# Use iPhone hotspot as internet source for DTV?



## cfclay

I have an iPhone hotspot that has a robust 20-30 GB/s and an unlimited plan. Can this be used for my internet connection for my Directv reciever and also for my GenieGo?

The Geniego has a USB port in the front- I was curious what this for- might it work for USB tethering to complete the connect to the receiver?


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## slice1900

20-30 GB/s? I think you mean 20-30 Mb/s...but what does four orders of magnitude matter, anyway? 

Not sure who your carrier is, but you might find your "unlimited" plan isn't as unlimited as you think if you started streaming a movie or two a night! I'm not aware of any carrier in US that has truly has unlimited cellular data without something in the fine print about throttling or otherwise limiting your use in some way.


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## cfclay

slice1900 said:


> 20-30 GB/s? I think you mean 20-30 Mb/s...but what does four orders of magnitude matter, anyway?
> 
> Not sure who your carrier is, but you might find your "unlimited" plan isn't as unlimited as you think if you started streaming a movie or two a night! I'm not aware of any carrier in US that has truly has unlimited cellular data without something in the fine print about throttling or otherwise limiting your use in some way.


Correct- 20+ Mbps . Well, I've used as much as 170 GB in one month.....I think it's okay. Let me also put it another way that many can say as well- I've only spent $20,000 with this carrier in ten years..... They'll be okay with the usage 

I just moved in the last 8 months to an area with fire blazing speeds is why the change to attempt to get by without an internet provider.


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## Laxguy

The first question is, after the above, can you do anything else off the phone's hotspot? Tethering costs extra; may not be cost effective. 
Do you need this or are you just curious if it's possible?


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## peds48

The DVRs are designed with having a 24\7 connection to the internet, so unless you leave the iPhone as a permanent modem, then it may not work.

If you leave the iPhone as a permeant modem an you get an gaming adapter for the GenieGO, then you may be in business. note that the iPhone can only support up to 5 devices on tethering mode.


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## cfclay

Tethering doesn't cost me extra, and I have 5 lines for business. I have a dedicated line for internet that doesn't leave the house, if I can achieve this - I am dropping my home internet. This hotspot has been 100% reliable so far.


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## cfclay

peds48 said:


> The DVRs are designed with having a 24\7 connection to the internet, so unless you leave the iPhone as a permanent modem, then it may not work.
> 
> If you leave the iPhone as a permeant modem an you get an gaming adapter for the GenieGO, then you may be in business. note that the iPhone can only support up to 5 devices on tethering mode.


What's a gaming adaptor? I have no idea what that is


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## peds48

the GenieGO only gets connected to an ethernet port, thus you need a way to connect the GenieGO using wireless since the Apple decided not to include an ethernet port on their iPhones, a gaming adapter accomplishes this. Although not sure that OOH will work since you would have to forward ports and there is no way to do that with the iPhone that I am aware of


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## cfclay

peds48 said:


> the GenieGO only gets connected to an ethernet port, thus you need a way to connect the GenieGO using wireless since the Apple decided not to include an ethernet port on their iPhones, a gaming adapter accomplishes this. Although not sure that OOH will work since you would have to forward ports and there is no way to do that with the iPhone that I am aware of


What's that USB port on the front for?


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## peds48

cfclay said:


> What's that USB port on the front for?


adding storage, like a thumb drive


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## inkahauts

What carrier do you have is what I want to know. 

I honestly say I think you need to just give it a shot and see. I see no reason it won't work based in what you said but I don't think anyone's ever done it before.


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## dennisj00

A Linksys WGA 600n or WET 610n should be able to connect to the hotspot and then Ethernet to the DVR and GG. If both get addresses, you should be OK. Does put a damper on using OOH on the phone!


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## Laxguy

cfclay said:


> Tethering doesn't cost me extra, and I have 5 lines for business. I have a dedicated line for internet that doesn't leave the house, if I can achieve this - I am dropping my home internet. This hotspot has been 100% reliable so far.


Well, there ya go! How do you get free tethering?
And, fiive lines? Telephone lines? How does that play in to tethering or your iPhone?


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## mrdobolina

inkahauts said:


> What carrier do you have is what I want to know.


I'm betting he has AT&T and has had an iPhone on the account since an early iteration of the iPhone. My wife has had iPhones forever and still has legacy "unlimited" data with AT&T.


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## slice1900

mrdobolina said:


> I'm betting he has AT&T and has had an iPhone on the account since an early iteration of the iPhone. My wife has had iPhones forever and still has legacy "unlimited" data with AT&T.


Those who grandfathered into the AT&T unlimited data have to pay full price for a new phone and can't activate tethering AFAIK.


