Hotspot works like garbage, but App based hotspot works great (Verizon). Why?

[Richard Feynman]

I am on Verizon and have the "more everything" plan which is supposed to include hotspot functionality. As the thread title says, the built in hot spot has always worked like garbage (when it works at all), but I need it rarely enough that I never looked into it. So today I'm sitting somewhere and have connected to it, and as usual get a couple of pages to half load like on an old dial up connection before they time out.

So I reach over to my phone and can see I able to surf fast from there, so obviously the data connectivity itself s fine. So I do a quick search and come upon a hotspot app named FoxFi and install it to give it a try. Launch the app and select "activate hotspot", connect from my laptop and....wtf, I'm connected to the Internet and flying! Sat there the next 2 hours connected and flying with a usable hotspot for the first time since I bought my 6P!

I'm just curious if anyone has any idea why the built in hotspot never worked, or has encountered something similar? I'm guessing maybe Verizon had it blocked even though it's supposed to be included and the app gets around that?

Thanks

 

[PGrey]

Weird, mine works great (on AT&T), and always has (6 months since coming from Win phones, same tethering performance, solid).

I'd check your LTE first, when tethered, and make sure you're not getting kicked over to 3G for some reason?
That sounds like about the data rate you're getting, when you describe "poor" performance. Programs like "Network Cell Info Lite" and similar are handy for this, it lets you dynamically monitor your signal status.

If you are getting bumped, at least it gives you a solid starting point to talk to them about, something that should be fixed...

 

[dty06]

I'm on Project Fi and never had any issues with my hotspot the few times I've ever used it.