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Old 03-18-2023, 01:35 PM   #1
Camping family
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Cell phone hot spot

Looking for information. I have att cell phone with unlimited hot spot. While at the camper it will connect sometime n other time not. I go into tv WiFi settings n some times it will show my hot spot phone as an option n other times will not list it. Any tech guys out there with any suggestions?
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Old 03-18-2023, 01:51 PM   #2
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I have found that in order for a device to find my AT&T iPhone hotspot, you have to be on the phone Personal Hotspot page (Settings>Personal Hotspot) as long as that page is open, your hotspot will be discoverable to devices like a television or laptop or iPad, etc.
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Old 03-18-2023, 04:10 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by NH_Bulldog View Post
I have found that in order for a device to find my AT&T iPhone hotspot, you have to be on the phone Personal Hotspot page (Settings>Personal Hotspot) as long as that page is open, your hotspot will be discoverable to devices like a television or laptop or iPad, etc.
Thanks I will give that a try. Might be the reason why it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t.
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Old 03-18-2023, 06:50 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Camping family View Post
Looking for information. I have att cell phone with unlimited hot spot. While at the camper it will connect sometime n other time not. I go into tv WiFi settings n some times it will show my hot spot phone as an option n other times will not list it. Any tech guys out there with any suggestions?
Watch your data usage VERY CAREFULLY !!!!!! ATT and Verizon both have a "data cap" on nearly all their plans. Ours is a 15gig cap on "data download" and unlimited data on "phone use"...

What that means in "camping terms" is that you can watch netflix or any "service movies" on the phone with no affect on your "data download limits".
On our plan, we can cast to a TV (watch the phone screen on the TV using bluetooth) with no "download penalty"... On the other hand, if we use the phone as a hot spot and connect a smart TV or connect a notebook or tablet to the phone (when it's in hot spot mode) and then cast that to the TV, it does count against your 15gig cap and after a couple movies, your phone plan goes to "throttle mode" and, you might not be able to check email tomorrow morning....

That said, some plans don't have that that limitation, so yours may or may not, but definitely worth checking out before you realize you can't log onto AOL to check email because the pages won't load on your "throttled connection"....
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Old 03-18-2023, 08:01 PM   #5
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I have AT&T and have a separate hot spot. Our plan is unlimited on all data usage, but after 22 GB in a billing period, they can throttle if the area is too busy. The hotspot is a Netgear AC815S, so it has it's own phone number, so any other devices that connect to the wifi only need to use the password to access it. It is strange though, that one of the Apple tablets doesn't seem to like the hotspot, but will connect to one of the phones when they connect to it as a hotspot. Once in a while, we have to reboot the hotspot so its works properly. No explaining why it acts strange at times.
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Old 03-19-2023, 04:00 AM   #6
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We have a “Signature” plan with AT&T through my corporate partner program. It gives us the Unlimited Elite plan which is unlimited/unthrottled call, text and data on the phones with 40GB of unthrottled hotspot data on each line. I also have a separate unlimited data MiFi hotspot with Verizon through my employer so I can work from the road when traveling. Between our 10 year old daughter’s iPad, the Firestick TV, and both wife and I working from the road we have never had any data concerns.

That all being said, we also are camping and not using data like we would at home (where we burn through 700+ GB per month since at home EVERYTHING is run through our fiber optic internet). It can be very easy to exceed your data limits without realizing it, so depending on your plan specifics, be careful!
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Old 03-19-2023, 08:15 AM   #7
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I have a Samsung phone with AT&T. If I turn on "WIFI", the hot spot does not work. The "WIFI" setting is designed for the phone itself to piggy-back of another WIFI signal from another source. This saves your own data plan usage.

But, if the WIFI is turned on, even when there is no other WIFI signal to piggy back off of, the "hotspot" does not work. The hotspot only works when WIFI is off.

Your phone internet will also piggy back on another WIFI signal when WIFI is on. When it is "off", your phone's internet is running against YOUR data plan.

This could be the reason why, sometimes your devices pick up the "hot spot" and sometimes they do not. Make sure WIFI is off for the Hotspot to work.
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Old 03-19-2023, 08:30 AM   #8
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Howdy All;

The past month and a half my "at home" internet has been going through
what could be called an update. IOW they had to go through the 'quick fixes' they had used to repair connections since new.

So, I had my trusty Samsung and worked the intergoogle with it. As I am a Consumer Cellular customer I can use it all I want with NO overage fees. NOT a commercial, I'm just a contented user. They have a few different plans and well, check them out yourselves. Just beware, AT&T doesn't like ya leaving. They take it personal. Kept my DirecTv. and all of a sudden, had rough times paying my DTV bills. Had to make up a new password each month and it was a hassle. Took almost 2 years to get past their ugliness.

