IPhone 4 Personal Hotspot trouble w WiFi: laptop sees it; but won't connect

Hi,

Just am activating all the features of my IPhone 4, upgraded to the $20 data plan as well. Activated the hotspot under Settings-General-network-personal hotspot on, and created a password. WiFi is on, cellular data is on, bluetooth is on.

When I open my list of wireless networks on my laptop (running Windows XP), it lists all networks, including "Administrator's IPhone", but when I try to connect, it looks like it is trying to connect. Then, I get an error message "unable to open network.....may be out of range....refresh list and try again". I'm unable to get to the password screen. Have refreshed it many times....I've been to the Verizon store, Apple store and my laptop manufacturer level 2 tech line.

I can tether it, and connect to the internet that way. However, neither the Bluetooth or the Personal Hotspot WiFi works with my laptop, which is a fairly new Fujitsu tablet, running Windows XP.

Cannot find support about this...would appreciate help. The $20 data plan may be worth it if I can get the WiFi working...is Verizon/Apple working on a patch of some kind for this?

Thanks very much

Accepted answers

GinaH_VZW

The steps you mentioned are correct to connect to your computer's WiFi manager. The only thing that stood out is the name of your network "Administrators Iphone" unless that is the name you set. Check your personal hotspot setting under "Other users can look for your shared network using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth under the name "...."" to make sure the name matches.

Just another suggestion, if you still have the iphone, call Apple support as they are very knowledgeable about these types of issues. You can call 800-275-2273 or send them an email from their contact us page at www.apple.com/support/iphone/contact

Here is also direct link to Apple's Understanding Personal Hotspot page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517

GinaH_VZW Support

Here is also direct link to Apple's Understanding Personal Hotspot page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517

GinaH_VZW Support

All comments

TBhouston

Have you tried turning off the bluetooth and just trying to connect via wifi?

If you have another active smartphone it would be nice to be able to test if you can connect to the iphone wifi on that device. It would really help target where the break down is happening.

scoutiegirl

Thanks for the advice. I have tried it without Bluetooth on, and it again did not open. You have a good idea with trying another smartphone....I think I'll try to hang out at a Verizon store and see if I can test it there. My IPhone does work with a Mac (tried it in an Apple store....). Thanks again.

GinaH_VZW

Here is also direct link to Apple's Understanding Personal Hotspot page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517

GinaH_VZW Support

Here is also direct link to Apple's Understanding Personal Hotspot page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4517

GinaH_VZW Support

scoutiegirl

Thanks for your advice. The IPhone defaults to "Administrator's Iphone" as the name of the network and does not allow you to change it. And thank you for the Apple and other support info. I have been in touch with them, and also with the Verizon Apple support phone line....they are having the Verizon national repair board take a look at my line to see if something is up with that. I'll post more info when I have it - thank you.

shgouel

We have had this same problem too. Can connect mac via wifi fine, but has issues on older win PC with XP on it. Same error message i think.

The name of the wifi access point form the phone is "Susan asasx's iPhone" and the appostraphe would show u all weird on windows. This is stated as a known issue by apple, on windows machines. We tried renaming the device by plugging the iphone into a mac with itunes and renaming it by clicking on the device in itunes and hitting enter and typing in a new name. Then we turned off all wifi and turned back on. This did rename the wifi name to a simpler "Susan", but it didnt help the windows machine.

The windows machine has some craptastic 3rd party IBM driver software on it to handle wifi connections. I think this may be getting in the way.

Ive seen now many many issues with wifi and I think many of them have to do with how the wifi is expecting authentication and security to be handled..... there might be minute differences between WPA2 and WPA2 PKI authentication types, or there might even be differences in how Microsoft auths to a WPA2 encrypted auth server and how Mac does it. Its pretty advanced stuff that even mac and verizon techs dont know details on.

if you can update wifi drivers or the software that controls your wifi (for us, IBM has some of its own software on top the OS to do stuff like wifi connecting), then you should def upgrade this.

Let us know if anyone figures anything out.

cpwil1

My Droid will connect to my iPhone4 via WiFi. However, My laptop cannot connect.

