Windows 10 Or Mobile Phone Provider Issue?

Hi all. Im trying to determine where the problem lies with an issue I'm having.


Samsung Galaxy S5 Mobile phone wifi hotspot been working fine on laptop Win 10 for months. Now suddenly VERY slow and with timeouts/crashes. Same on both Chrome and Firefox. Internet on phone still running fast & fine.


Have so far tried (on laptop) Antivirus scan, full hard drive clean, full system defrag, manually clearing Web history/cache in browsers. And (on phone) Antivirus scan, full hard drive clean and manually clearing Web history/cache. Nothing works!


At my wit's end with this!! Should I take it to my mobile phone provider to look at? Or to an IT person??


Any ideas please, before I throw it against the wall?!

 

I am assuming you are tethering your mobile phone's data connection to your laptop.
There is no such thing as a smart phone wifi hotspot. Wifi is Wifi and you can connect a laptop or any other device to it if you want, and have the correct log in details.
Tethering a device (via a USB cable normally) to a smart phone that has a paid for mobile data usage connection is a different thing.
http://ee.co.uk/help/add-ons-benefi...thering/tethering-your-device/about-tethering

 

This article calls it a "personal Wifi hotspot" and yes, that is what I'm using. I tried tethering via USB but laptop would only recognise it as a device. Have since tested my hotspot with another device with no problems. So the problem lies with the laptop. Next I will try the laptop with a hotspot from different phone and see what happens. From what I'm reading online also, it seems likely that it's Windows 10. There seems to be a lot of issues in this area with W10. Many people are reverting back to older versions.

 

In most cases, tethering is illegal so your mobile provider is limiting your bandwidth.

 

Not here in Australia, I went into my mobile provider's shop today and they tried to sort it out for me. They said there's definitely no restriction from them.

 

I doubt very much it has anything to do with Win10.
Has your Win10 Laptop got WiFi? Are the 'wifi hotspots' free? If it has a wifi adapter you don't need to use the phone. If you are trying to use your phone's mobile internet connection then that is tethering whether wired or via Bluetooth.
Tethering is not illegal in Europe but some providers limit it. There is nothing 'illegal' about it at all. It's whether a phone contract allows it or limits it.

 

OK Max, now I'm just confused. I can't possibly not use my phone... it is the wireless internet source. It IS the hotspot.

My Galaxy S5 has a function called "mobile hotspot". When I turn this on, I can use my laptop's Wifi and W10 to connect to the phone wirelessly and surf the Web on my laptop using my mobile phone's data.

Since writing the OP I have successfully connected a different device to my phone (still wirelessly), with no issues. So my hotspot is fine. I have also connected my laptop (still wirelessly) to a different hotspot on an iPhone and there are no issues with that either. So it's basically a communication problem between MY phone's hotspot and MY laptop.

I have also spoken to many people about this now and the general consensus is that it's likely to be W10 that's problematic.

 

According to this guide, using your phone's paid for mobile internet data via another device can be done wirelessly or via USB, and it is tethering which ever method is used:
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-use-your-samsung-galaxy-s5-mobile-hotspot
Samsung have just given the ability to use the phone's paid for mobile internet allowance through a different device a fancy name.

You could check to see whether the wifi adapter drivers on the laptop are up to date with a program such as Driver Talent (Drive The Life)

 

OK, so it's fixed. So SIMPLE.- On the laptop, forget the hotspot connection, Then turn Wi-Fi off then on. Then reconnect to the hotspot. Which I thought I had done already but it turns out I was doing it in the wrong place! Saved me a day or two reinstalling W10, phew!


Hope this post helps people in the future. In W10, go to settings >Network & Internet >Wi-Fi >Manage Wi-Fi settings>Click on the network you're having problems with>Forget>Turn Wi-Fi off & on again>Select network & enter password. Et Voila!

Although for goodness' sake if anyone else does this, remember to change the settings of the connection to "metered" if you have limited data on your mobile. Mine has just eaten up over 1GB of data! :/

Thanks for all the help on this!