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Switched from Koodo: cannot use hotspot / tether

danielpetre
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Hi everyone,

 

I just switched from Koodo with the 12gb 90 days plan. Ever since I'm unable to tether data to another device.

 

Voice, MMS and Data works great from the phone itself but whenever I try to use data (with hotspot) from my laptop, tablet, desktop computer: I get the connection but there is no internet access. I've tried every APN settings I've found on the public mobile community but none works: I've tried to set up with 1 APN (sp.mb.com), 2 APNS (sp.mb.com + isp.mb.com), changing/adding to the APN type "dun".

 

My main cellphone is an LG G3 D852. Hotspot was fully fonctionning with Koodo out of the box without any special config. I have an old unlocked Nexus 4, tried putting the PM sim inside and I still get the same issue!

 

What could I not be doing right? After a full day of trying dozens of things I'm starting to wonder if the issue is not Public Mobile is just blocking tether... from what I read from other people here it should work!

 

Someone has a magic trick for me? I'm out of ideas here.

 

Thanks!

14 REPLIES 14

chrisrw
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I'm also having this issue on a Moto X play that is unlocked. APN settings appear to be what they should. 

I can't physically switch to or modify the "Tethered Internet" setting, however... though it does match up with what was posted elsewhere in the forums. All other functions with my phone work as they should. Have been using the 90 day 12gb plan now for about a month and just tried to tether my tablet for the first time yesterday. 

 

Any other solutions before I try the hail Mary of a factory reset?

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Jeremy_M sorry to tag you again but still waiting on the official word here.  Could you please weigh in when you have a moment?


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imm1304
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

One of the new sim from last week's order that I activated in the household has the hotspot confirmed working without tinkering any settings on a Note4.  

I can't give an official company  answer but what I can say is that I received a sim card shipped to me directly by Public at the end of October and activated an account.  I can tether just fine with the same types of LTE speed that I get if using data directly on my device. 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

Hi @Jeremy_M--I'm tagging you to ask if you could please clarify, for the record, as the PM Community Manager, whether or not PM SIMs currently being shipped restrict or limit tethering in any way?  My understanding, and personal experience with my SIM from last fall, is that I am able to freely tether as I wish.  But it seems some folks with newer SIMs are running into issues, and there is concern it may be being blocked on newer cards or accounts.

 

Would you please weigh in when you have a moment?  Thank you kindly!!


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jmeelo
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@danielpetre good luck!

danielpetre
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Just a little follow up: I did a factory reset of my phone. Didn't had much in it anyways so I didn't even backup/restore my data. APN settings populated with the correct settings but tether still won't work.

 

Tried doing a factory reset on my second phone (Nexus 4) - same thing is going on...

 

Could it be that the newer sims shipped by PM is blocking the DUN settings?

 

Will try the solution posted here (thanks jmeelo) with the terminal emulator but I'll have to root my G3 first. It's a lot a hassle for a function that should work out of the box.

 

Will let you all know once I've tried that!

jmeelo
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@srlawren @imm1304 really don't know why my phone was blocking DUN or tethering but regardless it was.  My phone is a dual sim phone so in either sim tray it was being blocked for PM.  I've tried resetting the apn settings, restarting, and manually entering the apn. All to no success.

 

In any case, my solution got me going.  it's an option if the APN setttings/reset doesn't work for anyone else on a rooted android phone

imm1304
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@jmeelo, just want to echo the sentiment expressed by @srlawren.  PM does not block tethering feature.  Your device may be defaulting to a blocked dun stattus for whatever reasons when you changed sim cards.    Usually, I advise people to reset APN settings and try again and if that doesn't work, just do a factory reset.  

 

Your suggestion would be a nice quick fix for those with a rooted device.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@jmeelo interesting suggestions for rooted Android users.  However, PM does not restrict tethering on their plans, so I don't know why that was necessary.  


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jmeelo
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

So I just picked up the 12gb 90 day plan as well.  I'm using a dual sim Xiami Redmi Note 3 Pro international Android phone with all the right bands.  I was able to use a hotspot on my fido sim but not on my public mobile sim.  I followed all the APN settings found in this community with no fix.

 

Did more googling outside of this forum and it appears that PM is blocking DUN even though I added the DUN settings to the APN settings.  I needed to get the hotspot working asap lastnight so I didn't have time to get a PM support.  So the below worked for me.

 

​Download a Terminal Emulator from the play store *you will need to have root access on the phone*

Use Terminal Emulator and grant root access, then type commands within the quotes below:
 
>"su" [enter]
>"settings put global tether_dun_required 0" [enter]
>"exit" [enter]
>"exit" [enter]
 
Restart phone and Tethering will work.
Now this should work on Android phones.  I'm not sure how to do this on iOS or other devices.  Also, there are other methods to get this working via ADB (connect to computer) or apps that do the above for you.

imm1304
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

Hey @danielpetre

 

There is no restriction on tethering/hotspot.  

I have the same G3 lying around.  I just tested it by putting my PM sim card in it.. hotspot worked very well. 

 

This phone has 2 APN's. First one is the same as the one found in the community forum's knowledge base section with one addition:  APN type = default,sms,supl

 

Second APN is Tehered Internet.  It has APN: isp.mb.com and APN type: dun.  Rest of the fields are default. 

 

It sounds like you have already tried this setup and it didn't work.

 

As @srlawren suggested, I have some experience with G4's behaving similar to your phone and they simply start working after a factory reset.  Use the LG Backup app to save your apps etc and then do a factory reset.  Unfortunately this was the only "magic trick" that I found so far.  

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@danielpetre I've definitely used hot spotting as well, on two different Android phones (1st gen Moto X, now OnePlus 3) with zero extra work.  It's definitely not blocked or unsupported usage.

 

That said, the G3 does have an issue for some folks when switching from one provider to another that seems to require a factory reset of the device to correct.  I'm afraid my best suggestion to you is to back up any data you wish to keep that is not already sync'd to a cloud service (I understand LG has an app that can help with this--hopefully @imm1304 can provide more details if you need them) and then do a factory reset.

 

I am thinking this may be required to get your tethering working.  


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RogersSux
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I am typing this email from a hotspotted Android (same $40 plan as the rest of us here), so it doesn't seem to be some sort of restriction.

 

Can you hotspot from your G3 (Source) to your Nexus 4? 

Can you tether other devices? like an iPad/Tablet/something else?

 

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