a lot higher and its not as stable, I was hoping to find a way to be able to download a game in the background on my USB tethered connection while I use my ethernet connection to play another game at the same time and not have the internet be so slow that its unplayable. TIA

I have my phone connected to my PC through USB to share the internet connection but it shows up as a public network. Some apps have already asked me to change firewall settings because of this(Origin). Why is it set up as a public network and can I switch it to a private network of should I leave it as is.

Hey all, I'll be going on vacation in a few weeks, making a 7 hour trip. My car doesn't have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and I'd like to use my iPhone SE for GPS and traffic monitoring. I have a phone mount that hooks to my air vent, so I can see the screen whatever phone I put into there. However, I was wondering what would be the best day to maintain the iPhone battery life. Would it be better to: 1) Use the iPhone SE hooked up to a car mount while using an app like Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps with the screen always on 2) Use the iPhone SE as a Personal HotSpot and use an older phone I have as the GPS. I have an LG Leon that I wiped, so it doesn't have anything extra running on it. I guess it comes down to whether my battery will last longer as a HotSpot or if the screen on/GPS on will be better. Any input or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

So here's my situation.... I use Verizon Wireless _exclusively_ for my internet access because the access is great where I'm at but there are no "reasonable" land-based isp's to me ( to put it mildly ) also I travel on occasion. Ideally i want to connect my mobile devices to my computer via a usb cable and have internet but sadly unlike a few years ago when i could "Tether", only hotspot works now. Plus they cap it at 15GB/mo/device.... Speeds are pretty sweet though but security in a public place like a hotel or a coffee shop is ZERO because apparently anyone can listen in and record your packets to/from the internet. Android Authority had a video i saw this morning and here's their article about WiFi-snooping: https://www.androidauthority.com/capture-data-open-wi-fi-726356/ I use my laptop and computer all the time but need for the internet access to be secure. So I bought PIA when LTT had advertised it and for a while there it worked great -however- now it has issue connecting and keeps re-connecting all the time. every once in a while i get a good solid connection but then it only lasts a few minutes which is becoming a big problem for me. Troubleshooting steps i tried: * disconnecting PIA and everything works great and really fast but then I try connecting to multiple places like denver, houston, texas, us west... same issues and sometimes one is great for a while then it has problems and the others who were previously bad are good for a minute or two. * I also tried both a tablet and a cell phone but same thing. Sorry for long post -- basically; is there a way to connect my devices to my laptop or computer with a usb cable and still get internet through them or is that like permanently disabled now with no work-arounds? ? ** also does anybody know if this problem is being caused by Verizon ( on purpose ) or by PIA ( with technical issues ) ??

Using a toshiba a500 (I know. Don't judge. I may regale you with the tale of its journey) The Wifi adapter built in is only capable of connecting to 2.4 ghz. I installed a new one but it kept failing after about 15 minutes. I assumed it was because I bought a $12 wifi adapter. The original still worked fine. Anyway, now I'm using an old S7 as a USB tether in a USB 3.0 slot I installed into the express card slot (Damn I miss those). It works just fine. Last speed test gave me 80mbps so I'm ok with that. I'll be getting a new internal card, but for now I'm good with this. The problem is that I can no longer cast from the laptop. "No devices found" Yes, the chromecast is working. I'm using it as I type this. The network is working. All 18 devices are currently connected and reachable. However, the IP of the computer has changed from 192.168.0.30 to 192.168.42.30 So... it is on the same network, but the phone is working as a router, preventing me from contacting the rest of the network directly. How can I bypass this limitation? Also, anyone got a Core Duo 9800 they wanna give away? (Or something similar with a 1600mhz fsb and more than 3mb cache) ...just askin.

My current carrier in Xfinity mobile which advertises throttling on tethered data while using an unlimited plan. I'm wondering if using a VPN on my phone would prevent the carrier from seeing what type of data it was and therefore prevent throttling. This is of course dependent on how the carrier tells whether the data is tethered or not. Would this possibly work?

