ASUS RT-N66U tethered to an iPhone

[Twebs]

Hi all!

I've scoured the net on a few occasions trying to find an answer to this before I actually splash out and buy one to try it anyway.

As I understand it the N66 has a built in feature that allows you to plug in an android phone and tether it to kick out the phones 3G as a wifi.

What I would like to know is if the router also allows you to do this using an iPhone instead of an android phone?

Basically my situation is that I live in the back end of nowhere with a rubbish line connection. I tether my phone using hotspot all the time but would like optimum coverage over the house without moving the phone from its optimum 3G signal spot.

My back up and less favourable plan would be to buy an airport extreme, have it join the iPhones hotspot and share the connection over ethernet to an old net gear N router i have knocking around... not ideal.

Any advice would be great. Looking to change my iPhone 3g signal in to a 'decent' home wifi set up.

Cheers

 

[sfx2000]

Can't speak for all iPhones, but the 4S in "Personal Hotspot" mode is 802.11g, which makes "extending" troublesome at best.

Even in tethered mode, it's good for a pinch, as are most other smartphones (Android, Blackberry, WinMo), but nothing you want to have as a full time WAN connection - just too many things going on inside the device.

Better off with a dedicated USB Dongle for 3G/4G services - you can skip the mi-fi type devices perhaps - Hauwei and Pantech have some good USB Aircards out there, and you can find them SIM-free (unlocked) on Amazon.

sfx

 

[Twebs]

Hi sfx,

Many thanks for the speedy response. I totally appreciate the position that its not a great solution but its currently my only option I think to get anywhere near the data allowance I need. My current iPhone has unlimited 3g tethered data.

Forgive me for not being technically minded and may be completely wrong. I hadn't intended on extending the hotspot using wifi. I think there is a specific function on the asus router that allows you to plug in a phone and share its 3g over usb? certainly for an android phone, I'm not sure about an iPhone? This is my questions really, will the iPhone share its internet over usb to the n66?

 

[fseminario]

still wondering...

so thats it? no one ever responded with something useful? I am also trying to do this myself using my iphone 5 native tethering option and can't get anything to work.

is it just simply not supported?

http://event.asus.com/2013/nw/mobile_tethering_support/

 

[doczenith1]

Better off with a dedicated USB Dongle for 3G/4G services - you can skip the mi-fi type devices perhaps - Hauwei and Pantech have some good USB Aircards out there, and you can find them SIM-free (unlocked) on Amazon.
sfx

My knowledge here is minimal but just throwing out some ideas. Is it possible to take the sim card out of the unlimited data iphone and pop it in the device mentioned above? I realize this might be a PITA but if you're not leaving the house or needing call send/receive capability for a long period of time it might offer better performance.

 

[sfx2000]

My knowledge here is minimal but just throwing out some ideas. Is it possible to take the sim card out of the unlimited data iphone and pop it in the device mentioned above? I realize this might be a PITA but if you're not leaving the house or needing call send/receive capability for a long period of time it might offer better performance.

Depends on the carrier and their policies - there is an applet on the SIM that remembers the IMEI of the previous 3G/4G device and can report the device change back to the OTAF function in the operators core network, and apply access policies accordingly via PCRF/PCEF/OCS/OFCS... (those terms are 3GPP specific)

Best case, it works - worst case, it's a rateplan change and you could lose your unlimited data - middle case is that the carrier has bound the MEID/IMEI to the rateplan, and perhaps let's it happen or not.

Walk carefully here with an unlimited data SIM, the carriers want to make these go away...