Anyway, check out Consumer Cellular.

hank
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Old 03-19-2023, 04:12 PM   #9
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Howdy All;
[snip]

Just beware, AT&T doesn't like ya leaving. They take it personal. Kept my DirecTv. and all of a sudden, had rough times paying my DTV bills. Had to make up a new password each month and it was a hassle. Took almost 2 years to get past their ugliness.

[snip]
Yep, they didn't like it when we cut the cord for the landline. Had been trying to get them to lower the price for several years; we finally went with MagicJack. Only when we called to disconnect did they make a reasonable offer, but by then it was too late.
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Old 03-19-2023, 08:48 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hankaye View Post
Howdy All;

The past month and a half my "at home" internet has been going through
what could be called an update. IOW they had to go through the 'quick fixes' they had used to repair connections since new.

So, I had my trusty Samsung and worked the intergoogle with it. As I am a Consumer Cellular customer I can use it all I want with NO overage fees. NOT a commercial, I'm just a contented user. They have a few different plans and well, check them out yourselves. Just beware, AT&T doesn't like ya leaving. They take it personal. Kept my DirecTv. and all of a sudden, had rough times paying my DTV bills. Had to make up a new password each month and it was a hassle. Took almost 2 years to get past their ugliness.

Anyway, check out Consumer Cellular.

hank
I have CC as well and we are on the "minimum" data plan (cheapest). When we camp and go over that minimum they just keep bumping the data rate and charge us a couple bucks for every 10 gigs we go over. My wife found it cheaper than paying for the unlimited data plan. We have fiber optic internet at home and hardly use and phone data.

The main thing is, and I have said it before, is to choose which carrier towers you use for 4G that are most reliable where you use them and for us it is AT&T (Consumer Cellular give you a choice between the AT&T towers or T-Mobile). We don't get throttled back. If Verizon has better reception or wider reception in your area check Visble Wireless as they have great rates on unlimited data/hot spot using Verizon towers.
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Old 03-23-2023, 09:32 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by Camping family View Post
Looking for information. I have att cell phone with unlimited hot spot. While at the camper it will connect sometime n other time not. I go into tv WiFi settings n some times it will show my hot spot phone as an option n other times will not list it. Any tech guys out there with any suggestions?
Have you thought of just casting your screen to the television?
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Old 03-23-2023, 03:46 PM   #12
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We have AT&T with Samsung phones. We also have Visible with a ZTE (el-cheap-o) phone. Both work, or 1 or the other works good ... well ... MOST of the time. For those times neither work very well ....

may I introduce you to WeBoost! Cell phone booster!

Ever since we incorporated that into our arsonel, we've had great success. Of course, if it truly is a "dead" area and absolute no signal (like in mountain valleys), no "booster" or anything will work then.

But those situations are very rare for us. With WeBoost, we've had great success pretty much everywhere.

Not cheap, but works well, so that makes it worth every penny: Click here - WeBoost RV.
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Old 03-24-2023, 04:30 AM   #13
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Not that this really will help you that much but I think AT&T has Home Cellar too and sometimes unlimited is not truly unlimited. We kinda screwed up back in December of 2021 and moved away from Samsung Phones and got Google Pixel 6's. With our Samsung Phones we could miracast directly from the phones to the TV and not use our hotspot data. With the Pixel Phones you have to use a Chromecast Module which has to be connected to WIFI so you have to use hotspot data to stream so it is self defeating. We picked up a Jetpak and with our Verizon cell plan we were able to get 100 gb a month of hotspot data that plus another 50 gb of hotspot from each of our two phones and guess what? It still wasn't enough for us. I decided to downgrade the Jetpak data to 50 gb and it costs me $20 and I am using it for my indoor/outdoor security cameras and the weather station at home. We also have Verizon Home Cellular Internet and last week we went on a trip about a 100 miles away we took the home modem and it worked fine so we are gonna take it next time we go on the road. Worse case scenario is it gets shutdown. Since we got the piece of property in Western North Caroline and will be spending around 5 months there every year if Verizon shuts down the Home Internet Modem we'll just get wired internet.
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Old 03-27-2023, 02:49 AM   #14
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I work from our TT often. When we know there will be no wifi, we use the refurbished Verizon Mifi I purchased from Amazon in 2019. It's just a Hotspot, and it's a pre-paid plan. I go to a Verizon store before our trip, and there is normally a BOGO data plan on sale. You get 30 days to use the data. If my webex meetings don't suck it up while camping, my kids use it when we get back home so my bandwidth isn't negatively affected. I use the myfi maybe twice per year but it's been well worth it.
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