Internet access on PDA using Wifi via mobile phone

[splashgordon]

I am new to this forum so please be gentle!

I have an HP IPAQ 4150 which is WiFi enabled and I am planning on buying a Wifi enabled mobile phone. Does anyone know if it is possible to surf the net on my IPAQ by using Wifi to communicate with the phone (and the phone handles the internet conmnection via GPRS)?

I currently do the same via Bluetooth from the IPAQ with my mobile handling the internet connection but bluetooth is very slow. Technically I cannot see why I shouldn't be able to do this.

The benefit is that I can take advantage of a bundled voice/data tariff on my mobile but use my IPAQ (bigger screen etc.) to do the surfing.

Any advice welcomed!

Cheers,
Gordon

[PetiteFlower]

I've never heard of a wifi enabled phone.

If there's a wifi network that you can connect your phone to, you can also connect your PPC to it directly, there wouldn't be any need to connect it to the phone in between.

The bluetooth connection is most likely not slow because of bluetooth but because of the type of connection your phone has. Most phones/plans only offer dialup-speed internet connections when acting as a modem for a PDA or laptop.

[Sven Johannsen]

Petiteflower has it right. The speed of the PPC to Phone via BT and to the net via GPRS is limited by the GPRS. Changing the BT to WiFi will do nothing to speed it up.

I would doubt though that a phone with WiFi, and I presume BT as well, would have the ability to share a GPRS connection over WiFi. That would require the phone to essentially act as an IP router, since there would be a network set up betweeen the phone and the PPC, and a second one between the phone and the network. Using BT the phone essentially acts as a modem for the PPC, and really doesn't get into play so that implementation is easier.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

If your data package through your mobile is still GPRS, then having a wifi connection between your mobile and your PDA won't make a difference. Bluetooth isn't that slow - I've streamed videos across a bluetooth network before, and it works near as fast as wifi (and at a lower power consumption rate as well).