[Gllug] OT: mobile 3g + bluetooth

[Robert McKay]

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 5:02 PM, Joel Bernstein <joel at fysh.org> wrote:
> On 29 May 2009, at 16:57, salsaman at xs4all.nl wrote:
>> Thanks for the responses so far. I've noticed that some phones have
>> wi-fi
>> instead of bluetooth - that would be fine for my purposes as well. Is
>> there any reason to prefer bluetooth over wi-fi ?
>
> It's pretty rare to be able to use the phone to share its 3G internet
> connection via Wifi, i.e. with the phone acting as a router/AP. You
> *can* get 3rd-party apps for some smartphones to do this though. I
> believe wifi is more commonly used to give the phone internet access.

The T-Mobile G1 (once root'ed) can perform as a wifi -> 3g router.

http://android.a0soft.com/?url=aNetShare.htm

The phone can only do ad-hoc wifi networking and can't function as an
actual 'access point' - however this doesn't seem that important (it
just shows up as a device instead of a network icon when you search
for available wifi networks).

A somewhat more serious drawback with using 3g and wifi at the same
time is that it drains the battery in next to no time.

There are also an increasing number of wifi routers that support 3g -
I bought a Dovado UMR when I moved so that I would have internet
access as soon as I moved in.

http://www.dovado.com/UMR.html

There are now many such devices.. I just came across a new one today;

http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=183117

I don't know if it's any good.. but it's small and portable - looks
nice (albeit somewhat pricy)

> That is, Bluetooth is usually used to get a data connection between
> phone and laptop, while wifi is commonly used to make the connection
> between phone and home/office internet connection.

I believe you can share the G1's 3g internet over bluetooth as well
(again after rooting it first) although I have not tried.

Rob.
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