MacBook Air Wi-Fi becomes unusable after using iPhone hotspot

halbot wrote:

• I've not been able to find anyone else with this issue, but it happens to me almost every time I tether my phone. Symptoms are this:

Using WiFi normally is no problem, including public hotspots

• If I connect to my phone as a hotspot, again it works fine

• When I then connect to WiFi after using the phone hotspot, WiFi is unsuable. It connects, but ping is all over the place, 200 - 600ms ping time (usually 10ms), lost packets etc, and internet doesn't work or is so slow as to be unusable.

• Forgetting WiFi sometimes means it cannot then connect at all. Turning WiFi on and off multiple times doesn't work.

• Issue is resolved after a reboot, but that is hardly a good solution.

Macbook Air M5 26.6.2, phone is iPhone Air (26.x).

Thanks

re: "tether" no sure the exact meaning using this term...tethered how(?)

Never heard this issue before.

You can try renewing the DCHP lease on the fly when you have the issue and compare your results.

Tethering is the same as using the hotspot. Comes from the good ol' days when you connected PC to mobile phone with a USB cable.

You can review the help topic—

Connect to the Personal Hotspot of an iPhone or iPad - Apple Support