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## cfclay

Well this is not a phone forum… So I won't bore everyone, but there are many ways you can get free tetheringp. Also like I said, I have a large family I haves five lines… And I have spent a time of money with this com


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## Laxguy

I would appreciate your answering the questions I posed.


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## west99999

You could get the Genie Go 2 which has coax connections then you wouldn't need an ethernet connection. If the iPhone stays there all the time it will work fine.


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## west99999

slice1900 said:


> Those who grandfathered into the AT&T unlimited data have to pay full price for a new phone and can't activate tethering AFAIK.


Not true. I upgrade my iPhone every time one comes out at the upgrade price and I activated tethering without a problem.


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## peds48

west99999 said:


> You could get the Genie Go 2 which has coax connections then you wouldn't need an ethernet connection. If the iPhone stays there all the time it will work fine.


Only if the geniego2 was available now, which is not and there is no launch date yet.

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## peds48

west99999 said:


> You could get the Genie Go 2 which has coax connections then you wouldn't need an ethernet connection. If the iPhone stays there all the time it will work fine.


and even then, if you want to use the genigo2 as a CCK, you still and ethernet connection or a CCK-W or an ethernet bridge

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## west99999

Yes he will need a WCCK as well to get the internet connected and GG2 will be "soon" lol.


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## slice1900

west99999 said:


> Not true. I upgrade my iPhone every time one comes out at the upgrade price and I activated tethering without a problem.


I meant that if you are grandfathered into the unlimited plan on AT&T you can't activate tethering and in order to keep the grandfathered plan you have to pay full price.

Other carriers may have different policies.


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## coolman302003

slice1900 said:


> I meant that if you are grandfathered into the unlimited plan on AT&T you can't activate tethering and in order to keep the grandfathered plan you have to pay full price.
> 
> Other carriers may have different policies.


Actually, Verizon Wireless is the carrier that requires you pay the full retail no-commitment pricing for new phones to retain the unlimited data plan. AT&T has not implemented this policy.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/verizon-clarifies-shared-data-plans/

http://bgr.com/2012/09/13/verizon-iphone-5-unlimited-data-plan/


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## Laxguy

Topic is fine. May be in wrong forum, but there's no limitation on questions and answers that deal with the digital domain. Please leave moderation to the moderators. 

That said, I'd appreciate a reply from the OP.


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## west99999

slice1900 said:


> I meant that if you are grandfathered into the unlimited plan on AT&T you can't activate tethering and in order to keep the grandfathered plan you have to pay full price.
> 
> Other carriers may have different policies.


Yes, I am grandfathered in to the unlimited plan and upgrade every time a new iPhone comes out and I have tethering on both of my iPhones on the account.


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## Laxguy

west99999 said:


> Yes, I am grandfathered in to the unlimited plan and upgrade every time a new iPhone comes out and I have tethering on both of my iPhones on the account.


But there's a surcharge for your tethers, no? (I have a grandfathered ATT data plan, x texts)


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## trh

Is there a difference between Tether and HotSpot and how does it vary by providers? I have Sprint with HotSpot activated on my phone. I think it is an extra $30 per month.


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## cfclay

Laxguy said:


> I would appreciate your answering the questions I posed.


I have sprint, my plan is unlimited, I have a iPhone that I have dedicated to tethering home wifi. You can jailbreak your phone and get free wifi, I have been a customer of Sprint for ten years. There are many users with old plans that have unlimited

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## Laxguy

Thank you!


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## west99999

Laxguy said:


> But there's a surcharge for your tethers, no? (I have a grandfathered ATT data plan, x texts)


$15 per month for tether with unlimited data and they let me upgrade all the time and just extend contract.


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## wingrider01

west99999 said:


> Yes, I am grandfathered in to the unlimited plan and upgrade every time a new iPhone comes out and I have tethering on both of my iPhones on the account.


then you are lucky or bypassing the normal tethering methods for the Iphone, the tos and fup for the att unlimited plan does not allow tethering, they can and will switch you to a plan that you can contractually utilize tethering. In addition att will throttle the transfer speed of the discontinued and grandfathered unlimited plan once you exceed the limits of 3GB for 3G and 5GB for LTE, these speeds will be dropped to below edge transfer rates. Checked with my business representative at att commercial and they never heard of paying additional to tether - and she has been with att for 15 years


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## west99999

wingrider01 said:


> Checked with my business representative at att commercial and they never heard of paying additional to tether - and she has been with att for 15 years


I know people that have had their jobs for 15 years and still don't know everything about their jobs so that statement means absolutely nothing to me.
I switch the plan online all the time on 1 of the iPhones because tethering is not needed but a couple of months out of the year and when I switch the plan online it is listed as

Data Unlimited for iPhone on 4G LTE Enterprise

$45.00

NA

Unlimited Select

The $45.00 plans allows tethering on my iPhone and when I switch it off for the one iPhone I go to.

