Lumia 950 xl - Internet sharing always on

[Koby Yehezkel]

Hey, a quick question,
I've been noticing (on both my 920 and 950 xl) that internet sharing ssid is always boradcasted to my laptop even when it's off,
Trying to log into it starts up the mobile hotspot and I can connect to the internet
However... I have it off for a reason as I do not want to waste data and/or battery that is poor enough as it is on my phone currently (official branch, not insider)

so questions are:
1. is it a bug or a feature? (a.k.a is it by design)
2. does it waste battery? as my device is sometimes warm to the touch even when mobile hotspot is "off"

Thanks in advance!

 

[T Moore]

This is by design.
Internet sharing is not turned on, no data is used until you connect.
The ssid is being broadcast by Bluetooth, when you connect, internet sharing is turned on
This way you don't have to touch the phone to connect to it's WiFi.

 

[PGrey]

Weird, I just tried this on my 950XL, and couldn't reproduce it (I'm on 318).
I tried a variety of attempting to connect via my windows box, to no avail, as soon as I disabled my hotspot, it was a no-go, even if they were in the middle of connecting.
Is it possible you have the setting for "turn WiFi on if a device tries to connect, for devices that already have a Bluetooth paired relationship" enabled?

 

[T Moore]

Both devices have to have BT. That is why your Xbox won't connect like this.
Devices have to be BT paired and the laptop has to initiate the connection.
Try it on your laptop. If both devices have the same MS account you probably won't even have to enter the WiFi password
This feature has been around since 8.1

 

[Cartman]

As T Moore mentioned you have to be signed in to Windows on both devices using the same Microsoft account. When I sign in to my computer with the same MS account I use on the phone I see it. When I log in with a different account it does not show up.