4 Problems You Might Experience with the Verizon IPhone 4 Personal Hotspot Feature

To be completely honest with you, there aren't a whole lot of differences between the Verizon iPhone 4 and the AT&T iPhone 4. They have the same hardware, almost the same design, and a similar set of features. However, Verizon users do get one nifty add on that AT&T users don't have yet: personal hotspots.

If you're new to the tech, a personal hotspot basically turns your iPhone into a portable WiFi adapter. You can connect up to 4 WiFi enabled devices and use your iPhone's Internet connection, which can be pretty useful if you're traveling or if you like to show people how futuristic your phone is.

However, there are some issues. Here's a look at a few problems you might experience with your Verizon iPhone 4's personal hotspot feature and how to avoid them.

You're Paying More. First of all, know that using your phone as a personal hotspot means that you're paying Verizon another $20 a month for the privilege, and you can only share 2GB between your phone and your WiFi devices before you have to pay even more on a per-gigabyte basis.

You can monitor your data usage from your settings menu, and you should do this if you plan on using your personal hotspot frequently. Try loading the text-based or "simple" versions of web pages and don't play any videos or anything like that unless you really, really need to. You'll keep your costs lower and you won't be surprised when your bill arrives at the end of the month.

You're Receiving A Call. Verizon devices can't run calls and data services at the same time. This means that if you get a call while you're using the personal hotspot feature of your iPhone, the hotspot will drop out until the call's over. Unfortunately, there's not much that you can do about this right now, but Verizon's probably going to update their services in the next year to compete with AT&T's "true multitasking" abilities.

You're Not In A Coverage Area. You might not be able to use the personal hotspot feature if you're outside of a coverage area. You can check Verizon.com to know where you will and won't find coverage, or you can stay in one spot while you compute, but if you're traveling with your personal hotspot enabled, be prepared for your iPhone to drop its connection every once in a while.

Your Computer's WiFi Connection Has Issues. Your personal hotspot feature might not work, and you might have no idea why. It's a good idea to check whether your computer's WiFi connection is working properly when this is the case. Use a second device to connect to the iPhone and make sure that all of your computer's settings have been properly set. The iPhone should appear in your network connections list, and if it's not appearing, it's probably not the iPhone's fault.

What problems have you had with the Verizon iPhone's personal hotspot feature? Post below.