Smart phones can do multiple useful things for us. And one of them is tethering. Tethering is very useful concept using which we can share our phone's internet with our desktop computer, laptop and other devices. In the past we have to use third party applications on our smart phone to tether internet. But now we are having default tethering options and ways on almost all smart phone operating system. So first let's understand the concept of tethering and reverse tethering.

What is tethering and reverse tethering for smart phones?

Tethering: Tethering means we can share our internet with other devices in different ways. So tethering from phone is we can use our phone's internet on pc and other devices. As I said these days on new mobile operating systems we are having default tethering option. So you don't need to install any kind of third party application either on your phone or on your pc. You can tether your phone's internet on pc in different ways that we will see later on this article.

Reverse Tethering: Reverse tethering on phones means we want to use our computer's internet on our smart phone which is reverse thing in compare of normal tethering on phone which is actually sharing phone's internet with pc. Here you will share your pc internet with phone in case you don't having internet or sim card on your phone.

Ways of tethering and reverse tethering?

Via Wi-Fi: This is the easiest and very useful. You can tether your internet via wifi hotspot. You can even set password for setting the same thing so that you can restrict users for joining your hotspot. You can join as many as wifi enabled devices on your created network and can share the same internet on all devices. Same goes for reverse tethering where you have to create wifi hotspot on other devices for getting internet on your device. You can imagine the benefit of this.

USB cable: This can give you fast tethering option without any kind of interruptions. You can connect your phone to your pc and have your phone's internet on your computer. Same goes for reverse tethering too. But here you can join one to one device. Here you can't join multiple devices like you can do with wifi hotspot. But it is also having its own benefit which we will see at the benefit section.

Via Bluetooth: This thing can be also useful for certain devices, but you will surely get less speed in compare of USB and wifi connection. So it is least in popularity, but still can be useful on certain time and with specific devices. This is also limited and can connect to one device at time.

Benefits of tethering and reverse tethering

Well, if you have read above explanation well then I think you can understand benefits of both tethering and reverse tethering easily. Using tethering you can share your phone's internet with different devices. As per way of tethering there will be different advantages. I mean using wifi you can connect multiple devices while you will not able to connect multiple devices using USB cable but you can get maximum speed using wired connection. Bluetooth can be also helpful for certain devices as some of them only have bluetooth technology. So each of them have different advantages for tethering and reverse tethering. The main advantage of tethering is you can share your single internet connection with more devices. Plus you don't need to purchase some separate USB dongle or wifi router for sharing internet purpose. So it can save your lots of money.

Tethering and Reverse Tethering in different mobile OS

In Android: Tethering in android is quite easy. You will get all options to tether your internet in the setting and network option. You don't need to download any third party application for tethering. You can use all three ways wifi, bluetooth and USB for the same purpose. Reverse tethering in android is harder thing than normal tethering. For wifi reverse tethering you need wifi router for creating wifi hotspot of your internet connection for sharing it with your mobile. You can also use connectify kind of software for the same purpose. But for USB reverse tethering you need to root your android device and have to install some third party application to have reverse tether on your android phone. So it is little difficult thing for the normal user. But I am sure in near future this feature will be also available by default in android by Google.

In IOS: Just like android, IOS (by Apple) has also provided all tethering option from their iDevices. You can find out portable hotspot option in the setting from where you can get all three types of tethering option. You can share your iDevice internet via wifi, bluetooth and USB. No need of any third party application for the same. Well, earlier version of IOS was missing this option. Now reverse tethering with wifi is having same procedure as android phone mentioned above, you can follow it for IOS too. But reverse tethering with USB is difficult one here too just like android. You have to jailbreak your iDevice and get some third party application for getting reverse tether via USB. 

In Windows phone: Now even Windows phone is having this option. Windows phone is quite new mobile operating system in compare of above two OS I mentioned. Well, this option is quite helpful and important feature for any phone. So it can't be ignored. From settings, systems and internet sharing option you can easily share your internet using wifi. I don't know if there is any option available for sharing internet via USB cable or Bluetooth. Wifi reverse tethering can be achieve by same procedure I mentioned in Android section. But USB reverse tethering option is unknown yet to me. Well, this phone OS still new for me, so I am not having more information in compare of IOS and Android. But I will update as soon as I will get information related to it. 

So this is it. Internet is quite common and important thing for everyone these days. So sharing it among the devices can be helpful for sure. So that is what concept about tethering and reverse tethering. Hope this information will be helpful to you somehow.