usb tethering windows 8.1

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TwoSeven

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#134021 12-Nov-2013 11:36

Hi folks,
Just wondering if windows 8.1 supports USB tethering of a phone. Have plugged in the iPhone and it is recognised as a device and can sync with it, but I cannot tether it (network). Is my surface pro. I have had it working before on other OS version, but first time that I need to use it on windows .8.1.

BT and WiFi tethering work fine, but need to conserve phone power today as mobile.

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nathan

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#931317 12-Nov-2013 12:03

Did this work on Windows 8 or Windows x?

TwoSeven

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#932927 13-Nov-2013 10:32

It would be Windows 7 I believe (either that or server 2008 R2), don't believe I did anything special to get it working either. However, was also using an android device at the time, so may not have been the IPhone.

The workaround for the moment is to connect the IPhone to the surface via USB so I can maintain the power and turn on Wifi. The issue is that this drains a lot of power, and Bluetooth tethering (which uses hardly any power) doesn't work because I need to use the wedge mouse (type keyboard isn't up to scratch in the mousing department) which is BT and wont work if I have another BT device connected.

Update: I have the November firmware update for the surface pro installed which I understood should improve the BT experience. It doesn't fix the mouse issue, it still doesn't reconnect to the PAN when waking from sleep and manually doing so still results in an exception being thrown (second try works fine).

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DS248

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#933835 14-Nov-2013 13:15

Not certain if this is relevant or not, but USB tethering is not implemented in WP8 (up to GDR2 at least) and they appear to have not intention of implementing it. I believe USB tethering did work on WP6.* (& prob 7) but the trend these days seems to be to dumb things down ("We give you a nice simple (basic) Wifi version, be happy with that. Why would you need USB tethering? We decided you don't need it, so how can you not understand that you don't need it. ...". Ditto USB syncing Outlook on a PC with a Lumia phone, something even a low end Symbian phone could do ("Why would you need that .. we give you the Cloud ..")

I think Bluetooth tethering may be in train, but have seen no mention of a USB version being implemented.

TwoSeven

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#933953 14-Nov-2013 15:56

Bluetooth tethering in windows 8.1 works but I cant use other BT devices at the same time. I did a little testing and found that I could have the devices switched on (transmitting) but as soon as I connected via the BT PAN, other devices (such as mouse) stopped working.

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