Way to disable/restrict personal hotspot without turning off phone's data?

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Level 1

18 points

Way to disable/restrict personal hotspot without turning off phone's data?

Web restrictions work well for my kiddos' iphones. We use the disney circle at home, with the disney circle GO! product to provide filtering when not at home. (we also use restrictions to turn off Safari and only allow apps we know to be installed, otherwise the app store is off. We're pretty draconian parents. But that's not important right now)

Turning on personal hotspot on a phone with data effectively bypasses *everything*. So kid 2 has a phone with no data but a browser. Kid 1 has an iphone that has browser locked and web restrictions on, but is allowed to have data so he can play Pokemon Go, read certain wiki apps, and use iMessage.

Kid 1 turns on personal hotspot, kid2 connects his phone (or laptop, or whatever) through it and volia! Unfettered internet access.

IF, however, there's a way to disable personal hotspot, the issue neatly goes away. Yes, you can still play Pokemon Go and iMessage is still enabled, but you can't be sneaky. (please, no comments on how I should trust my kids. I do, but I was once a 14yo male. full stop.)

I could disable data completely, but I'd like to allow some stuff.

The web restrictions and browser blocking are a great start. And I would have thought that locking cellular settings (with the personal hotspot OFF) would prevent making changes. Nope. Still allows flipping the switch regardless.

Am I missing something stupid-obvious? (certainly wouldn't be the first time.)

cheers!

-aaron

iPhone 5, iOS 9.3.5

Posted on Aug 29, 2016 2:02 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

sberman

Level 10

268,263 points

Aug 29, 2016 2:07 PM in response to adb666

Your cellular carrier authorizes personal hotspot for each telephone number. Ask them to disable it for the iPhone you wish not to use it.

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Answer 2

adb666 Author

Level 1

18 points

Aug 29, 2016 3:37 PM in response to sberman

I know this was an option back in the good old days of unlimited data. :-) Tethering was an explicit setting supported/allowed by the carrier.

However, I just spent 15 minutes with an AT&T rep and as I understand it, that is not something they control now. I can control data use on a per-phone basis, but according to this person they don't have the ability to turn off *just* the tethering ability any more. She made the point that it can be enabled/disabled at the phone level. Which, of course, is the problem ... if it was a restriction switch I could flip it'd be great. :-)

I'd guess that, as they track/bill you for data regardless of how it's used, turning an individual feature on/off is less important now.

Obviously the person could be mis-informed, but that's what I found.

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Answer 3

Aug 29, 2016 4:09 PM in response to adb666

It may not be exactly what you want but AT&T does offer some parental controls (at a monthly fee) that give you more granular control over the phone usage.

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/smartlimits.html

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Answer 4

adb666 Author

Level 1

18 points

Aug 30, 2016 8:52 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Thanks ~ we actually do use att smart limits. It lets me turn on and off data wholesale for individual phones (as well as tracking how often and two whom they text :-) ) but does not let me block the personal hotspot. :-(

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Answer 5

Aug 30, 2016 9:13 AM in response to adb666

Sorry. That's all I've got. Except maybe, call AT&T back and try again. Sometimes, a different person knows a different answer.

Best of luck.

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Answer 6

Klotar

Level 2

297 points

Aug 30, 2016 9:28 AM in response to adb666

Just had a random musing -- I think you could temporarily* resolve the issue by altering the APN used for Tethering on AT&T.

Disclaimer: I'm not on AT&T (nor do I have an iPhone) but I believe there should be several APN's (cellular, MMS, browser, etc.) and one of those should be for tethering. You may be able to alter it to something invalid which would effectively disable tethering.

*until the next reboot or reset network settings.

Again, haven't tried this but worth a shot (try it on your own device after jotting down the original tethering APN settings). If so, try it after a reboot too (at least you will know). If we are lucky, it will only revert on OS upgrade or network settings reset. Good luck and let us know how you finally resolve it.

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Answer 7

Aug 30, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Klotar

Klotar wrote:

Just had a random musing -- I think you could temporarily* resolve the issue by altering the APN used for Tethering on AT&T.

Disclaimer: I'm not on AT&T (nor do I have an iPhone) but I believe there should be several APN's (cellular, MMS, browser, etc.) and one of those should be for tethering. You may be able to alter it to something invalid which would effectively disable tethering.

It's generally difficult, if not impossible, to change the APN settings on a phone on a supported carrier, as I recall. But good thinking outside the box. 🙂

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Answer 8

Feb 14, 2017 11:19 PM in response to adb666

I thought you can solve the problem by enabling browser restrictions on Kid 2.

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