Why won't my computer stay connected to a hotspot?

Hello, I have recently purchased a Motorola Droid Maxx and previously owned the Razr Maxx. I use the hotspot to connect to my computer with a Netgear WN111v2 wireless USB adapter. I have been using this for 2 years with the Razr Maxx. Since I started using my new phone, I lose connection a lot. Netgear will say connected to internet and then connected to router without even trying to search the web! Have called Verizon Tech support a few times, though polite, I have not resolved this problem. Have troubleshot in the wireless network connection and was given a repair option. This disabled this and enabled that and reloaded IP address but really hasn't helped either. For some unknown reason, have finally connected tonight after about an hour of trying and has stayed connected now for about 2 hours. This is the first time in 2 weeks I have been connected longer then a minute or two. Also have removed the security password on phone and netgear unit hoping that would help, it hasn't. My computer is a Dell running Windows XP. My first thought was that support for XP has been discontinued but realized that my computer should still work fine. This is very frustrating since I had so issues with my old phone, the netgear adapter and computer. Does anyone have any answers or suggestions?

Accepted answers

unknown

I am a mite confused??

You are trying to connect your laptop to your new phone via its hotspot function?? Or....

You are trying to connect your cell phone to the computers hotspot?

Computers are not hotspots. That wireless adapter connects to WiFi either from your home router, or public or private WiFi.

The computer can hook to your device using cellular data hotspot. The device has its own SSID which you set up. So say you call the hotspot My Droid you then set a password/passkey on the phones hotspot and the settings should be saved.

You then make sure the hotspot is on and turn on your windows machine and search for the name of the hotspot for the droid. You click connect and enter the password for the droids hotspot. You should connect OK.

If you are trying to connect your droid to your home router make sure your phones hotspot is off. Then scan for the Netgears SSID and once found click connect. You then enter the password for the Netgear Router and your device is now using WiFi on the droid and not using cellular data.

If the droid is having issues connecting to Netgear router you may have to turn off the router and broadband modem and device and wait a few minutes then turn the broadband modem on first, let it cycle up completely, then plug the router in and let that cycle completely, and then turn on the droid and see if it connects to your Netgear router. Again if it does you enter the pass code and you should be on WiFi.

In some instances the phone does not like your router and you either must go to Netgear web site and look for a firmware update, or just buy a new up to date router.

Good Luck

All comments

Verizon_Support

Hello ljwats. Let's see if we can help your PC stay connected to the hotspot. I have a few suggestions to try, see if maybe they will help out! Let's start with the easiest configuration options. Through your Maxx, have you tried configuring your wireless security to WEP or WPA (TKIP)? This may help out. The next setting to configure would be the broadcast channel. Try changing it from Auto to maybe 1 or 11, see if this helps maintain your connection.

This next suggestion is a bit outside our normal troubleshooting. Are you currently using Netgear's software to manage your wireless connection? If yes, try configuring your PC so Windows manages the connections instead. I have encountered times where Netgear's software will drop the connection randomly, and allowing Windows to handle the network connection maintained a stronger connection for some reason.

Let us know!

NicandroN_VZW

Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

ljwats

Thank you for your suggestions, but they did not work. I tried with

security, without security, changing channels and using pc as wireless

connection. My pc does not have a wireless card so it did not support the

connection. I also did diagnostic tests on Netgear and it said it was

working properly. Any other thoughts or ideas?

Thank you again

Lisa

On Apr 24, 2014 9:32 PM, "Verizon Wireless Customer Support" <