For some years I have used a Netgear Wireless hotspot connected via wifi to my 2926ac as an additional WAN connection (WAN 2). I use a Three unlimited data SIM. The hotspot connection works fine.

I have also used the same SIM in a Netgord Lynx (Android Eight) phone, again the phone's hotspot connection worked without issues.

I have just bought a Xiomi Redmi Note 9T (Android 10) phone. Using the same SIM card and setting the phone's wifi hotspot to "On", the router will connect to the phone (2.4GHz only for some reason) and receives some bites of data from it, but resolutely refuses to send any data out and connect to the outside world - no internet connection at all.

I had to enter a fixed IP for the hotspot to persuade it to connect as the router was not receiving an IP from the phone (Netgear and Old phone sent DHCP IP no problem)

I have added "DUN" to the APN Type settings in the phone and tried setting it to use Google DNS, but all to no avail.

However, a Windows 10 laptop will connect instantly to the phone's hotspot and provide full internet services, with a DHCP IP address from the phone

As my main use of this phone is to provide a tethered hotspot for the router, this is frustrating to say the least. (I was hoping for a 5G connection, which the Netgear doesn't do).

So what has changed which is preventing the router from connecting, and is there anything I can do about it?

I had a quick play with my 2860n and a couple of Huawei Android phones. I was - generally - impressed with how easily this burst into life and how seamlessly it would failover, if I disconnected the VDSL. (The AP scan function was a bit suspect, but it finally took notice of the 'scan' button and did its stuff).

I noticed some things that might have a bearing on what you're seeing ...

One of my phones (the older one!), let's you you choose channel and band - whereas it's fixed (presumably as the dreaded 'auto') on the other. Needless to say, that one picked a totally inappropriate channel to use and seemed to be 2.4GHz only.

The 2860's manual says that it connects as a "Station" to the phone/hot spot, but the menu is full of reference to Repeater Mode. Of course, there's no spare radio set aside to use for this functionality, so it reconfigured the 2860's own 2.4GHz SSIDs onto the same channel as the phone's. Might this area be the source of the problem? ... given that the Hotspot generally works with other devices.

Other thoughts: some mobile providers don't like you using the 'wrong type' of SIM - as in one meant for normal Phone traffic, as opposed to dedicated HotSpot usage. I remember Giffgaff were in this camp when they first started up. (I don't know what, if anything, they could do 'technically' to stop you though).

(I realise none of these are a particularly good fit for the symptoms.)

What about tethering it via a USB cable? I do remember this was hard enough to get working from Windows - where you could specify the dial strings. You would probably have to drop very lucky for the Vigor to just 'recognise' it...

(Finally, have you looked in SYSLOG? )

Thanks for the reply -

I can only choose the Band on this phone - and for some reason the 5GHz band doesn't seem to work at all in "hotspot" mode. (I think others have the same issue from Googling around). On the 2.4GHz band the phone chooses a channel, but the 2926ac can "find" the phone hotspot and changes its channel to match. However, the only way it will "connect" is if I set the WAN 2 connection to be "Always On" - neither ARP nor Ping detect will work, reflecting the fact that there's no outgoing connection. (Both of these worked with the Netgear Aircard and the older Android phone).

I don't appear to have a problem with the provider, as I have used this SIM in the Aircard and in the older phone as a "hotspot", and this new phone works fine when used as a hotspot for the laptop (2.4GHz band only though).

I haven't tried tethering with USB as having the phone continuously on charge was what screwed the older Android phone - the battery expanded and distorted the case :? And given the problems others seem to have using USB modems that are actually listed as compatible with Drayteks I'm not confident that it would work in any event

SYSLOG shows absolutely nothing about WAN 2, even when the router Online Status shows that it is apparently connected to the hotspot (as I write this it is showing 124KB received but 0KB sent)

The laptop receives a DHCP IP address from the phone and the phone IP address as the gateway (as does the Aircard). The router does not receive a DHCP address (but it does from the Aircard) and I have to set a fixed IP and the gateway address for it to "connect". However, the "connection" doesn't go past the phone....

Googling indicates that many folk are having connection problems with the hotspot on newer Android phones, which is how I ended up adding the DUN setting to the APN Type, but as I say, mine works with the laptop so why doesn't it work with the router?

More random thoughts...

I think you should leave DHCP enabled on the Vigor - as it should work - and is an indication of an actual connection. Besides, who knows what the phone does with IP addresses it didn't issue. Can you ping the phone from the Vigor?

Does the phone show that the Vigor is connected as a client?

What if you clone the MAC address of the laptop (that can connect to the phone) to WAN2 MAC of the Vigor? (I was looking at the 2926 simulator, so not sure if this option is actually possible in 'real life')

Hotspot Timeout ... is that disabled?

Android Developer Mode logging options ... can they help?

Try disabling Bluetooth on the phone...(there's a snippet in the Android source code about interactions of Wifi power modes and bluetooth cooexistence mode. I don't understand it :lol: )

Do you have anything resembling an Ethernet<--> Wifi bridge (an old AP902 maybe :wink: ) or something simple, of this ilk: https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr702n/ - so you could use the ethernet WAN2

Hi again

With DHCP enabled on the Vigor it never gets an IP address from the phone and the "WAN 2 Status" fields in "Physical Connection" remain in red, although the Phone still appears in green under the SSID section.

I have just turned the DHCP option to "On" without the obligatory re-boot and the Status is now showing as "DHCP Client", although nothing else has changed.

I can ping the phone's IP address from the Vigor (192.168.43.45) but I can't ping the gateway address (192.168.43.1) (These are the IPs I see when it connects to the laptop - they seem to be pretty universal for these hotspot connections)

The phone screen shows that 1 device is connected to the hotspot.

I don't think there is an option to enter a WAN 2 MAC address when it's in wireless mode ?

Hotspot timeout is always off and Bluetooth has never been on during these attempts

I don't know how to enable Android developer options as the phone does not appear to have a Build number setting :?:

I was looking at the TP Link devices last night - was about to order one but the latest model appears to be out of stock everywhere except Currys/PCWorld, and I don't trust them to actually have one in stock :lol:

But having another device in the system sort of defeats the object :mrgreen: As you surmise, I do have a few AP902s lying around - I guess I'd use one in bridge mode to get it to act as a client?

As a further annoyance, when I click on the "Scan" button to search for the phone the Vigor sometimes becomes unresponsive and I have to re-boot it

I have just tried connecting to the hotspot on my iPhone 11 pro - and experienced exactly the same behaviour as with the Android 10 phone, i.e. no DHCP, no external connectivity

Weird. Seems that something in the way "modern" phones act as hotspots is preventing connection to the router - but what :?:

Piste Basher wrote:
Weird. Seems that something in the way "modern" phones act as hotspots is preventing connection to the router - but what :?:

Well that's two votes for it being a Router issue then :wink:

My ancient 2860n will connect to my new-ish (it's Android 10) Huawei Mate 20 Pro.

It was the way that the 2860n was called upon to reconfigure its existing Wifi onto the channel used by the phone that struck me. There have been reports (in this forum) of Vigors refusing to use 'certain' channels...(unresolved, from what I recall).