ichbins72

Q: Personal Hotspot Wifi SSID is not visible

Hi,
I install the 4.3 IOS and configure the Hotspot Feature. But the Wifi SSID is not visible to other Phones or Laptops. I restart the Phone, activating and deactivating.. no chance.

Anybody the same Problem?

Regards,

Iphone 4, iOS 4

Posted on Mar 15, 2011 1:28 PM

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Q: Personal Hotspot Wifi SSID is not visible

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  • by Mactoyz,

    Mactoyz Mactoyz Mar 16, 2011 1:18 PM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 16, 2011 1:18 PM in response to ichbins72
    I have a new Verizon iPhone with personal hotspot and am using it to connect my iPad (WI-FI) on occasion. Since I have zero issues with the iPad on a normal WI-FI network, I have to assume that the problem is between the iPhone and iPad. I can be sitting in my car with a decent Verizon signal (3 bars or more) and connect the iPad to the hotspot. It connects and works for a while before I notice that the link has dropped. Looking at the iPhone, I see that it still shows the bars and the hotspot symbol. I retry the connection from the iPad with mixed results. At times it grabs quickly at times I get the spinner before my network shows.

    Since this is going on while the iPad is actively being used, I suspect the signal is dropping by itself. I have tried rebooting both devices, forgetting the network on the iPad, and moving around with same results.

    Not sure how much I should trust the signal bars, but thought that three bars should be adequate.
  • by ichbins72,

    ichbins72 ichbins72 Mar 18, 2011 3:40 AM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2011 3:40 AM in response to ichbins72
    Hi,
    The Problem is, that on the List of Wireless-Networks i d'ont see the Iphone Wireless Name. Nothing.
    I have a Laptop with Windows and an airscan utility... no wireless detected.
    It's like that the Hotspot Function d'osnt start on the iphone...
    Regards,
  • by Lorenzo74,

    Lorenzo74 Lorenzo74 Mar 19, 2011 6:15 AM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 19, 2011 6:15 AM in response to ichbins72
    have your same issue...anybody has any ideas to help???
  • by DJRa,

    DJRa DJRa Mar 23, 2011 1:05 AM in response to Lorenzo74
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 23, 2011 1:05 AM in response to Lorenzo74
    I have the same problem. iPhone 4 (Vodafone UK) and MBP 17" 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 running 10.6.6

    I can't use bluetooth either. The only way I can tether my iPhone is with the USB cable - which is a pain in the a**e.

    Come on Apple - sort it out.

    I'd expect more from £2500 of hardware!
  • by achilles2010,

    achilles2010 achilles2010 Mar 28, 2011 1:13 AM in response to DJRa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2011 1:13 AM in response to DJRa
    I have same problem. The Wifi hotspot is not visible to any device I have - iPad to Macbook Air to Macbook. Bluetooth tethering and wire tethering work fine
  • by ryan Johnson10,

    ryan Johnson10 ryan Johnson10 May 25, 2011 2:20 AM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2011 2:20 AM in response to ichbins72

    I think you are running into the following issue.

     

    From: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756

     

    Note: If you leave the Personal Hotspot screen or put iPhone to sleep, iPhone only broadcasts the Wi-Fi network for an additional 90 seconds. If no devices join the Wi-Fi network during that time, iPhone 4 stops broadcasting your Wi-Fi network. You can start broadcasting your Wi-Fi network again by tapping Settings > Personal Hotspot.

     

    So, if I understand correctly, if you leave your iphone on the the Settings --> Personal Hotspot screen, than it shouldn't stop broadcasting.

  • by Sellador,

    Sellador Sellador Jun 21, 2011 9:15 PM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jun 21, 2011 9:15 PM in response to ichbins72

    I have the same issue as @Mactoyz. I don't think it's the thing in the knowledge base, because my iPad is already connected before I turn the screen off on my iPhone. I've also tried leaving the iPhone screen on, and it still misbehaves. It will start to work, and I'll click through to a few things, then it'll just suddenly drop the connection to the iPhone (links icon disappears). To get it back, I have to play around in the setting of one or both devices. This is hugely frustrating and it really makes the feature useless to me. If anyone else has an idea, I'd sure appreciate it.

