Personal Hubspot On Iphone 4S Suddenly Vanished!

[Dario]

In the area where I live there is no cable Internet. Until the end of last month I used Ipstar (www.ipstar.com) satellite Internet from TOT which only gave me about 0.5MB on average for a hefty 2'782 Baht per month. So much money for so little Internet is just not justified. But since I have an iPhone 4S I used their "personal hubspot" feature to connect to the Internet. I have used it now for about a month.

But suddenly, this morning it was gone. I cannot find it anymore in my settings.

I'm writing this article with the aid of an aircard in which I use a True-H 3G card which actually gives me less than the Edge dongle I used before. I looked on the Internet and losing the personal hubspot seems to be a common problem in the United States. Over there apparently you have to pay $10/month to have the personal hubspot enabled.

In one of the forums I visited it was suggested that I reset the network settings and the personal hubspot would then reappear. I did reset the network settings but did not get the personal hubspot back. It seems to me that TRUE is up to something.

Does anyone here know more?

[Dario]

Hi folks,

I'm luckyI just found a remedy for my problem. Someone reports here about this problem and it worked . My Personal Hotspot (not hubspot) is back.

[mogandave]

Glad you got it worked out. That hot-spot is the bombhuh? I don't use it much, but it saved my a** as work a couple times.

[Dario]

That hot-spot is the bombhuh?

It sure is! According to my circumstances, it's a real blessing for me. I'm not a real Apple fan, but I must say for the money you fork out more for Apple quality, you do get rewarded.

I have the best True-H package with 5GB/month for which I pay 9XX Baht per month compared to the 2'782 Baht for the crappy Ipstar setup with no signal as the sky gets overcast. I get more speed (all the time) and can used it on the go, I'm often in Pattaya as we have another home there.

I just wonder if there are other mobile phones featuring a personal hotspot. Anyone in the know? If not, an iPhone is the thing to have for people like me who live in the outbacks without cable Internet. A great plus with the new iPhone 4S are the 2 amazingly powerful built-in antennas. I dunno about the iPad.

[wpcoe]

If being a "bomb" is a Good Thing, then yes it is! For the past couple weeks, I've been relying on my iPhone's TrueMove-H 3G connection to read the forums on my computers (laptop & desktop on WiFi). 3BB has been mostly too slow to even complete loading a web page, whereas tethering my 3G is speedy as usual.

[lomatopo]

I just wonder if there are other mobile phones featuring a personal hotspot. Anyone in the know?

In the Android world we've had Mobile AP, which is the equivalent application, since v. 2.2.

I think some Nokia Symbian phones can do this with a piece of third-party software, JoikuSpot; not sure about Windows Mobile Phone.

I imagine this application puts additional strains on the battery?

(I am running Android 4.0.3, Ice Cream Sandwich so the terminology has changed to "Personal WiFi Hotspot".

[nikster]

I used to have an issue with True where they would disable the mobile hotspot feature every now and then - manually turning it back on would resolve it but it was annoying. Have not seem this problem in at least half a year though.

Loving the mobile hotspot on my iphone mainly because its to fast and seamless - connect the iphone via USB and its on in a second. Same via Bluetooth. This was the main reason i used it over CAT CDMA - fumbling with the modem would take at least a minute if not two before i am online. iPhone is instant. No settings, no enabling anything, it just works.

True H is fast too...

Why US carriers charge extra for this feature is.... well because they're greedy bastards, thats why. Especially with metered plans, why would they care how I use my data. I guess charging for it came from back in those days where AT&T offered unlimited data plans and/or had not figured out yet how to throttle the connection once its over the limit. Now they do what True in Thailand has done for years, throttle you to Edge speeds once you exceed the limit.

[Dario]

to nikster

it looks like the Thai carriers are going to apply the same rules as they do in the US. Yesterday I talked with a customer in Rome. He has to pay also extra to get the Personal Hotspot enabled.

This evening at around 21:00 my personal hotspot was gone again. At the same time there was almost no Internet. So True was busy doing something. I got it back on again, but had to wait a few minutes. It wouldn't come back right away. I think it is only a matter of time until in Thailand all carriers will follow their counterparts in other countries and let customers pay to have personal hotspot enabled. I really hope I'm wrong!

[nikster]

to nikster

it looks like the Thai carriers are going to apply the same rules as they do in the US. Yesterday I talked with a customer in Rome. He has to pay also extra to get the Personal Hotspot enabled.