Data Unlimited for iPhone on 4G LTE

$30.00

NA

Unlimited

Current

You see it is $15 difference in the 2 both unlimited and I switch them at will whenever I want to. I have had this account since 1990 maybe I'm special. :shrug:


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## inkahauts

Usually unlimited is only for the device. And often times when you add tethering the name of the plan doesn't indicate that you don't get unlimited for tethered devices. Sprint at one point was something like 5gigs for tethering as I recall on an unlimited data plan. So I can see why people get confused and question everything in all directions because every plan is so different


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## peds48

inkahauts said:


> Usually unlimited is only for the device. And often times when you add tethering the name of the plan doesn't indicate that you don't get unlimited for tethered devices. Sprint at one point was something like 5gigs for tethering as I recall on an unlimited data plan. So I can see why people get confused and question everything in all directions because every plan is so different


Right T-Mobile for example gives you truly unlimited on your iPhone but only 2.5 gigs of tethering. I found out the hard way as one day my son blew right pass that in a few hours watching YouTube videos.


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## wingrider01

west99999 said:


> I know people that have had their jobs for 15 years and still don't know everything about their jobs so that statement means absolutely nothing to me.
> I switch the plan online all the time on 1 of the iPhones because tethering is not needed but a couple of months out of the year and when I switch the plan online it is listed as
> Data Unlimited for iPhone on 4G LTE Enterprise $45.00 NA Unlimited Select
> The $45.00 plans allows tethering on my iPhone and when I switch it off for the one iPhone I go to.
> Data Unlimited for iPhone on 4G LTE
> $30.00
> NA
> Unlimited
> Current
> 
> You see it is $15 difference in the 2 both unlimited and I switch them at will whenever I want to. I have had this account since 1990 maybe I'm special. :shrug:


you will be gigged at 5GB for LTE per current terms of service and fair use policy. and they have been discontinued since around 2009 for new customers, existing customers retain them until they decide to remove them


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## cfclay

Just curious.... Are we all using the term tethering to mean the same as wifi hotspot?

That's what I meant anyway- wifi hot spot. Used about 30 gb this month so far. No extra charge. Maybe because I'm lucky, maybe because I've spent almost 25k with them in ten years. Who knows 


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## west99999

cfclay said:


> Just curious.... Are we all using the term tethering to mean the same as wifi hotspot?
> 
> That's what I meant anyway- wifi hot spot. Used about 30 gb this month so far. No extra charge. Maybe because I'm lucky, maybe because I've spent almost 25k with them in ten years. Who knows
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using DBSTalk


Yes hotspot is what I am talking about and I also go over 5Gb EVERY month and they never say anything or slow me down. I have only used 30gb a few months out of the year most of the time I use around 10-15gb.


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## peds48

cfclay said:


> Just curious.... Are we all using the term tethering to mean the same as wifi hotspot?
> 
> That's what I meant anyway- wifi hot spot. Used about 30 gb this month so far. No extra charge. Maybe because I'm lucky, maybe because I've spent almost 25k with them in ten years. Who knows
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using DBSTalk


on an smartphone sharing the internet concoction is known as "tethering" a Wi-Fi "hotspot" is just anyplace that provides wireless internet access.


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## Laxguy

Or sharing the internet connection! Peds is quite right; they are very different....


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## west99999

Laxguy said:


> Or sharing the internet connection! Peds is quite right; they are very different....


Actually they are the same by definition tethering over wifi is known as a mobile hotspot.

"If tethering is done over Wi-Fi, the feature may be branded as a *Mobile Hotspot*."


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## peds48

west99999 said:


> Actually they are the same by definition tethering over wifi is known as a mobile hotspot.
> 
> "If tethering is done over Wi-Fi, the feature may be branded as a *Mobile Hotspot*."


Right, but while a Wi-Fi hotspot may include an smartphone, Smartphone tethering using bluetooth is not. So when you mentioned tethering, and smartphone (or tablet) is involved, the same can't be said about a 'hotspot"


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## Laxguy

west99999 said:


> Actually they are the same by definition tethering over wifi is known as a mobile hotspot.
> 
> "If tethering is done over Wi-Fi, the feature may be branded as a *Mobile Hotspot*."


Wiki is the source for this definitive statement?? They also headed the article with:
This article is about Wi-Fi fixed hotspots. For hotspots running on a mobile telephone, see tethering. For other uses, see Hotspot (disambiguation).

They are not the same to most people.


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## peds48

Laxguy said:


> Wiki is the source for this definitive statement?? They also headed the article with:
> _This article is about Wi-Fi fixed hotspots. For hotspots running on a mobile telephone, see _tethering_. For other uses, see _Hotspot (disambiguation)_._
> 
> They are not the same to most people.


yep, exactly my thinking, thanks for the link.

