Mobile Hotspot Data Drops

[wshwe]

After 20-30 minutes using official Verizon mobile hotspot feature the Internet connection stops working on my laptop. The phone Internet also stops working. To fix things I have to reboot the phone. Does anyone else experience this?

A few days ago I took advantage of the 4G double data promotion and bought a Stratosphere. I pay $80/month for 20 GB and $30/month for the mobile hotspot feature. This is the only broadband I have access to. Before the Stratosphere I was happily using a 3G MiFi 2200. I'm tempted to return the Straosphere and go back to the MiFi. I could ask Verizon if they would allow me to use a 3G phone and keep the double data.

 

[JonK]

There is another thread on data drops below and it is likely the same issue. I also experience this pretty often. One suggestion is that rather than rebooting just briefly put it in airplane mode. This is definitely not a solution, but its a little faster than rebooting the phone.

 

[wshwe]

One suggestion is that rather than rebooting just briefly put it in airplane mode.

Airplane mode doesn't seem to work, but thanks for your response. Switching in Settings from LTE/CDMA TO CDMA does not fix the data stopages.

 

[dmc27]

I don't have the Stratosphere, but similar drops are known to occur on Thunderbolts. Rooting the phone and using a third-party hotspot app seems to work.

 

[dphbnh]

I am using samsung strat for mobile hotspot from verizon wireless. Paying all this money for home internet service that is unreliable as dialup. Probably should have went with Hughes Net. If we put two computers online it disconnects internet. If a phone call or text message comes in on phone, again it drops internet service. Anyone with any answers to get this fixed would be welcomed, verizon wireless is no help!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wshwe]

Probably should have went with Hughes Net.

My experience with Hughes Net was terrible. I couldn't depend on having an Internet connection at any point in time. Using the Strat as a mobile hotspot hasn't been reliable either. A few times daily I am forced to reboot the Strat to revive the dropped/1xrt connection Like you my Strat is the sole Internet connection available to me. Veriizon and the phone makers need to get LTE working more reliably.

 

[KnightCrusader]

My aunt and uncle had the WildBlue one and it sucked, so I can understand why you'd want to use the hotspot.

But wow, $110 a month is alot! lol

 

[ratherto]

I have the same problem. Have talked to Verizon 3 times, got a new SIM card, re-provisioned the data connection and eventually returned it and got a new phone. STILL have the same problem. Found this article and clearly Verizon knows this is an issue. However the 2nd level support people I talked to were clueless and forget about the in store folks.

Let’s Face It: Mobile Hotspot on Verizon LTE Doesn’t Work | PhoneNews.com

Next step is going to be to root the phone and try a 3rd party hotspot app. BTW I was also using a mifi previously with no problems.

 

[freday2005]

I Have been having data drops constantly on my phone and verizon tells me its not the network and I've actually talked to almost a dozen people at verizon until i actually got someone knowledgeable enough to understand how to compile a linux kernel. Yes, I did actually quiz every person that called me on my trouble ticket and told them to have someone else call me back if they weren't knowledgeable. And apparently its not verizons network dropping my phone its my phone dropping my data connection. The Rep told me that the most likely cause that he can figure at this point is that the chipsets have a lot to do with it as there weren't many logs for 3g devices with drops occuring even close to as often. After about 45 minutes on the phone with him he was pretty convinced it has something to with the Phones more than anything else. He also told me it could have somthing to do with the EHRPD 1x and its handoff protocols effect with having multiple data connections available. I'm sure if that conversation was taped it will never be acknowledged.

I also contacted samsung and became part of there developers forum and had two people recommend that I recompile everything for my phone from source as Samsung offers it all as open source. I've built LFS on my previous laptop (full graphical support and everything I could ever need) and I can't say as though I want to compile everything from source for my phone. At this point Im thinking sticking with a 3g device as I don't get 4g at my house and my data connection was rock solid on 3g even if I could only download at about 250-275kbps max and about 170 average that was fine by me. NOTE: my 3g device also got a better connection on the 3g network than my Stratosphere in the same location.

 

[KnightCrusader]

You can't compile everything from source, Samsung doesn't give us 100% of the source to do so. I don't know what those people were thinking of.

Kernel wise, there are about 10-12 proprietary hot-linked modules that are closed source they include. Without them, things like 4G, Wifi, and the file systems wouldn't work. Its crap that they can get away with it, but the GPL lets them.

 

[freday2005]

Well as for the source...I didn't check to see what they offer. I was told by a couple ppl on Samsungs forum to recompile the source and try that. Rather than doing that I installed a couple network testing applications on my Fedora install and starting playing with the network settings and everything and I've found that the MTU of the stratosphere is lower than windows and most operating systems are set by default. If you are having problems with the network dropping try lowing the MTU of the network connection to your phone. In my test I realized packets were being dropped altogether rather than the network fragmenting them to send them over the 3g connection on the stratosphere. From doing manual ping tests to find the max MTU for windows I found my max should be 1428 and thats assuming 28 for the packet overhead and 1400 is what I was able to push through the network with a ping test. I've now been tethered downloading Fedora 17 alpha for about an hour and 15 minutes with no problems.

Use the command prompt and the ping command to find maximum MTU

ping webaddress -f -l (number)

Use this command with whatever website you wanna ping starting at 1500 (windows default) for the number and move down 50 every time u get a dropped packet until none drop then raise it by ten then by 1 til u get to 1 under the number where packets start to drop. Then add 28 as the ping uses a 20 byte IP header and a 8 byte ICMP header for the packet overhead of the computer to Modem connection and I got 1400 as my max on the ping test and 1428 works perfect in windows to not cause my phone to drop the connection because of fragmentation. Hope this might help someone else as it has seemed to fix all my connection problems when tethered.


Setting windows MTU is done through registry or you can use a tcp settings program to do it. I think verizons wireless network is having a problem fragmenting large packets over the network as they probably have a lower MTU to keep packet delay on the network to a minimum with the LTE network.

 

[droid157]

you nailed it. I am on RHEL 6.2 and Ubuntu 10.10 and on both the hotspot was set to 'auto' on the mtu size in the PC wireless networks settings. I changed it to 1400 for this hotspot and seems to be working like a champ. Thanks a ton.