Solved Bluetooth tethering to an iPhone 5

[Graine]

I want to use my I Phone 5 as a personal hot spot and have been trying to tether my surface pro to my I phone 5 but keep getting an error that says it is an unsupported device. I am assuming this is typical of Apple blocking non Apple devices. Does anyone know if there is a work around for this?

 

[drewfromsd]

I am no networking guru, but why the need to connect via Bluetooth for this? I connect my Surface RT to my iPhone 5 personal hotspot via normal WiFi connection using the wireless networking connection without any issues.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Yes as above, is there any reason you want to do this over bluetooth? Myself and several other people have had problems with this... but wifi and USB works without issue.

 

[thanibee]

Yes as above, is there any reason you want to do this over bluetooth? Myself and several other people have had problems with this... but wifi and USB works without issue.

Bluetooth is less power hungry than wifi.

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8

 

[Graine]

The reason I want to use Bluetooth is that when I am away and don't have any wifi I'd still like to use the I Phone 5 as a personal hotspot to access the internet over it's 3G connection.

 

[CrippsCorner]

You do realise you don't need wifi to use your phone as a wifi hotspot?

Using your phone as a wifi hotspot creates a virtual wifi connection for your Surface to connect to, basically fooling the Surface into thinking there is a normal 'wifi' connection available.

If this is your only concern, hopefully this'll help you as you wont need bluetooth at all.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

I want to use my I Phone 5 as a personal hot spot and have been trying to tether my surface pro to my I phone 5 but keep getting an error that says it is an unsupported device. I am assuming this is typical of Apple blocking non Apple devices. Does anyone know if there is a work around for this?

If you are experiencing issues with pairing your iPhone, install iTunes on the Surface Pro. This should include the drivers for the iPhone.

After that, this might help:

iphone - Fastest way to bluetooth tether a phone in Windows 8 - Super User

 

[Graine]

Thanks for all your help. I was unaware of the virtual wifi. It works.

 

[Graine]

I thought it worked but I get an error saying "can't connect to this network". I'm confused. I even tried downloading ITunes.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Do you have any unsupported characters in your SSID? I know some people had problems with this... for instance my default was Olly's iPhone but changing this to just iPhone helped.

 

[troykm]

This is an iPhone thing. No iPhone or iPad can pair with another phone or tablet via Bluetooth . The Bluetooth in apple devices is for things like Bluetooth speakers and thing like that only. Internet sharing can only be done via personal hotspot or USB.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Actually you're wrong there. When I go into Personal Hotspot I get the following options...

TO CONNECT USING WI-FI

TO CONNECT USING BLUETOOTH

TO CONNECT USING USB