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## Beerstalker

Usually with a cellular phone if the device is connected using a cable or bluetooth it is considered tethering. If the cellular phone is broadcasting a wifi signal that can be connected to by multiple devices it is considered being a hot spot. So since the OP would be connecting to his phone using WiFi I too would consider this as being used as a hot spot.


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## peds48

Beerstalker said:


> Usually with a cellular phone if the device is connected using a cable or bluetooth it is considered tethering. If the cellular phone is broadcasting a wifi signal that can be connected to by multiple devices it is considered being a hot spot. So since the OP would be connecting to his phone using WiFi I too would consider this as being used as a hot spot.


Right, but the point is/was that tethering was only hotspot as well, which is not


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## Beerstalker

Now that we've got the tethering/hotspot and Cellular provider stuff out of the way I guess we could get back to the original question.

Yes I think everything could be made to work as long as you are aware of the possibility of running into data plan issues.

That said have you thought about getting one of these (or one of the other devices like it) and using it instead of a jailbroken iPhone. Seems like it would be a bit cleaner, and you might be able to configure port forwarding etc with it.
http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop/phone_details.jsp?prodId=dvc7550008prd&deviceSKUId=75500232&flow=AAL&planSKUId=null&tabId=dt_mbc&ptn=

As far as the Genie Go, I'm wondering if you could hook it up to the ethernet port of a WCCK, anyone here ever try that? Hooking it up to the WCCK would give it access to your DECA cloud and therefore all his DVRs and Genie. Then the WCCK would hook up over WiFi to his iPhone hot spot. Or does hooking up an ethernet cable to the WCCK turn off it's WiFi?


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## peds48

peds48 said:


> the GenieGO only gets connected to an ethernet port, thus you need a way to connect the GenieGO using wireless since the Apple decided not to include an ethernet port on their iPhones, a gaming adapter accomplishes this. Although not sure that OOH will work since you would have to forward ports and there is no way to do that with the iPhone that I am aware of





Beerstalker said:


> Now that we've got the tethering/hotspot and Cellular provider stuff out of the way I guess we could get back to the original question.
> 
> As far as the Genie Go, I'm wondering if you could hook it up to the ethernet port of a WCCK, anyone here ever try that? Hooking it up to the WCCK would give it access to your DECA cloud and therefore all his DVRs and Genie. Then the WCCK would hook up over WiFi to his iPhone hot spot. Or does hooking up an ethernet cable to the WCCK turn off it's WiFi?


Yup, I mentioned this way back at the beginning of the tread. But note that since there is a lack of and "advanced" router, i will doubt OOH will work


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## Beerstalker

Yeah I knew you had mentioned a gaming adapter, but hadn't seen any mention of just using a DirecTV WCCK. Its a little different from a gaming adapter, so I thought I would mention it. I'm not 100% sure if it would work though.


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## peds48

A gaming adapter and the CCK-W is pretty much the same thing. the CCK-W has the addition of DECA which is this case is not needed as all the GG needs is a connection to the customer's network.


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## Beerstalker

The Genie Go also has to be connected to the DECA network somehow. Either the DECA network needs it's own connection to his WiFi hot spot so they can talk together over it, or it must be connected directly to the coax network. Otherwise it can't see his DVRs or their recordings.


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## peds48

Beerstalker said:


> The Genie Go also has to be connected to the DECA network somehow.


No it does not. the GG1 connects to the customer network,(LAN) the receiver (or DirecTV system) must connect to the customer network (LAN) in order to see the GG1. DECA "network" or "cloud" as far as GG is concerned is not involved.


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## Laxguy

Well, it certainly needs to be connected to the Home LAN, but at some point it needs to phone home, doesn't it? (I am not at home and cannot test.) If so, then a line to the outside world needs to be operable.


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## dennisj00

Semantics. It's connected to the same network one way or the other.


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## cfclay

Thanks All. This doesn't appear to work. I tried going all weekend without broadband internet and I didn't realize how many things I have hooked up to the internet at one time (more than 5)


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## peds48

peds48 said:


> The DVRs are designed with having a 24\7 connection to the internet, so unless you leave the iPhone as a permanent modem, then it may not work.
> 
> If you leave the iPhone as a permeant modem an you get an gaming adapter for the GenieGO, then you may be in business. note that the iPhone can only support up to 5 devices on tethering mode.





cfclay said:


> Thanks All. This doesn't appear to work. I tried going all weekend without broadband internet and I didn't realize how many things I have hooked up to the internet at one time (more than 5)
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using DBSTalk


That was part of my first post


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## cfclay

Yep. I thought I could get by, but at times I probably had ten devices on my wifi. 


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