  • by Kazafog,

    Kazafog Kazafog Jul 14, 2011 7:15 PM in response to Sellador
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 14, 2011 7:15 PM in response to Sellador

    another option is that the device you are trying to connect doesn't like the phones name, apparently it needs to only contain ASCII characters.  I'd remove spaces and any characters that are not letters or numerals.

  • by Sellador,

    Sellador Sellador Jul 14, 2011 7:48 PM in response to Kazafog
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 14, 2011 7:48 PM in response to Kazafog

    Thanks for the reply. That's exactly the sort of idea I was hoping to come across... some innocuous little thing I could do to get it working. Unfortunately, mine isn't this particular problem as both my device names are simple ASCII letter words already, with no spaces or other special characters. I'm glad you replied for another reason, though. With no luck getting it working, I've been meaning to call Verizon and cancel the service and this reminded me to do that. I hope your observation helps someone else who comes looking here for answers, though.

  • by rbkerr,

    rbkerr rbkerr Mar 12, 2012 3:25 PM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2012 3:25 PM in response to ichbins72

    I'd had the same problem for weeks (ie. SSID not appearing on ANY computers) and came across a website that mentioned turning the Personal Hotspot on via Setting>General>Network, instead of the obivous Setting>Personal Hotspot.

     

    It's now working!! So to reiterate, don't use the first Personal Hotspot option in settings, turn it on and off via General>Network> (scroll down) Personal Hotspot.

     

    This is clearly a bug.

     

    I found the recent iOS5.1 update didnt help, nor did switching flight mode on and off (with sometimes hepls with poor carrier data bandwidth).

     

    The other option you could try (which I didn't need to) was to Reset Network Settings under General>Reset.  (But I expect this may just reset the 3G data carrier settings and not all the phone network settings.  If you try this I guess you may want to record you phone carrier settings first or at least have their tech support number handy in cse the iPhone doesn't magically find them from the network (or if you have an unlocked phone on another network).

     

    All the best, hope it helps.

  • by Apple fan 2990,

    Apple fan 2990 Apple fan 2990 May 4, 2012 9:11 AM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 4, 2012 9:11 AM in response to ichbins72

    Theres a way to fix it i notiss by placing the underscore between the spaces for your iphone name under settings/general/ name it lets u use your wireless for ps3 and xbox

  • by rbkerr,

    rbkerr rbkerr May 7, 2012 4:16 PM in response to Apple fan 2990
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 7, 2012 4:16 PM in response to Apple fan 2990

    I still can't get my iPhone SSID visible on my computers.  I had meant to update my post above to say that it only fixed it for one or two connections, now it still out.

     

    I tried using an SSID with no spaces (ie underscores) but this didn't help.

     

    Think I'll try a hard reset or something, or cough up the $60 odd for apple care / 3yr warranty.

     

    Anyone else with the same problem still, or find my fix above worked for longer?

  • by rbkerr,

    rbkerr rbkerr May 7, 2012 4:17 PM in response to ichbins72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 7, 2012 4:17 PM in response to ichbins72

    It may be worth adding that I'm not on iCloud, and found it stopped working after a few OS updates, but who knows.

     

    Anyone else with this problem also not on iCloud or consider any other issues that may be relevant?

  • by Lexib0y,

    Lexib0y Lexib0y Aug 26, 2016 5:08 AM in response to ryan Johnson10
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 26, 2016 5:08 AM in response to ryan Johnson10

    Your post helped me. My problem is similar.
    I cannot see the SSID at all, I have to connect manualy each time.

     

    Now at know at least that I the SSID is not broadcasted anymore. I suspect that when the SSID is not broadcasted, new wifi connections are also not accepted.

    So now I just turn wifi off and on on the iPhone 4 / iOS 7.1.2, and go to the hotspot screen. Then on the iPhone 6 I connect manualy to the wifi. It is time consuming, but at least it works.

     

    Can you or anyone else confirm that when the SSID is not broadcasted, you can also not connect to the hotspot?

     

    Alex