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#1
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What is a USB dongle in re hot spotting?
I was having some problems with my internet modem/router, so I tried using
my phone as a hot spot. When I selected that option, I was to choose between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB dongle as the connection medium. How would a USB dongle work in this environment? |
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#2
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What is a USB dongle in re hot spotting?
lonelydad wrote:
I was having some problems with my internet modem/router, so I tried using my phone as a hot spot. When I selected that option, I was to choose between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB dongle as the connection medium. How would a USB dongle work in this environment? Serial connection running PPP ? On a Windows machine, you could run USBTreeView. https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html Start it, then, note when you plug the smartphone to your Windows machine, what "new" USB device showed up. In the USBTreeView right pane, you can see the USB Class field value, and standard "Classes" have drivers in Windows where they will be automatically recognized. You would need ninja-like reflexes, to detect "what changed" by looking at Device Manager alone, when the SmartPhone is plugged in. Also, SmartPhones run multiple protocols. They might default to MTP (MediaTransferProtocol) and "image transfer" as a mode. The SmartPhone has to be told what you want to do, to select a protocol for the job. Otherwise, you'll end up accessing some image folder or the like. I don't think a SmartPhone defaults to hotspot mode, out of spite. Some phone companies charge an extra per-month fee, when they detect "tethered usage" as you propose to do - and that's a reason why the phone should not switch to hotspot without some effort. When a serial port opens, nothing has to happen right away. PPP (just like back in dialup modem days), is an overlay or protocol on top of a serial (dialup) style connection. And you have to find RAS or similar, to configure it and make it work. At one time, one of the good things about PPP, is it kept a log file, and up until the networking stack took over, the logs were in "plaintext" of a sort. And the log was "educational". Since that time, there have been many cases where I would have preferred to see a similar log for examination. Of your stated three options, Wifi stands the best chance of "going fast". Whereas Bluetooth is generally bandwidth limited (except when it runs in parallel with Wifi as an augmentation of Bluetooth). If the phone is emulating a serial port, then I would not expect that to be running at an infinitely high rate. It probably would not be comparable to 802.11N. While it is possible to support an "Ethernet" or network class on USB, I don't think smartphones use such a method. It would be really handy, if these SmartPhone devices had a "reference architecture" so we could "check the list" as to what protocols to expect. I have no plan of buying every phone under the sun, to figure this out manually (what options are on offer). Using USBTreeView, you might be able to figure it out for yourself. Even if your Windows computer makes an inappropriate or incomplete response, USBTreeView and Device Manager are your friends, and are there to give you the breadcrumbs needed to figure it out. Make sure the phone is in the desired mode, before wasting time analyzing the results. Paul |
#3
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What is a USB dongle in re hot spotting?
lonelydad wrote:
How would a USB dongle work in this environment? Are you sure it's not simply talking about using a USB cable between phone and computer? |
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