This evening at around 21:00 my personal hotspot was gone again. At the same time there was almost no Internet. So True was busy doing something. I got it back on again, but had to wait a few minutes. It wouldn't come back right away. I think it is only a matter of time until in Thailand all carriers will follow their counterparts in other countries and let customers pay to have personal hotspot enabled. I really hope I'm wrong!

Don't think so. There's more competition here in Thailand and Thai consumers are smarter than US ones... if you tell a Thai they'll have to pay BHT 1000 per month just so they can use the hotspot feature (with their existing data plan) they'll probably just look at you funny. And walk away.

There's no need to charge extra for hotspot as long as there are no unlimited plans.

True-H is having some troubles in their network right now. Classic Thai move, they're mucking with the live network, probably installing some new system or other. Hopefully it will calm down again soon.

[Dario]

Aha, nikster, interesting what you write. Did you encounter any disturbances as well today?

[mogandave]

... if you tell a Thai they'll have to pay BHT 1000 per month just so they can use the hotspot feature (with their existing data plan) they'll probably just look at you funny. And walk away.

Unless it came with a special blinking apple that let everyone know they were paying extra...

[lomatopo]

it looks like the Thai carriers are going to apply the same rules as they do in the US.

.

.

I really hope I'm wrong!

You are wrong.

Just because the iPhone app. is buggy it seems like a huge leap to assume Thai service providers will charge for tethering/mobile wifi hotspotting.

It continues to work fine for me on DTAC/Happy and TrueMove H with an Android phone or USB air-card (which is more similar to tethering).

I assume Apple and AT&T came up with this "idea" initially in order to increase revenue for essentially a value-add application. AT&T detects tethering/hot-spotting with deep packet inspection (DPI) gear.

Edited March 31, 2012 by lomatopo

[bangkokrick]

I use 'Connectfy me' which makes my laptop a hot spot through the True H dongle. From here Both myself and my missus connect to the Internet using the hotspot for our smart phones. This is very easy to do and a good solution if you want Wifi around the house.

[Dario]

Today at about 10:15 my personal hotspot vanished again. I tried to put it back on, but it kept on loading, loading. Then suddenly I got for the first time: "Enable Personal Hotspot" I pushed on it and the following message appeared:

"To enable Personal Hotspot on this account, contact TRUE-H." My very first thought was: True is going to charge us to have the Personal Hotspot enabled. It really looked that way.

No way to enable myself, I had to contact TRUE-H at hotline #1331. Believe me, I lost a lot of time. To make it short: they were at odds themselves. To my question if TRUE-H is going to charge us to enable Personal Hotspot, the person said: "No, you don't have to pay for Personal Hotspot." Reassuring ... They just explained me how to enable PH on my iPhone4S, something I know now very well.

The reason for the problem was: although the 3G sign was on, there was no Internet. Any app I tried to use, I got a message: no Internet connection. AT about 11:40 Internet came back and I was able to enable Personal Hotspot, but now new via "Enable Personal Hotspot."

[lomatopo]

Use Google Translate: http://www.siampod.com/2011/10/09/note-on-iphone-trueh/

Seems like this is an issue just for iPhones?

[jamesbrock]

Dario - what version of the carrier settings does your phone have?

[Dario]

Dario - what version of the carrier settings does your phone have?

All I can find is Settings >> General >> Carrier >> TRUE-H 12.0 .BTW, IOS is version 5.1 (9B179). Modem Firmware 2.0.10. Does that tell you something?

[jamesbrock]

Dario - what version of the carrier settings does your phone have?

All I can find is Settings >> General >> Carrier >> TRUE-H 12.0 .BTW, IOS is version 5.1 (9B179). Modem Firmware 2.0.10. Does that tell you something?

The Personal Hotspot feature is carrier dependant, and it is the carrier settings which tells your phone to display the option or not (including other options, such as being allowed to edit your APN, etc). The fact that this issue only surfaced for you five days ago, and has so far been restricted to TrueMove H users, would lead me to believe that it is not iOS 5 Personal Hotspot feature that is buggy, but rather the recently released TrueMove H carrier settings.