So, you pay a monthly amount of dollars for unlimited data on your phone? Tethering has always been a viable option for people on the go who hate small screens, but there are some things that need to be known before you start tethering: 1. Some cell service companies HATE this feature, some are ok with it in moderation, and some just don't care. Some companies charge extra for this service, be warned! Do some research on which company would be the best fit (I prefer Metro PCS $60 USD in the US as that covers everything). 2. Companies know people are going to use this, so you're gonna have to do some troubleshooting to get things working optimally. 3. Some phones are better at this than others. Known working models include Samsung S3, S4, and S5 running Android 4.0 and higher, BLU Studio Series phones, and LG. 4. When set up properly, internet will be available anywhere you get Data signals. 5. Applet programs (such as Steam, Minecraft, ect), will have difficulty connecting as the DNS does not resolve those server IP addresses (not because the name is not found, but because the DNS won't allow the connection, as most mobile browsers don't directly connect to a game server like Mohjang), or the User Agent is invalid, headers may be incorrectly scripted, ect ect, techno-jargon, and there are work-arounds for this which may be added later. Now, on to what you will need: Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, or (maybe Mac OS?) I haven't tested it. For Linux users, everything should work right out of the box, Linux's User Agent is close enough to your Android Device that packets and headers will be allowed. Go ahead and follow the steps from the icon to set up your tether. For Windows users, modern browsers are your friend. Internet Explorer may work right out of the box for most people (if it does, #netflix). You can try this by starting from the icon, and starting up Internet Explorer, (try netflix, as this won't work on a phone browser). Chrome and Firefox both have an extension/addon called User-Agent Switcher. Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-agent-switcher Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-Us/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/ You'll need to download either of these extensions, depending on which browser you want/need with an actual internet connection. No tethering this. Now, let's get your phone's user agent. If you have Chrome or Firefox on your phone, I recommend matching them with your computer to allow for JavaScript to run correctly. For me, I opened Chrome, go to the dropdown menu in the upper-right hand corner, and make sure 'Request Desktop Site' is checked. Next, in your address bar, or 'Omni Bar' for you google nerds, type in 'whats my user agent'. Your search engine should produce a result for whatsmyuseragent.com. Select this option and now switch over to your computer. Chrome: Once you have the addon, configure a new User-Agent by going to chrome://extensions/ ; find User-Agent Switcher, and click on the 'Options' link. Then click on 'New User Agent'. Now think up a name for your new agent, something classy like, 'linus420noscopepewpewpewonatuesday' or whatever, the next text space will be the User Agent. It's basically a string variable that tells a server what your browser is, whether your on a Desktop or Mobile platform ect. You'll need to retype the User Agent String that you pulled up on your phone, in the text box on your desktop. Example User Agent String (may work if you are lazy): Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/42.0.2311.109 Safari/537.36 Now click save. In your chrome browser, you should have a blue icon, shaped like a planet. Click on this. In the dropdown menu, select the user agent you just created. Now get a USB cable compatible with your phone, plug in your phone to your computer, install drivers. On your phone, locate your Tethering and Portable Hotspot options; (for Android 4.4 go into your system settings > more wireless > tethering & portable hotspot > and select USB Tethering). You'll notice there are other options for WiFi Tether and Bluetooth Tethering. These may work for you, I prefer having the faster (436 Mb/s) transfer rate of USB. And now try going to a webpage, something with Adobe Flash plugins are ideal testing sites because most people can't use flash on their phones. Disable/unplug your other connections to test this. Firefox: For Firefox User's, you follow almost the same steps as chrome except you will go to the User Agent Switcher Icon in the upper-right hand corner, click it, then click on 'Edit User Agents', and click 'New' , select 'New User Agent', and you'll only need to enter the 'Description' (aka Name), and User Agent. then click ok. Then click the User-Agent Switch Icon once more, and select your newly created User Agent. For everyone who read/followed this tutorial, I applaud you and appreciate the traffic. I realize this is a wall of text, and a picture speaks 1000 words, soon I'll try to get a more visual How-To created. That being said, whipping out a laptop, hooking up your phone and watching cat videos on YouTube while traveling will impress your friends, and the ladies love it.