Having issues tethering over wifi? Solved!!

nkaufman · ‎01-02-2013

Got a new iPhone in Dec - iPhone 5 and using latest iOS 6.1
Used it to tether over wifi my windows PC. It was a pain to do that. Tried several things like
- setting cellular off then on,
- setting LTE off then on,
- setting wifi on and off,
- switch phone on and off,
- reset network settings that meant I lost my home wifi pwd etc

Connection was random, sometimes pc would see the iPhone but as soon as i entered passcode to connect the pc would stop seeing iPhone in available wireless networks.

I found one solution that seems to work very well and has been working for the past several days and wanted to share with the community.

Switch off wifi, LTE and cellular - in that order.
Now switch on cellular, enable LTE
Now enable hotspot
You will see a prompt to turn on wifi
IMPORTANT step
Select to turn on wifi, keep at that screen, do not move.
The screen shows that phone is now discoverable.
Now refresh your network list on your PC
You should now see your iPhone
connect.
Voila
Now you can change screen on your phone to go back to home etc.

Please leave feedback if the above works for you as well to see if the solution is across iPhones and iOS.

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

don;t have to go through that, I just turn it on and it works - do you have the 5GB tethering data plan or mobile data share?

nkaufman · ‎01-02-2013

wingrider01 wrote:
don;t have to go through that, I just turn it on and it works - do you have the 5GB tethering data plan or mobile data share?

Well then you should consider yourself lucky. If you do a search for tethering over wifi, you'll see a whole bunch of people having issues with tethering over wifi. I had to tether via USB for sometime and played around with settings till I found the solution that works every single time.

Issue occurs with any plan that enables tethering. do not think it is plan specific (of course plan needs to allow tethering).

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

wingrider01 wrote:
don;t have to go through that, I just turn it on and it works - do you have the 5GB tethering data plan or mobile data share?

Isn't that a bit of an odd question to ask, given that OP had indicated that tethering works for him when he does his "workaround" solution...not unless you're insinuating that there's some sort of hack available to enable tethering on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1--regardless of whether it works correctly--without the need of a qualifying tethering plan?

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

jane697 wrote:

wingrider01 wrote:

don;t have to go through that, I just turn it on and it works - do you have the 5GB tethering data plan or mobile data share?

Isn't that a bit of an odd question to ask, given that OP had indicated that tethering works for him when he does his "workaround" solution...not unless you're insinuating that there's some sort of hack available to enable tethering on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1--regardless of whether it works correctly--without the need of a qualifying tethering plan?

no tinhat needed, general question requesting additional information to quantify a accurate response, they make no mention of the data plan that this dance is being used with - personnally wnat to know the senario that this dance is needed with

have a good day

nkaufman · ‎01-02-2013

jane697 wrote:
wingrider01 wrote:
don;t have to go through that, I just turn it on and it works - do you have the 5GB tethering data plan or mobile data share?
Isn't that a bit of an odd question to ask, given that OP had indicated that tethering works for him when he does his "workaround" solution...not unless you're insinuating that there's some sort of hack available to enable tethering on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1--regardless of whether it works correctly--without the need of a qualifying tethering plan?

I agree with you there that it was indeed a strange question because it not only implies what you have commented above but also that there are some data plans (that allow tethering) where one can expect to have a tough time connecting than other data plans. My opinion, either the data plan allows tethering or it does not. My plan does and that is why I was able to connect though sporadically. But the solution that I mentioned above worked every single time. After having tried this technique over several days did I feel that I should post here and share the findings. Hopefully people having similar issues (googling this did return a whole bunch of results) will find it helpful.

Even though wingrider provides an explanation later on about why he asked that question and even though I don't think that the question is really relevant, in the hope that he meant well I glossed over it initially in my replies.

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

nkaufman wrote:

jane697 wrote:

wingrider01 wrote:

don;t have to go through that, I just turn it on and it works - do you have the 5GB tethering data plan or mobile data share?

Isn't that a bit of an odd question to ask, given that OP had indicated that tethering works for him when he does his "workaround" solution...not unless you're insinuating that there's some sort of hack available to enable tethering on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1--regardless of whether it works correctly--without the need of a qualifying tethering plan?

I agree with you there that it was indeed a strange question because it not only implies what you have commented above but also that there are some data plans (that allow tethering) where one can expect to have a tough time connecting than other data plans. My opinion, either the data plan allows tethering or it does not. My plan does and that is why I was able to connect though sporadically. But the solution that I mentioned above worked every single time. After having tried this technique over several days did I feel that I should post here and share the findings. Hopefully people having similar issues (googling this did return a whole bunch of results) will find it helpful.

Even though wingrider provides an explanation later on about why he asked that question and even though I don't think that the question is really relevant, in the hope that he meant well I glossed over it initially in my replies.