The reason I asked, is because my personal hotspot has not missed a beat (especially yesterday when out power was out most of the day), and our Wi-Fi here is so flaky that I end up using it almost every day. So I thought it may be something to do with a new carrier settings, and I know for a fact that I had version 11.1 on 24 March, when I was helping a mate in Oz troubleshoot a problem he was having - now I have the exact same setup as you - Carrier Settings: TRUE-H 12.0; iOS 5.1 (9B179): Modem Firmware 2.0.10. I don't know when TRUE-H 12.0 was released, nor do I know when my phone was updated, but I don't seem to be experiencing the issues you are - yet. Perhaps if I restarted my phone, True's new settings might kick in, but I ain't going to risk it!

The nearly-six-month-old article linked to has nothing to do with your issue; it was written three iOS versions ago, and multiple TrueMove H carrier settings ago (I've been using TrueMove H since 17 January, and have gone through at least four carrier settings versions so far!). Your issue is definitely not an issue with the iPhone itself, or users from all carriers would be losing their Personal Hotspots (not to be confused with the 'fix' you linked to, which was specifically aimed at those who had just upgraded to iOS 5; however, the solution worked because it is, or should be, one of the first fallbacks for all network related issues); nor you would not have received a True-specific dialogue message.

The case of the True-specific dialogue is very interesting though, and as Nickster suggested, True might be running network changes on the fly; but this would not explain why you were asked to contact True. The whole thing is disconcerting. If they do start charging extra for tethering, I will definitely be talking with my wallet!

[Dario]

I went to bed at 20:00 last night because I felt miserable, with the Personal Hotspot up and running and I just woke up now at 01:32, had a short look at my computer and the personal hotspot was gone again. It's really annoying! It was easy to put it back on, though.

Talking about restarting the phone: I have to do this often, almost every day, because suddenly the 3G sign disappears. I realize that when suddenl;y my Internet goes back to a crawl. When I do a restart, it is back. Strange! Is it because I live in the outbacks? Probably Wednesday or Thursday we're moving for a week to our home in Pattaya and I'll see how things are there. I might report back here.

I have fears that TRUE-H is planning to charge us for PH as they do in other countries. When the TRUE-H call center staff now tells us we don't have to pay doesn't mean anything. They just haven't been informed yet.

[BKKdreaming]

What speeds are you getting on the iPhone and true ?

BK

[Dario]

Mostly between 5-7 MB, hardly ever less.

[lomatopo]

I went to bed at 20:00 last night because I felt miserable, with the Personal Hotspot up and running and I just woke up now at 01:32, had a short look at my computer and the personal hotspot was gone again. It's really annoying! It was easy to put it back on, though.

Talking about restarting the phone: I have to do this often, almost every day, because suddenly the 3G sign disappears. I realize that when suddenl;y my Internet goes back to a crawl. When I do a restart, it is back. Strange! Is it because I live in the outbacks? Probably Wednesday or Thursday we're moving for a week to our home in Pattaya and I'll see how things are there. I might report back here.

I have fears that TRUE-H is planning to charge us for PH as they do in other countries. When the TRUE-H call center staff now tells us we don't have to pay doesn't mean anything. They just haven't been informed yet.

Is this issue related to the 3-hour disconnect situation with TrueMove H and CAT My? In other words, your connection is terminated at 3 Hours and then once it is terminated you lose the hotpsot functionality, and the iPhone cannot communicate with the network?

Maybe a MiFi device would be a better solution for you?

This one would work with all 3G networks here, and free up your iphone for other duties?

http://www.totalairc...ket-WiFi-2.html

Obviously if TrueMove H wants to charge for mobile AP they will have to do so for MiFi devices, Android phones, iPhones and even 3G router applications.

Edited April 2, 2012 by lomatopo

[jamesbrock]

I went to bed at 20:00 last night because I felt miserable, with the Personal Hotspot up and running and I just woke up now at 01:32, had a short look at my computer and the personal hotspot was gone again. It's really annoying! It was easy to put it back on, though.

Talking about restarting the phone: I have to do this often, almost every day, because suddenly the 3G sign disappears. I realize that when suddenl;y my Internet goes back to a crawl. When I do a restart, it is back. Strange! Is it because I live in the outbacks? Probably Wednesday or Thursday we're moving for a week to our home in Pattaya and I'll see how things are there. I might report back here.

I have fears that TRUE-H is planning to charge us for PH as they do in other countries. When the TRUE-H call center staff now tells us we don't have to pay doesn't mean anything. They just haven't been informed yet.

