[Q] Faster tethering?

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wuxiekeji

Member
Mar 17, 2014
18
34
Newbie here with the Gear, sorry if this has been asked before but I googled for a while.

I have a rooted Gear with Null ROM and rooted phone. Bluetooth tethering is awfully slow though when I'm indoors since my phone gets crappy 3G/4G reception, but I have solid Wi-Fi -- the phone's apps all work great through Wi-Fi, but the bluetooth tether insists on trying to use cellular data even though Wi-Fi is there.

Is there any way to allow the bluetooth tethering to use both the 3G/4G as well as the Wi-Fi connection, whatever the phone has available?

Thanks!
 
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wuxiekeji

Member
Mar 17, 2014
18
34
It's limited to whatever your phone rom allows. E.g. international stock rom allows tethering via Wi-Fi where as most carrier rounds will only work with cellular data (if it is even an option)

Thanks! But why should it be limited by the carrier? I want to tether the actual Wi-Fi connection over bluetooth, not the cellular connection (because the Gear doesn't have Wi-Fi, but my phone does, and 95% of the time I'm indoors where I have much better Wi-Fi than cellular reception).

If it makes a difference, I bought my Nexus 4 directly from Google so it's stock ROM and rooted. If I have to change to some other ROM (e.g. Cyanogenmod) I'm willing to do that
 

hurdlejade

Senior Member
Sep 29, 2012
563
102
Thanks! But why should it be limited by the carrier? I want to tether the actual Wi-Fi connection over bluetooth, not the cellular connection (because the Gear doesn't have Wi-Fi, but my phone does, and 95% of the time I'm indoors where I have much better Wi-Fi than cellular reception).

If it makes a difference, I bought my Nexus 4 directly from Google so it's stock ROM and rooted. If I have to change to some other ROM (e.g. Cyanogenmod) I'm willing to do that

maybe just a few words from my side - why do you need a faster internet connection?
i mostly use it just to sync new data like calendar, or to do list. even slow internet is enough to do that, as it's not a lot of information to be exchanged. if you are planning on streaming videos or so, prepare that your gear will die quickly..
 

wuxiekeji

Member
Mar 17, 2014
18
34
maybe just a few words from my side - why do you need a faster internet connection?
i mostly use it just to sync new data like calendar, or to do list. even slow internet is enough to do that, as it's not a lot of information to be exchanged. if you are planning on streaming videos or so, prepare that your gear will die quickly..

For light use, faster internet means the device wastes less CPU cycles waiting for responses. It's going over bluetooth either way, so better the device get the data in a fraction of a second than say 20-30 seconds (literally; I get only GPRS and occasionally EDGE in my office, never 3G or 4G, but I have flawless Wi-Fi). In those 20-30 seconds I could have pulled the phone out of my pocket to check what came through.

Although in all honesty I bought the Gear to hack with, and there are lots of crazy ideas I want to do with it that want a fast internet connection. Yes, the battery will die quickly, but that's the price of early adoption; I just want to hack for now and hope that when battery technology becomes better I can continue to be living with my futuristic apps. For now I can live with a charging cable down my sleeve and an external battery in my pocket, but I don't want to use USB tethering since I want it to still be able to go while disconnected.
 

Brendo

Senior Member
Thanks! But why should it be limited by the carrier? I want to tether the actual Wi-Fi connection over bluetooth, not the cellular connection (because the Gear doesn't have Wi-Fi, but my phone does, and 95% of the time I'm indoors where I have much better Wi-Fi than cellular reception).

If it makes a difference, I bought my Nexus 4 directly from Google so it's stock ROM and rooted. If I have to change to some other ROM (e.g. Cyanogenmod) I'm willing to do that
I meant carrier branded rom. But in theory, stock international roms should use wifi if connected, otherwise use data. Some roms don't allow wifi to be used for tethering (cellular data only)
 

ronfurro

Senior Member
Oct 24, 2013
168
34
O-Town
I meant carrier branded rom. But in theory, stock international roms should use wifi if connected, otherwise use data. Some roms don't allow wifi to be used for tethering (cellular data only)

Brendo is right. Stock roms often have wifi tethering via bluetooth enabled and can switch back and forth as need. I have not experienced laser fast result with either but as you states "for your needs", look for a phone with native bluetooth tethering. One that works well and is cheap is the Galaxy Grand II. I have one and it worked well. I use a Note 2 now with native bluetooth tethering via Verizon and it works with 4G but not wifi. Maybe someone will chime in with an international rom that has this capability.
 

wuxiekeji

Member
Mar 17, 2014
18
34
Brendo is right. Stock roms often have wifi tethering via bluetooth enabled and can switch back and forth as need. I have not experienced laser fast result with either but as you states "for your needs", look for a phone with native bluetooth tethering. One that works well and is cheap is the Galaxy Grand II. I have one and it worked well. I use a Note 2 now with native bluetooth tethering via Verizon and it works with 4G but not wifi. Maybe someone will chime in with an international rom that has this capability.

Interesting. I have a Nexus 4 (directly from Google), and I'm surprised that if this feature exists that the Nexus 4 doesn't offer it. You'd think it'd be in Google's best interest given Glass and all.
 

ronfurro

Senior Member
Oct 24, 2013
168
34
O-Town
Interesting. I have a Nexus 4 (directly from Google), and I'm surprised that if this feature exists that the Nexus 4 doesn't offer it. You'd think it'd be in Google's best interest given Glass and all.

This is very true as unfortunatly in the US, native BT tethering is often blocked via Carriers who want to charge for it. In theory, this shouldnt be an issue with the Nexus line, curious if the Nexus 5 can... I can confirm, first hand that the technology does exist for wifi bluetooth tethering but it may be that no US phone has this feature enabled, to date. It should be noted that my Galaxy Grand was an international model, specifically the Latin model, not the India model. I could acutually use the phone without a sim card to serve up bluetooth PAN via home wifi to my old Motoactiv Smartwatch while I was screwing around in the house.
 
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Oyvindo

Member
Apr 26, 2014
13
1
Faster Tethering?

Newbie here with the Gear, sorry if this has been asked before but I googled for a while.

I have a rooted Gear with Null ROM and rooted phone. Bluetooth tethering is awfully slow though when I'm indoors since my phone gets crappy 3G/4G reception, but I have solid Wi-Fi -- the phone's apps all work great through Wi-Fi, but the bluetooth tether insists on trying to use cellular data even though Wi-Fi is there.

Is there any way to allow the bluetooth tethering to use both the 3G/4G as well as the Wi-Fi connection, whatever the phone has available?

Thanks!

You should include som info about the make and model of your phone if you wish people to help you....
Anyway, both my GalaxyS3 and my iPhone4S can easily be used to share WiFi with my Gear over Bluetooth. But it doesn't increase the speed much as this is limited by the BT bandwith between the phone and the Gear. Typically max 3Mb/s
 

posedatull

Senior Member
I've got an N9005 rooted (X-Note 13) bluetooth tethering my null 23 gear, and on 4G I actually get speeds up to 5MB/sec, yet the gear rarely goes above 50kb/sec, which, for me, is too low even for a vague browsing :(. I highly doubt anything carrier specific, I just think bluetooth is slow...