We disagree there, the data plan can be relevant. I have personal iphones with the 5gb tethering plan, I have buisness iphones with tethering plans, my employees have iphone 5's with tethering plans. None of them have to go through the steps you put forth

Not sure why you have to go theorugh your dance to get the phone to hotspot or tether, have not seen any help desk tickets from that people that carry the phones having issue. So curious as to what the difference here is to see if there is a common thread that would cause the problems that require you to do 10 steps to get it to connect. the question asked was do you have the 5GB single tethering plan or the mobile shared plan - they are two different plans that allow tethering and it was asked to try and narrow down the situation if it is a cause of the tethering plan that you have on your phone - basic troubleshooting 101. As a famous movie quote goes - Need More Input.

As far as what do I tethering - a W7 64 Bit laptop, a Microsoft surface with windows 8, a linux based diagnostic laptop, an android based tablet, ipad, and I tethering the sync system in my car to create a wireless accesspoint for the kids when we are traveling.

jane697 · ‎09-18-2012

{keep it courteous}

Anyways--back on topic...if you don't have to do the "dance" that OP was reporting on with your iPhones regardless of what tethering plan you have on them (seems you have both types)...then should it really matter what particular data plan (that allows tethering) OP has? I mean, if you have no such issues with tethering on your phones regardless of data plan...what good would it be (for you) to know which plan OP has? Would you be able to figure out what the deal is with OP's issue if you knew what data plan he had...even though you yourself stated that you have no such issues on any of your iPhones?

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

jane697 wrote:

{keep it courteous}

Anyways--back on topic...if you don't have to do the "dance" that OP was reporting on with your iPhones regardless of what tethering plan you have on them (seems you have both types)...then should it really matter what particular data plan (that allows tethering) OP has? I mean, if you have no such issues with tethering on your phones regardless of data plan...what good would it be (for you) to know which plan OP has? Would you be able to figure out what the deal is with OP's issue if you knew what data plan he had...even though you yourself stated that you have no such issues on any of your iPhones?

Basic diagnostics 101 - was questioning the OP to determine WHICH data plan they had - chances are the data plans maybe provisioned differently. While I personally do not have the mobile shared plan, I do have employee's in the help desk division that have chosen to use it on the corporate supplied phones and friends that have chosen to use it it. SO yes I do have options of trying both plans. Like I said basic trouble shooting 101 - determine the configuration and network services that a device has then start a diagnostic elimination process - it may actually turn out to be a defective Iphone 5 - imagine that, a defective iphone 5. diagnostics and proper knowledge can supply answers - but for it to be accurate and usefull you need to aks basic question to see what the baseline is.

nkaufman · ‎01-02-2013

I do have to agree with jane697.

It really does not help when irrelevant questions are asked in the guise of Basic Diagnostics 101. Hope that we have something similar to what was done to jane697's post (truncation) so that OPs can flag replies as irrelevant. I think that would be very helpful.

rockdawgusa · ‎03-03-2013

Thank you. I have an iPhone 4 (iOS 6.1.2). I recently (Feb 22) subscribed to the 5GB Data Pro Tethering plan. Rarely would any devices in the vicinity of my phone see my phone as a hotspot choice (if the phone did show up, it disappeared in mere seconds from the list). If I were driving or on the bus commuting back and forth to work, it did not work (and that was the ultimate reason I opted for the service - my bus commute is one hour each way).

I reset my network settings at the request of AT&T support (which was a real pain as it erases information for every router that I use whether at work, home, church, etc. So having to get those passwords and re-enter them was a chore by itself.). I drove around and it was working at that moment as both my iPad (3rd Gen) and Archos Android tablet finally saw the phone's hotspot and I was able to connect them. Good I thought. Well, not good. Wouldn't work the next day and I wasn't resetting the network again.

Next day called AT&T support again and I'm pretty sure I was transferred to the same lady as the day before. She seemed very irritated to be speaking with me again (and I was actually nice, but admitted I was frustrated that something so seemingly simple didn't work). I was even asked whether I 'set up the hotspot again after resetting my network settings'. I said that there is no 'resetting up the hotspot. It's just a simple "ON/OFF" selection and I'm using the predefined name and password for now.' She had me disable the wi-fi, then enable the hotspot (which turns wi-fi and bluetooth on and at that moment my phone reconnected to my router, so I had to turn off the hotspot, disable wi-fi again and turn the hotspot back on and my devices were able to see the phone's hotspot). When I asked why it doesn't "just work" when I simply enable the hot spot, the response was that basically it's because I have an older iPhone. Looks like that was a convenient albeit incorrect answer.

So, step ONE on my iPhone 4 is to DISABLE Wi-fi.
Step TWO is turning the Personal Hotspot on and selecting "Wi-Fi and Bluetooth".
Step THREE is then hoping my device or devices see the connection and can connect to it.
So for me, I HAVE to DISABLE Wi-Fi first or it doesn't work. I haven't had to disable 3G and re-enable it so far.

Again, thanks for your post. I should have visited here before contacting AT&T.