OK, so now you seem to be talking about a different thing altogether. Initially, you said your Personal Hotspot feature was missing altogether; we still never got to the bottom of this, unless last monday, when you first noticed it missing, you had just upgraded to iOS 5.1; or perhaps True released some new carrier settings without the feature, and then quickly released version 12.0 and put them back (because, as we know, the existence of features such as the Personal Hotspot are dictated by the carrier settings file). Unfortunately, it's all but impossible to find the release dates of individual carriers' carrier settings. For the settings to disappear in the OS, and then reappear without a carrier settings change, would mean it would be a software error, as opposed to a hardware fault, and considering that I'm using the exact same software combination, and I have not encountered the error while using the feature almost daily would lead one to preclude this possibility.

But this morning's issue, where you checked you computer and the hotspot was gone, appears to be a totally different kettle of fish. I can't recall the exact timing, but the hotspot feature will disconnect after a period of inactivity - you said that it was easy to put back on though, because, and I'm only assuming, this is what happened last night.

And as fore the 3G sign disappearing, I would say that this is simply because, as you say, you live in the outbacks. I would hazard a guess that, even if you didn't go through the rigmarole of restarting your phone, the signal would drop back in of its own accord.

What speeds are you getting on the iPhone and true ?

BK

I'm in Samui, and I'm getting high-fives to low-sixes, with upload speeds of low-twos.

[lomatopo]

Not sure if this is relevant:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756

Note: If you leave the Personal Hotspot screen or put your iOS device to sleep, the device only broadcasts the Wi-Fi network for an additional 90 seconds. If no devices join the Wi-Fi network during that time, iPhone or iPad Wi-Fi + 4G stops broadcasting your Wi-Fi network. You can start broadcasting your Wi-Fi network again by tapping Settings > Personal Hotspot.

[jamesbrock]

Not sure if this is relevant:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756

Note: If you leave the Personal Hotspot screen or put your iOS device to sleep, the device only broadcasts the Wi-Fi network for an additional 90 seconds. If no devices join the Wi-Fi network during that time, iPhone or iPad Wi-Fi + 4G stops broadcasting your Wi-Fi network. You can start broadcasting your Wi-Fi network again by tapping Settings > Personal Hotspot.

Perhaps, but I assume he had connected prior to leaving the Personal Hotspot screen or putting his phone or himself to sleep. I do know the Personal Hotspot disconnects after a period of inactivity (but I can not find the details), and I assume this is what happened last night.

[Dario]

http://www.totalairc...ket-WiFi-2.html

Obviously if TrueMove H wants to charge for mobile AP they will have to do so for MiFi devices, Android phones, iPhones and even 3G router applications.

Thanks,lomatopo,

stupid question: what advantage would I have with this device? Would it be an alternative for the PH?

[DowntownAl]

I was pushed over to True H last week on my iPhone 3GS. My Personal Hotspot disappeared as well. I spent a little time resetting the network connection as others here have and it came back. I use mine for the same reasons most posters here do, as a backup to the otherwise poor service I get in Chiang Mai. Then, on Monday I had my border run to Maisai and got to discover the absolutely terrible service I was now getting with my “new” service. First: the speed I am getting is nearly half what if was, now common at 2.33Mbps, (see pic) sometime less, sometimes a tad higher. I am using Thai Visa's server to stay consistent with my laptop on Wi-Fi and my iPhone's 'SPEEDTEST.NET' App. I also found their coverage is significantly less, 20 Km north of Chiang Mai it dropped to Edge, 30 Km north of Chiang Mai, no service at all. It was spotty all the way to Maesai bobbing between no service and edge. When I got back to Chiang Mai my phone didn't pick up 3G again so, like the fool I am, I reset the network connection. Arriving home to find my building's Wi-Fi was down (again) I tried Personal Hotspot – gone again, this time no recovery was possible. I have reset Network over and over. I have used the simple turn off 3G and back on, I have tried resetting while connected to the building's Wi-Fi etc. no Personal Hotspot. The service is terrible. Low speed, lousy coverage and now no Personal Hotspot. I guess it's time to move on to a new supplier.

[DowntownAl]

I think I just stumbled across a fix for Personal Hotspot reactivation. Go to http://www.unlockit.co.nz/mobilesettings/settings.php?id=572 There you will find:

Mobile Phone Carrier Settings for TrueMove H Thailand. I used the iPhone manual setup in Cellular Data Network. APN = internet. User name - true. Password = true. I put this setting in both "Cellular Data" and "Internet Tethering" Then, I turned 3G off and back on (It's faster than a full network reset) - then, badda bing, Hotspot is back.