Galaxy S II wifi hotspot not working

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Reply # 556681 11-Dec-2011 19:09

Short story, it is broken and you need to make a warranty claim. You have jumped through all the hoops required - time for some action from the other party. You can try it on the phone, but call well within NZ working hours.

Technofreak

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Reply # 556683 11-Dec-2011 19:19

gzt: Short story, it is broken and you need to make a warranty claim. You have jumped through all the hoops required - time for some action from the other party. You can try it on the phone, but call well within NZ working hours.

I don't necessarily agree. It works OK with another device connected but not when a Win 7 device is connected. At this stage with the information stated here I cannot see that it is Telecoms problem.

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gzt

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Reply # 556686 11-Dec-2011 19:30

Yeah, it is possible to see it that way.

By the way OP, is bluetooth data connection possible and stable?

Again, not that it matters for the problem you are trying to solve, just another point of interest.

[Edit: I don't know if that is actually supported tho. You would have to check the docs]

rjl

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Reply # 556687 11-Dec-2011 19:41

@Technofreak: I'm just using standard windows 7 wireless networking - click on the icon in the system tray and pick the network to connect to. I've never had any trouble with that at home, friends' places, work, numerous client sites, airport transit lounges and coffee shops - so I find it hard to argue that it's not a phone issue - especially as once the issue has happened, the phone's hotspot shows as being in an error state.

@gzt: I'm fairly sure that it's the PC connection attempt that kills it. I did it twice - but I agree that 5 or 10 times would be more conclusive.

I haven't looked into bluetooth, though it had occurred to me. It's definitely nowhere near as good a solution, and based on my experience trying to tether via my E71 (which dropped out all the time and required lots of responses to questions on the phone every time) I wasn't too keen. Will check it out - I need to set up bluetooth for my hands-free car kit anyway.

Next stop is definitely a Telecom shop on the original issue.

gzt

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Reply # 556688 11-Dec-2011 19:45

rjl: @gzt: I'm fairly sure that it's the PC connection attempt that kills it. I did it twice - but I agree that 5 or 10 times would be more conclusive.

It probably is if you can stay connected and useful with the phone for ages, but it is the end with the laptop.

gzt

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Reply # 556692 11-Dec-2011 19:56

Worth checking out exactly the wifi standard the phone supports.

See that windows is not trying to initially negotiate a better standard or a higher authentication / encryption level and (possibly) killing it before it gets to the combination required.

There are likely to be options to restrict negotiation in your windows network settings, and in the hardware device options for the wifi.

Sorry I cannot be more specific about those but I am not a big user of wifi on a daily basis - and on top of that I'm on a mac at present.

Technofreak

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Reply # 556695 11-Dec-2011 20:03

rjl: @Technofreak: I'm just using standard windows 7 wireless networking - click on the icon in the system tray and pick the network to connect to. I've never had any trouble with that at home, friends' places, work, numerous client sites, airport transit lounges and coffee shops - so I find it hard to argue that it's not a phone issue - especially as once the issue has happened, the phone's hotspot shows as being in an error state.

The point I was making is some phone WiFi hotspots are not the same as the hotspots you find at home, in the work place, airport lounges, coffee shops etc. Most WiFi uses infrastructure mode whereas at least some phone WiFi hotspots use as hoc mode. Ad hoc is also known as peer to peer where two computers talk to each other via WiFi.

I don't know if Android uses ad hoc or not, but if is does, that might be the reason your laptop works OK on other WiFi networks but not via your phone.

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Reply # 556696 11-Dec-2011 20:09

@Technofreak: OK, sorry, I see what you were saying. But no, the android wifi hotspot is definitely infrastructure mode. It supports up to 4 (or 5, can't remember) concurrent sessions. It's multiple device support that I'm specifically after, which is why the USB and bluetooth options aren't a good-enough workaround.

gregmcc

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Reply # 556699 11-Dec-2011 20:15

Try another sim in your phone, As I said way back in this thread, i've got an SII, no problem at all setting up the wifi hotspot, no drop offs, it works fantastic,

Isolate the cause of the problem, you've tried other computers, problems persist, so it's not a computer problem, this leaves a phone problem or a network problem, so what can you do? try your sim in another phone that supports a wifi hotspot or borrow a sim from someone elses phone from a different network (2 degrees or Vodafone).

Most likely it's a phone problem, but you need to be armed with facts before taking it back to where you got it from, if you don't have the facts or results from the tests you have done it makes it real easy for the handset supplier to say it's not our problem, it must be the computer your are connecting to.

Technofreak

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Reply # 556701 11-Dec-2011 20:25

rjl: @Technofreak: OK, sorry, I see what you were saying. But no, the android wifi hotspot is definitely infrastructure mode. It supports up to 4 (or 5, can't remember) concurrent sessions. It's multiple device support that I'm specifically after, which is why the USB and bluetooth options aren't a good-enough workaround.

No problems. I see your issue with USB and bluetooth, plus bluetooth is a very unfriendly protocol.

As Greg says get your facts well and truely sorted before you go back to the vendor.

Have you tried with a different OS to Win 7? As I have discovered Win 7 starter can be a bit particular with some Wifi connections even though it is generally very easy to set up.

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robjg63

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Reply # 556702 11-Dec-2011 20:25

Pretty sure that the phone would support 802.11N - Dont know what speed your laptop would support, but can you perhaps check your PC and manually set it to say 802.11G on the wifi setting and see what happens.
Then perhaps try and set it manually to N?

Sometimes wifi cards on PCs can go crazy trying to autodetect the speed/protocol and they change speeds and can drop connections.

I have the cheaper Samsung Glaxy Ace and the hotspot feature works very well for me - no complaints at all.

Does sound like something in your computer rather than the phone (at a guess).

Maybe worth seeing if you can check your PC network drivers?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

gzt

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Reply # 556718 11-Dec-2011 21:18

Did you do the ad-hoc network setup on the win7 by the way? or is it just appearing in the available connections and you are connecting?

rjl

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Reply # 556721 11-Dec-2011 21:25

@robjg63: SII supports a/b/g/n, my laptop (a newish Dell Latitude) supports a/g/n, the other laptop I tried (a newish Sony Vaio) supports b/g/n.

So even though it does seem as if something which the laptop is doing which my old E71 wasn't doing is triggering the hotspot problem I think this is clearly an issue with the phone, not the laptop.

Nonetheless, I'll try it with an XP machine at work tomorrow in the interests of gathering more data points.

@gzt: It's just an available (infrastructure mode) connection appearing in the system tray. And it does connect OK - it just hangs very shortly afterwards (when talking to a Win7 laptop).

gzt

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Reply # 556745 11-Dec-2011 22:37

Any difference if you define an adhoc network using the same ssid and authentication in your win7 networking and use that to connect?

rjl

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Reply # 556747 11-Dec-2011 22:53

It doesn't even try to connect. The ad-hoc network I've defined on the laptop sits there waiting for someone to try to connect and the hotspot also sits there waiting to accept connections.

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