Hotspot from phone to laptop very slow?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Hotspot from phone to laptop very slow?

soybeans

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#293851 17-Feb-2022 11:45

Hi there, I was wondering why the speeds when hotspotting from a phone to a laptop (eg iphone to mac) the download and upload speeds are significantly slower than when just using data normally. Is this because isps throttle hotspots because they'd usually use more data than a phone?

quickymart

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#2870198 17-Feb-2022 11:58

I don't believe they do so. What speeds are you getting and how does it differ from what you usually get?

gehenna

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#2870209 17-Feb-2022 12:10

Are you hotpotting wifi or bluetooth?

gajan

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#2870314 17-Feb-2022 13:04

We [Spark] don't do different speeds for the tethered traffic vs handset traffic (i.e. it will be full speed or limited speed depending on plan, etc). Most likely the way the computer connects to the phone - sometimes it's bluetooth (Very slow) or only 2.4GHz WiFi (slow). Cable or ensuring it has 5GHz hotspot support may yield a better result.

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soybeans

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#2870653 17-Feb-2022 23:55

Thank you for the reply. I'd assume its over wifi and haven't tried a tethered connection (lightning to usb or something) so I'd say this is why the speeds are not as fast as just usually using it on my phone.

nztim

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#2871034 18-Feb-2022 19:59

Also iPhone usb ethernet adapter is only 100mbps do never expect more than that

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RunningMan

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#2871048 18-Feb-2022 20:36

How are you setting up the hotpsot? Instant hotpsot or have you configured it yourself? If it's instant hotspot, it will use wifi so shouldn't be too bad. If you've configured yourself, then it may be using bluetooth which could limit to around 1 Mb/s.

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MaxineN

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#2871051 18-Feb-2022 20:51

RunningMan:

How are you setting up the hotpsot? Instant hotpsot or have you configured it yourself? If it's instant hotspot, it will use wifi so shouldn't be too bad. If you've configured yourself, then it may be using bluetooth which could limit to around 1 Mb/s.

Bluetooth hotspotting should not be a thing, it is so unusable and I have unfortunately had the displeasure of trying it once. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

gehenna

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#2871468 19-Feb-2022 21:49

It's more that it's old and hasn't been fully deprecated as a feature yet. It can still be handy in some cases. But it was never meant to deal with 4G.

soybeans

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#2871485 20-Feb-2022 01:25

Good point. I wonder what the speeds are like from people using 5g.

MaxineN

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#2871501 20-Feb-2022 08:35

Considering you're limited to 2mbps (that's bits) from the 5.0 standard you can't physically go any faster then 2mbps. Hell even UTMS will saturate the BT link before you actually saturate UTMS.

It's really not designed for this.

Anyway back to OPs problem. If I remember correctly I'm pretty sure you can setup the WiFi hotspot to use the faster 5ghz band in the actual hotspot configuration otherwise by default it's 2.4 which can be why you're seeing slower speeds(even worse in crowded areas).

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

RunningMan

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#2871507 20-Feb-2022 09:13

To provide any definitive answer, the OP needs to supply more information, otherwise this is all guesswork.

1) What iPhone & Mac?
2) OS on each
3) How hotspot has been set up / activated

There's a bunch of different possible configurations from the instant hotspot that will automatically connect anything on the same iCloud login to setting up a manual hotpost via BT / USB / WiFi. Some phone / iOS combos support 5 GHz WiFi hotspot, others don't.

If using bluetooth, the limit will be a touch under 2 Mb/s (not 2 mb/s) which would be quite noticeable for some activity and totally fine for others.

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soybeans

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#2871533 20-Feb-2022 10:47

I have tried this with both me and my friend.

I have an iPhone XR, with a 2015 13 MBP, both fully updated on no betas.

My Friend has a 13 Pro with a 2019 or 2020 mbp and the hotspot is just set up where you enable it in the control centre of your phone and the mac connects to it over wifi. I usually get speeds in the hundreds of kb/s, maybe 1 or 2 mbps on a good day. His is a little better with dl at 1-4 mbps and his upload was in the tens I believe.

robjg63

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#2871537 20-Feb-2022 10:56

OK - I am on skinny with my phone (Samsung A5 (2017)) - so 4G only.

Phone signal (does that include the 4G or just call signal (3G)?) showing about 2 out of 4 bars.

Wi-Fi tethering - not Bluetooth.

This was the test I just ran.

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RunningMan

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#2871546 20-Feb-2022 11:14

As far as I'm aware, there are no hotspot controls in the control centre (iOS 15).

If you go to the iOS settings->Personal Hotspot and disable allow others to join then that allows just devices on the same iCloud account to connect. On the iPhone 13 pro, this should elicit a connection over 5 GHz WiFi.

If you turn on allow others to join then this activates BT, USB & a visible WiFi network name (temporarily) for anyone to join. On newer phones there will also be a compatibility toggle which limits to 2.4 GHz WiFi when on.

I've just tried a similar config to what you have, and got speedtest limited to about 71 Mb/s. The phone was getting 95 Mb/s in the same location which suggests the WiFi hotspot (with allow others to join, not same iCloud account) was limited to a single spatial stream, 20 MHz channel.

soybeans: His is a little better with dl at 1-4 mbps and his upload was in the tens I believe.

Presumably 1-4 Mb/s, not mb/s?