Hi folks, I'm having two problems currently with my phone, but both go somewhat hand in hand. The first hasn't been a serious problem until this week. There's been times where it's happened for a short while, but this week, it has been a constant, every single minute of every single day. Whenever I use the hotspot feature on my phone, it significantly reduces the internet (data) speed. For instance, the phone sits directly next to my computer (wireless) and the phone will have 13.6 Mbps download speeds while the computer will have 0.46 Mbps (this is with the computer working off of the phone's connection, which is showing 4g). I don't know if the same speed is what's going to other devices or not (I have three devices connected to the hotspot at times, but I never use more than one at a time). For example, I can watch Netflix on my phone, but on my Roku, the internet is not fast enough to keep up with the streaming.
Anyway, I thought that perhaps if I hardwired it (directly tethered it) to the computer that perhaps that would get rid of any problems that may be associated with wireless routers and modems. However, when I connect the USB cable to the computer and phone, I immediately lose my 4g LTE coverage. Well, not exactly. I have the 4g LTE coverage until I set the phone to share its internet with the PC. So the 4g LTE coverage is there, about 3 of 5 bars, if I am simply charging the phone, mounting it as a disk drive, etc., but as soon as I set it to tethering, it drops the 4g and ceases to have ANY data connection until I set it back to charging or something else or unplug it. In other words, it will not share it's internet with other devices in any other manner than through the hotspot feature.
So I have no idea what's up with it. The phone is starting to get a bit of age on it. Has anyone run into this problem before? I read about as much as I could stand but couldn't find anything close enough to this particular problem(s) to be of much help. Ideas?