Couldn't get personal hotspot to work

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Level 4

1,345 points

Couldn't get personal hotspot to work

I tried the personal hotspot tonight for the first time (it is supported on my carrier - AU in Japan) but I couldn't get it to work.

The restaurant I was in had wifi that my iPhone automatically connected to. I think that was one issue. For the personal hotspot to work, doe the iPhone need to be connected to the Internet over LTE or 3G?

My personal computer could not connect to that same restaurant wifi because it was a member's only wifi for AU cell phone users.

If I turned off wifi to force my iPhone to be connected via LTE but then I got a message saying wifi needed to be turned on to use the personal hotspot feature.

So I turned wifi on again, but my iPhone's wifi did not appear in the personal computer's list of networks to connect to.

Anyway... how would one get this to work? I think I wanted my iPhone connected via LTE, wifi on but NOT connecting to that AU wifi. Is that right? I didn't see how to get the iPhone to NOT connect to the wifi if wifi was on.

Thanks,

doug

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion, iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009, 12 GB)

Posted on Nov 27, 2012 7:36 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Nov 27, 2012 7:44 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

The whole point of Personal Hotspot is to allow other devices to share your iPhone's cell connection to the Internet, so yes, it does have to be connected to the cell network to function. Your carrier also has to offer Personal Hotspot as a service for which you have to sign up, often at an extra cost. If you haven't done so already, contact your carrier and inquire about such service.

This article may be of help:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517

Regards.

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Answer 2

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Nov 27, 2012 3:12 PM in response to varjak paw

Hi. As mentioned above my carrier does provide the service. For the first two years of your contract it is free. So that part is not the issue.

The issue might be that I am getting automatically connected to the provider's wifi network at the restaurant. I'll contact them about that point.

Thanks,

doug

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Answer 3

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,345 points

Nov 27, 2012 6:50 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

The problem was that the network settings needed to be reset. After that it worked properly which is like this:

When I entered the restaurant (or at home) the iPhone 5 connected to the known wifi network. That's fine.
When I turn on personal hotspot, the wifi mark disappears and you see the carrier name and connectivity in its place. In my case it said "KDDI LTE".
At this time the wifi network name appears just fine in the personal computer's list of hotspots and you can select it, enter the password and connect.
When you turn off the hotspot, if you were connected to wifi then the wifi mark re-appears.

Anyway, I just tried it from home. I did a speedtest on my iMac tethered by wifi to my iPhone 5's personal hotspot. Not too bad - download 7.23 Mbps and upload 6.70 Mbps.

doug

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