Access point agony

[Lee B]

For some reason, access point functionality on my Icon (running 8.1.14219.341), seems to be going downhill. It's been iffy for a while, but on a recent trip, it was terrible. I was relying on the Icon to provide internet connectivity for my laptop. Sometimes it would work for a while, but then drop out. Sometimes my laptop didn?t show the Icon among available wifi spots, even though internet sharing was supposedly on. Sometimes, the laptop would report that it was connected, but I couldn?t connect to the internet. Resetting the phone would usually fix it for a while, but the problem would return.

I made the mistake of leaving my iPad mini at home ? the laptop always connects to the iPad with no problem and doesn't drop out, even though phone and iPad both rely on the same Verizon signal.

The phone itself doesn't seem to have problems making a data connection with WiFi or wireless.

Has anyone seen a fix for this issue?

 

[anon(7901790)]

For some reason, access point functionality on my Icon (running 8.1.14219.341), seems to be going downhill. It's been iffy for a while, but on a recent trip, it was terrible. I was relying on the Icon to provide internet connectivity for my laptop. Sometimes it would work for a while, but then drop out. Sometimes my laptop didn?t show the Icon among available wifi spots, even though internet sharing was supposedly on. Sometimes, the laptop would report that it was connected, but I couldn?t connect to the internet. Resetting the phone would usually fix it for a while, but the problem would return.

I made the mistake of leaving my iPad mini at home ? the laptop always connects to the iPad with no problem and doesn't drop out, even though phone and iPad both rely on the same Verizon signal.

The phone itself doesn't seem to have problems making a data connection with WiFi or wireless.

Has anyone seen a fix for this issue?

First - How many other wireless (specifically 2.4GHz band) networks were running in your area?
Second - Were there any cordless phones or microwaves running at the time?
Third - Was BT on, and was it connected to a BT device? Or was somebody using a BT device nearby?

Those all can cause interference in the 2.4GHz band and the Icon, it seems, is susceptible to WiFi interference. When I turn on internet sharing, it sometimes disconnects from my SP3. In fact it happened on the way home this evening while my daughter was doing homework on my SP3. It dropped for a few seconds, even though my phone showed two devices connected. Granted I was on the highway in rush hour traffic and you would think that there wouldn't be interference. But all it takes is to pass somebody using BT in his or her car, have internet sharing turned on, or the car has a built in WiFi hotspot turned on. That would provide enough interference to drop the connection.

 

[Lee B]

Thanks for the response. Maybe the Icon is more vulnerable to interference, which might be why my iPad is much more reliable than the Icon as an AP. Cordless phones and microwaves weren't part of the picture, and I wasn't very close to anyone who might have been using BT. But almost anywhere you go, other than the middle of nowhere, there will be other networks -- including other folks using mobile devices as access points. But I don't understand why my laptop would sometimes detect a number of more distant WiFi networks, but not the one on the Icon less than a foot away; when the laptop was able to see the Icon's network, it was always the strongest WiFi signal.

 

[anon(7901790)]

No worries. Another thing you can do is try doing a soft reset power+volume down buttons until it vibrates. I've had problems where my internet sharing was having issues, or it wasn't seeing my home wireless network. It usually cleared up after that.

That won't fix the Icon's susceptibility to interference though.

As far as BT interference. Both 802.11x and BT are both frequency hopping radio technologies. BT, unlike 802.11x, is non-error correcting and doesn't care what other devices are on the same frequency/channel. Where as 802.11x does. Since there is overlap between 802.11x (B/G/N to be specific) and BT doesn't look to see if a certain frequency range is already being used, BT acts like the bully on the block and just transmits. BT will then hope to the next frequency and do the same thing all over. 802.11x on the other hand has error correction built in, so will wait until it can get a clear signal before tx/rx. Or if not, transmit the same packet over again, until it gets a response back saying the packet was received.