When you are out with your laptop and using public Wi-Fi hotspots, what can you do when one isn't working or goes down while you are using it? Turn your phone into your own Wi-Fi hotspot!

This happened only today and I was working at a café with normally good Wi-Fi that is fast and reliable., Only today, about half way through a mug of coffee and working on my laptop, it stopped working.

When Wi-Fi doesn't work, that does not mean that you have to stop working. You may be able to work offline of course, but these days almost everything we do requires internet access and it is hard to manage without it.

The solution to the non-functioning coffee shop Wi-Fi was to turn my phone into my own Wi-Fi hotspot and connect the laptop to it. I could then continue working and using the internet as needed.

How do you turn your phone into a hotspot?

As always, the version of Android on your phone will affect the menus and functions. Also, it is possible that your phone service does not allow the setting up of a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Here I will be using Android 7 running on a Samsung Galaxy S6.

Go to Connections settings

Open the Settings app on the phone and press Connections. Look for Mobile hotspot and tethering and press it. This allows us to set up our own wireless hotspot using the phone.

Turn on the hotspot

The mobile hotspot is off by default and there is a button on the right to turn it on. Press it. A notice is displayed saying that the mobile hotspot will turn off the Wi-Fi. This isn't exactly true and what it means is that the Wi-Fi will be used for providing a hotspot for other devices and therefore will not be available for the phone to use.

It enables other devices, such as computers and tablets to connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot and the phone connects to the internet through the 3G/4G mobile connection. The connected devices therefore access the internet through the phone's 3G/4G connection. It gives quite good performance.

Change the password

A password is assigned to the Wi-Fi hotspot automatically and this prevents anyone else around you, if you are in a public place, from connecting to your phone. Unless you tell them of course. You could be with a friend and you could both share the hotspot if you needed to.

Press the password and there is an option to change it. Don't make it anything that is easily guessed, but apart from that, you can use anything.

Press the hotspot name, mine is called Android AP, and you can change it whatever you want. People often call it Bob's Phone, Mike Samsung, and similar names. It doesn't affect how it works, but when connecting to it on computers and tablets, you can recognise it more easily.

Watch your data

When the phone is working as a mobile hotspot, it uses the 3G/4G connection to provide internet access for your computer or tablet. That means it uses mobile data.

Unless you are on an unlimited mobile data plan you must be careful how much data is used. Don't let the computer download a Windows or macOS update that is gigabytes in size! Don't download large apps like games.

Related: Monitor mobile data with Google Datally or these four alternatives

Keep your internet activity to a minimum and keep checking your phone to see how much data has been used. Go to Settings > Connections > Data Usage.