The laptop connects just fine when physically tethered via USB, but not WiFi.

mikedamirault

scoutiegirl, you should be able to change the name of your iPhone if you want by syncing it with iTunes and change/edit the name when it shows up on the left pane in iTunes, it should then use that name for your WiFi tethering SSID

As for the connection issue, it may be some sort of timeout issue, I haven't tried it with XP or any Windows OS, but I have noticed it took longer than usual for my MacBook Air running OS X Leopard to connect to my iPhone, it could be that it's taking longer than XP will allow

Rivergoat

I read this thread and have the same issue. I am a new iPhone user, have a Dell laptop (older Inspiron 8200) with a Belkin F5D7011 wi-fi card, which is supposed to support WPA2 (and I've not had any connection issues in any wi-fi cafe). When I try to use the iPhone Personal Hotspot I do seem to need to let Windows (XP sp3 btw) manage the connection, not the software of the Belkin card. I will see the wi-fi connection, but clicking connect (and entering the password in the "key" field) brings up the "connecting to network" screen with progress bar/dots, but it merely times out and will not connect via wi-fi at all. I have put iTune software on the desktop and am tethering via USB successfully, but would like to be able to use the wi-fi on the laptop as well. Seeing that others have similar issues, I would also like to see a positive response on this. On the phone with Verizon tech support I got nowhere, as the people I spoke to admitted it's new to them, and they didn't know much about it.

mikedamirault

Rivergoat wrote:
I read this thread and have the same issue. I am a new iPhone user, have a Dell laptop (older Inspiron 8200) with a Belkin F5D7011 wi-fi card, which is supposed to support WPA2 (and I've not had any connection issues in any wi-fi cafe). When I try to use the iPhone Personal Hotspot I do seem to need to let Windows (XP sp3 btw) manage the connection, not the software of the Belkin card. I will see the wi-fi connection, but clicking connect (and entering the password in the "key" field) brings up the "connecting to network" screen with progress bar/dots, but it merely times out and will not connect via wi-fi at all. I have put iTune software on the desktop and am tethering via USB successfully, but would like to be able to use the wi-fi on the laptop as well. Seeing that others have similar issues, I would also like to see a positive response on this. On the phone with Verizon tech support I got nowhere, as the people I spoke to admitted it's new to them, and they didn't know much about it.
Like I said in my previous post to the OP, I have gotten it to work on my MacBook Air, though it did take a long time to do so, and OS X doesn't seem to have a timeout like Windows does, I have noticed that once initially connected, it doesn't take as long to connect the next time

What's the reason why you need to let Windows manage the connection? I usually prefer that as Windows usually does a better job at managing wireless cards anyway, though in this case, if the Belkin software doesn't have a timeout, it may eventually allow it to connect to the iPhone

Rivergoat

Issue was an older driver on the Belkin card. Once updated, it's working fine. This is the only wi-fi connection I've had issues with that card, so drivers wasn't on the top of my list, but it did occur to me. And checking, either Windows or the Belkin ultilty (not both at once) can manage my wireless connections now, and each connect as I expect them too...

cmlutz

Did you ever get this problem figured out? I just got my iphone and I am having the same exact problem with the same error message. The solution they listed to this is not helpful. Help!! :smileyhappy:

woodhauler

I also have this same problem with no solution to date.

Any further information to resolve?

Apple was not able to help.

Thanks

aboaz

I think the problem revolves around the fact that Apple requires not only a WEP key(name of iphone) but a sepperate login id. WiFi hotspot works fine with my MacBook Pro because the software handles this. On my Dell laptop running XP there is no way to enter the password that I have been able to find. The XP computer simply timesout becaue the iPhone is waiting for the password which the Windows machine is unable to handle. I hope someone smarter than me can come up with a work around for this because it makes it impossible to connect to a Windows PC.

