Preliminary operation
If you want to find out how to use the iPad hotspot, the first fundamental step you need to take is to make sure that the data network is active on the tablet. Then click on the icon Settings present on the iOS home screen, select the item Cellular data from the left sidebar and make sure the option Cellular data is set to ON (i.e. with the green lever next to it).
Then tap on the item Cellular data options and, if there isn't, set it on ON the lever located next to the item Enable 4G.
If you have installed iOS 11 or later on your device, you can check if the cellular data network is also active from the control center. To do this, swipe from the bottom up to call up the control center and check that the icon Cellular dataand (the one with theAntenna) is green. Then exit the control center by pressing on arrow which is high up.
At this point, try to open Safari and check the correct functioning of the 3G / 4G connection. If you are connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi network, force the use of the 3G / 4G connection by opening the iOS control center, then swiping from the bottom from the screen to the top, and turning off the button for the Wifi connection. (the one with the "cleats").
If the 3G / 4G connection works smoothly, move on to the next step of the tutorial and find out how to turn your iPad into a hotspot. If the connection doesn't work, go back to the menu Settings> Cellular Data> Cellular Data Options and select the item APN settings to adjust the Internet connection settings "manually". The parameters you need to use to activate the 3G / 4G connection on your iPad are as follows.
- If you have a TIM SIM - set the field APN su ibox.tim and leave the other fields blank.
- If you have a Vodafone SIM - set the field APN su web.omnitel.it and leave the other fields blank.
- If you have a Wind SIM - set the field APN su internet.wind and leave the other fields blank.
- If you have a SIM Three - set the field APN su tre.it and leave the other fields blank.
Once the Internet connection parameters have been set, press the button < located at the top left to save the settings. The changes will take effect immediately.
To make sure everything went well, turn off the Wi-Fi connection and try surfing online with Safari. In the unfortunate event that the connection problems were not solved, try to consult my tutorials on how to configure Internet TIM, how to configure Internet Vodafone and how to configure Internet Wind, while for what concerns Tre you can take a look at my article on how to contact operator Tre to ask the manager's customer service for the right "coordinates" directly. Also, don't forget to “jump” to your carrier's official website and search for the APN configuration dedicated to iPad.
Use iPad as a hotspot
At this point you are ready to activate the iPad Hotspot function. Then go to the panel of settings of iOS, presses on the voice Personal hotspot or Mobile> Personal Hotspot to access the Hotspot function settings and set to ON the relative levetta all'opzione Personal hotspot. If you want to set a custom password for the wireless network to be created with the tablet, select the option Wi-Fi Password and type in the screen that opens.
In addition to what I have just indicated, if you have iOS 11 or later versions installed on your device, you can also enable the hotspot function directly from the control center. How you do it? Simple! Recall the latter by swiping from the bottom to the top of the screen, press and continue to hold down on the icon Cellular data (the one with the antenna) and from the menu you see appear select the option Personal hotspot (The icon with the chain) which by doing this will turn green. Et voila!
In both cases, the activation of the hotspot function on your iPad will be immediately signaled by the appearance of a blue bar at the top of the tablet screen. Always median the aforementioned blue bar you can gradually view the total number of devices that have connected to your iPad and are using it as a modem.
ATTENTION: Before activating the hotspot function, make sure that the data plan you have subscribed to with your operator supports sharing the connection with other devices (tethering) at no additional cost. Otherwise you could find yourself having to incur unexpected and sometimes very high costs!
Mission accomplished! After activating connection sharing, to use the iPad hotspot on your computer, all you have to do is select the network named iPad from the list of available connections and access it by typing the password you chose in iOS.
Let's take a more practical example right away. If you use a PC equipped with the operating system Windows, click on sull'icona della network present in the notification area (next to the system clock), select iPad from the list of available connections and click the button Connect. Then type in the hotspot password set on the tablet to establish the connection and that's it.
If you use a Macinstead, you have to click on the icon of the network present in the menu bar (always next to the system clock), select the item iPad from the menu that appears and enter the network password.
I also point out that once the hotspot function on iPad is activated, as well as via Wi-Fi, the connection can also be shared via Bluetooth e USB. Just follow the directions on the tablet screen.
When you no longer need the shared connection of the tablet, remember to deactivate the hotspot function in order to avoid unnecessary battery waste as well as unexpected connections. To deactivate the personal hotspot of your iPad, all you have to do is go back to the settings iOS, select the item Personal hotspot or Mobile> Personal Hotspot from the menu that opens (you can also quickly access it by tapping on the blue bar at the top of the screen) and set to OFF the option Personal hotspot. That's all!
Alternatively, as long as you have installed iOS 11 or later on your iPad, you can disable the hotspot by calling the control center by swiping from bottom to top, by long pressing on the icon. Cellular data and deselect the icon Personal hotspot which at this point will turn gray. More immediate than that?
Do you want to avoid that in the future your computer or other devices that you had connected to the iPad are automatically connected to it? It can be done, of course. To do this, just deactivate the special function for storing the password.
Let's take a practical example. If you use a PC Windows, click on the button Home (l'icona della bandierina collocata nell'angolo in basso a sinistra dello schermo), close Panel of control in the menu that opens and open the classic Windows control panel by selecting the first occurrence from the search results. Now, go on Rete and Internet and open the network and sharing center. In the window that opens, click on the entry Manage wireless networks located in the left sidebar, select the connection generated by the iPad and press the button Remove.
If you have a Mac, you need to open the application Portachiavi access (you find it in the folder Other of Launchpad), select the items System e Password from the left sidebar, right click on the name of the network generated by the iPad and choose the item Delete give the menu to compare.
If, on the other hand, you have not yet connected to the network generated by the iPad via hotspot and you want to prevent any future automatic connections, before establishing the connection, all you have to do is remember to remove the check mark from the item relating to password storage and automatically the computer or any other device you are using will not memorize the keyword associated with the hotspot and therefore the next time it will not be able to use the latter to connect to the Internet without explicitly carrying out the various steps on your part.
Instant hotspot
Finally, I would like to point out that if you use a recent iPad equipped with iOS 8.1 or later and a Mac released after 2012 with OS X Yosemite or later installed on it, you can also take advantage of the instant hotspot which, as can be easily deduced from the name itself, allows the tablet to share its connection with the computer (or even with an iPhone) without configuring the Personal Hotspot function as just seen together. Almost as if by magic, if the two devices are close to each other, the iPad hotspot will also appear in the list of available connections on the Mac: convenient, right?
For more details about the operation of the feature in question, you can consult the appropriate information web page attached to the Apple website which you can access by clicking here.
How to use iPad hotspot
