Iphone 4 personal hot spot not found - Solved

[Vedster]

Hi all

I have been trying to use my iPhone 4 personal hotspot to connect to internet, but without any success.
My Pc works just fine with it, so it is not down to the actual hotspot not working.

Scroll extreme tablet is not seeing my phone at all, other available wi-fi networks are fine.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance
Ved

[BobC]

Have you tried loading "Wi-Fi Analyser" - that will often display networks that don't show up when you re-scan your networks, I think it relates to the signal level. If you also load up the "Connector" add-on to the Analyser you can use it to connect to the specific network.

I found that when I installed a Wi-Fi repeater (which has the same SSID as the host) the only way I could connect to the repeater if I was in range of the host was by using this methodology - it allows you to select a specific MAC address.

I'm assuming that your personal hot-spot is actually broadcasting its SSID - you can "hide" networks by turning this off although devices can connect to it if they know the SSID (and of course passphrase - you wouldn't dream of not securing the network I assume).

BobC

[Vedster]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your replay and suggestions.

Wi-Fi analyser did not help, tried few other similar apps as well, but no luck.
SSID is being broadcast, and passworded of course

I will keep trying........

[Trashcooky]

Have a look here might be of some help. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756

[Vedster]

Thanks for a suggestion, I have it narrowed down.
Hotspot works outright on my win xp laptop and win 7 desktop, so its not iphone, or tmobile that might be blocking the access, its tablet itself.

One more option to try is connecting iphone through usb host port on the tablet, but something tells me that's going to be no go as well, I am probably expecting too much from £180 tablet which has in a way surpassed my expectations for the price paid

[BobC]

Just a thought but there are two versions of WiFi - 2.4 Gb and 5 Gb. In the UK 2.4 is the only one I've come across but it is possible that an IPhone acting as a Wi-Fi AP could use 5GB 802.11 a/h/j/n as this is a legal arrangement in the USA. The Extreme AFAIK will only use the 2.4Gb flavour 802.11b/g/n.

Do you know what Wi-Fi Channel your IPhone is on ? You should be able to find this using the laptop and INSSIDER software if the IPhone itself won't tell you. I'm very surprised that Wi-Fi analyser wouldn't see the Hotspot. Does it show nothing at all.

On the Apple support site I see the following :

Personal Hotspot requires a supporting hotspot tethering plan from your carrier. The maximum number of supported connections is five, but this number may vary depending on your carrier or iPhone model.

While devices are connected to Personal Hotspot, the status bar will be blue and will indicate the number of connected users.

Could the problem be that you are exceeding the number of simultaneous connections if other devices are connected as well.

The other thing to try would be to change the channel your hotspot uses in case you are being swamped by another AP on the same channel- shouldn't happen I know but worth a try anyway.

I also saw the following on the Apple site :

Note: If you leave the Personal Hotspot screen or put your iOS device to sleep, the device only broadcasts the Wi-Fi network for an additional 90 seconds. If no devices join the Wi-Fi network during that time, your iOS device will stop broadcasting your Wi-Fi network. You can start broadcasting your Wi-Fi network again by tapping Settings > Personal Hotspot.

Could this be what is happening ?

BobC

[Vedster]

Bob,

I have one of t-mobiles biggest plans, no tethering restrictions in place, as a test I used my iphone for surfing through win xp machine, worked as expected, I have browsed through apple support pages before I asked here.

There is more mileage in the type of wi-fi signal you suggested above, need to look into it closer.
wi-fi analyser is great little app, it sees all networks in range, apart from iphone.

Right, now I am really set to get to the bottom of this issue, which could be dangerous as in the past such approach has brought me into few bricked devices LOL

Thanks for your efforts Bob, will keep you posted.

Ved

[BobC]

Just had a thought about this. Try manually adding the network rather than scanning for it. I can't check out the steps at present as my Tab is away but ISTR that if you go into WiFi Settings you can "Add Network" which allows you to enter both SSID and Passphrase.

Once the Extreme knows the network exists then there is a chance it will connect (give it a couple of minutes after enabling the Personal HotSpot).

If this works then the problem was the IPhone wasn't broadcasting the networks presence.

Another thing to check - does the Network SSID contain any characters other than A-Z and 0-9 ? I did read somewhere about how unusual characters in an SSID can cause problems with some devices.

BobC

[cb95amc]

Android 4 (ICS) doesn't support Ad-hoc wireless networks by default. If you are running the stock firmware on your extreme then this is probably the most likely reason its not working.

[Vedster]

Bob,

I tried manually adding the network name, no success.
I tried using wi-fi app that recognizes all types of characters, no success.

It looks like your last post nails the issue, let's wait for an update then

Thanks for your help
Ved