mikedamirault

aboaz wrote:
I think the problem revolves around the fact that Apple requires not only a WEP key(name of iphone) but a sepperate login id. WiFi hotspot works fine with my MacBook Pro because the software handles this. On my Dell laptop running XP there is no way to enter the password that I have been able to find. The XP computer simply timesout becaue the iPhone is waiting for the password which the Windows machine is unable to handle. I hope someone smarter than me can come up with a work around for this because it makes it impossible to connect to a Windows PC.

aboaz, I believe you are a little confused on the terminology, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is the "login ID" you are talking about, WEP isn't the display name of the iPhone/WAP (Wireless Access Point)

The display name of a router/WAP (the name you look for when searching for a wireless network) is called an SSID (Service Set Identifier)

In some cases, if a wireless network is unprotected, you can just search for an SSID, connect to it, and you're online (unless there is a login/sign-up webpage, like at hotels or places like McDonald's, Panera or Starbucks), though in most cases, there is some sort of encryption, like the following...

-WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

-WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)

-WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2)

Almost (if not every) Wi-Fi device supports at least WEP, it is possible that some older devices (that can't be updated) can't support WPA or WPA2, but Windows (all versions), Mac OS and Linux (all distros) should be able to support all of them, the encryption standards shouldn't be causing the issue

Like I have said in my previous posts, the iPhone seems to take a extremely long time (longer than usual anyway) to have a Wi-Fi device connect to it, and unlike Mac OS, which doesn't have a timeout (at least I haven't noticed a timeout), Windows on the other hand does have a pretty short timeout, so if it doesn't connect right away, it's bound to fail, it is possible that the iPhone takes longer to connect than Windows will allow, and therefore, Windows times out before the iPhone has a chance to connect to it, hence the issue (and the error message)

It is funny though, I connected my Xbox 360 (a Microsoft product) to my iPhone not long ago to connect to XBL, and the Xbox picked up the iPhone in no time, no issues connecting to it

aboaz

Question: Is the Wi-Fi password on the iPhone the WEP encryption key? If it is my lap top Windows machines will not accept it as a valid key. I have had no problems using the hotspot feature with my MacBook Pro.

Purfict

Sorry I am new . I am having the same trouble with my iPhone. I've had it about a month with Verizon and I can't use the hot spot either, and if it does connect to wifi it will get disconnected in the middle of something.

Purfict

Oh, I have win Vista home pre, on a toshiba laptop

mikedamirault

Purfict wrote:
Oh, I have win Vista home pre, on a toshiba laptop

Have you tried connecting a different Wi-Fi capable device to it? (home or mobile game consoles, Wi-Fi capable TVs, other Wi-Fi capable cell phones, laptops, desktops, Wi-Fi capable PDAs or handheld PCs, Macs, etc.)

If you have tried it with another Wi-Fi capable device and it works, then it means that it could be an issue with Windows Vista, if it still doesn't work on another device, then chances are the problem is with the iPhone

the iPhone's Wireless Hotspot feature seems to have a big compatibility issue with Windows based operating systems, I personally think it's due to the time limit Microsoft set for searching for an access point, causing it to time out

wademonkey

As stated above, I'm able to connect to Apple products with no problem. My work Windows-based laptop can take a half an hour to even display SSID. It will finally connect at that point. However, I can tether via USB & the SSID comes up right away and connects. Once connected I can remove the USB tether and the Hotspot continues to be connect via Wi-Fi. But once I disconnect Hotspot I will then have to repeat process: USB tether, connect SSID, disconnect tether & use the Wi-Fi.

Not great solution but it at least works for me. And not sure it is exactly the issue that others are having here - some of you can see the Hotspot SSID but it won't connect. But give this a shot and see how it goes for you.

Skipw

I had simular problems and after reading all the posts I concluded that it might be outdated drivers sa I have an older Sony laptop that I up graded to Win 7 from XP. I looked for newer drivers for my Intel network adapter and found that Intel would not support my adapter for win 7. I dug out a Netgear wireless PCMCIA adapter that I bought 3 years ago and downloaded updated softwae from Netgear for win7 . I then installed as directed and opted for allowing the netgear software to handle the connection and I conneced on the first try and every try thereafter. I apparently had old hardware and old software. Hope this helps.