iPhone 4 WiFi Personal Hotspot problem...

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ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#79723 21-Mar-2011 23:33

iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3, supplied by Vodafone NZ, never jailbroken, 32Gb device. Currently connected to VFNZ services.

Have got WiFi personal hotspot working correctly BUT...

I turn on WiFi personal hotspot.

I turn on laptop and connect to iPhone 4 WiFi hotspot

I sleep the laptop.

I wake the laptop.

Laptop doesn't reconnect to iPhone 4 WiFi hotspot. If I manually go to "refresh networks" it is not in the list.

To reconnect, I have to turn off WiFi personal hotspot on the iPhone 4, and then cycle it back to "on".

Laptop connects.

Is this how it's supposed to work?

DeroyBoy

256 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#450567 21-Mar-2011 23:59

I think the iphone turns the wifi part of hotspot off after a while when nothing is connected to save battery.

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DeroyBoy

256 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#450570 22-Mar-2011 00:08

Yep it does.

http://www.apple.com/ios/

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#450973 23-Mar-2011 04:35

Thanks for that.

Makes sense except Apple forgot one thing - if you are going to automatically turn a feature off when not in use, then wouldn't it make sense to toggle the setting for Personal Hotspot to "off" in Settings when this happens?

Because as it currently stands, if it is turned off due to not being required, and you go to Settings, it says that it is "on".

You have to toggle it off and back on for it to work.

I guess one issue is that Bluetooth and USB tethering (as you know it is now incorporated into a single setting) is also controlled by this toggle and at a guess these remain "on" even if WiFi gets disabled due to not being in use.

Still it's pretty dumb.

w2krules

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#451613 24-Mar-2011 22:30

Yes, the iPhone powers off the Wifi if it's not used for a while, otherwise your battery wouldn't last very long. Of course, once it's off it can't be turned on remotely. But all you have to do is wake the iPhone and the personal Hotspot starts working again.

Great feature but Android has had it for 6 months.

I was a geek before the word was invented!

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#451615 24-Mar-2011 22:39

w2krules: Yes, the iPhone powers off the Wifi if it's not used for a while, otherwise your battery wouldn't last very long. ?Of course, once it's off it can't be turned on remotely. ?But all you have to do is wake the iPhone and the personal Hotspot starts working again.

Great feature but Android has had it for 6 months.?

Waking it doesn't work. You have to actually go back into settings and turn it back on.

Thanks for telling us that Android have had this for 6 months. That was extremely helpful.

w2krules

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#451678 25-Mar-2011 08:56

Ahmad, you might have to turn yours off and on but all I need to do is wake my iPhone and refresh the available networks on my PC. The iPhone reappears in the list and the computer reconnects automatically. I have an iPhone 4 and am running Windows 7.

I'm not sure why you found my comment on Android having the wireless hotspot feature so helpful?

I was a geek before the word was invented!

w2krules

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#454953 4-Apr-2011 02:59

I've been using my iPhone as a hotpot for the last week. I've now seen the same behaviour as Ahmad - if the laptop I was using went into sleep mode and powered down the wireless then I had to re-enable the personal hotspot on the iPhone.

I'm sure this has been done to save power as I left the laptop downloading one night and the iPhone was flat when I got up.

I was a geek before the word was invented!