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Personal Hot Spot

jen2440

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I quess I'm missing something basic, but here goes. I have the Personal Hot Spot option on my iPhone4 and iPhone5 and it works just fine on both. Whatever other devices I'm using at the time will recognize the iPhone as a WiFi source. My question is, why doesn't the phone itself recognize the Personal Hot Spot as a WiFi source? In other words, if I'm out of WiFi range for the phone, why can't I turn on the hot spot and have WiFi capability?
 
The "Personal Hotspot" feature uses your cellular data connection to send and retrieve internet data. Then it creates the WiFi hotspot so that up to 5 devices can connect to it. So if you tried to connect your cell phone to its own personal hotspot, it essence you would be doing the following:

iPhone -> WiFi -> iPhone -> cellular data.

Notice the issue? Your iPhone has to connect to the cellular data not matter what. Why drain the battery by creating a hotspot for itself and also creating a new layer of complexity in the process? There is no reason to do that. So you simply use the cellular data as normal.
 
Thanks very much for the quick reply. It was the "connect back to cellular" part that I was missing.
 
One thing to note is that the battery is drained very fast while the hotspot is available, heating the device in the process.
 
Basically the iPhone would be setting itself up as the connecting point, so it's taking in and dispersing out data, so it'll drain the battery extremely fast. On average, tethering will add a good 200 mAh or so to your current consumption, so that means you'll be lowered down to up to half of your normal battery life at most when full, sometimes less.
 
I have the iPhone 5, with the Personal Hot Spot. The device that I am trying to connect to the Internet via the Hot Spot is an HP Netbook. which I bought a few years ago. I bought both from Verizon, if that needs to be stated.

First issue:The Netbook is not detecting the Hot Spot on its own. It can sometimes find it via the link at the bottom of the list of available connections, but it is a royal pain to have to do all of that additional navigating.
I expected this hotspot to be readily detected, just like the wifi in my home.
Second issue: Once the Netbook does finally detect the Spot, it recently has started to lose it within minutes.

Has anyone else experienced these problems? If so. how did you get it fixed, or did you? Or is this another software issue for Apple to fix?

Thanks for your feedback!
 
Your quickest fix is to install iTunes on the laptop and then use a USB cable to do the hotspot. This does two things for you. iPhone is getting a charge and you can't drop the connection.
 
Thank you, Sir! I will follow your advice completely.
Do you know my problem (i.e., poor wireless connectivity to the Hotspot) to be common?
If so, is Apple able and likely to address it via a software fix? Again, thanks for making the effort to help me.
 
Thank you, Sir! I will follow your advice completely.
Do you know my problem (i.e., poor wireless connectivity to the Hotspot) to be common?
If so, is Apple able and likely to address it via a software fix? Again, thanks for making the effort to help me.

There are too many factors to know if it is your phone or some outside interference. Which is why I recommend the USB cable because it is just about bullet proof. And Apple is always looking to make things easier. iOS 6.1 is currently in beta and will probably be released early next year. So if there is an issue, hopefully they will address it then.
 
Your recommendation was rock solid, and in more ways than expected:
Not only did using the cable connect my Netbook to the Hotspot, but after removing the cable, the Netbook now senses the Hotspot wirelessly on its own.
I will still use the cable in my car possible with the Netbook charging the iPhone, it frees up a plug in my car.

It is also good to know that Apple is responsive. Hopefully they will be fixing their mapping system soon too.
 
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