topic Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird in XPERIA archive

internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 06:11:58 GMT

Hello.

I'm a happy owner of a SK17 mini pro still on Gingerbread, firmware 4.0.2.A.0.62. not rooted, not locked.

I was very happy with my phone graciously sharing it's 3G/EDGE internet connection over Wifi and USB to my computers until two days ago when something happened and it's not working any more since then.

If I'm trying Wifi hotspot mode, it starts just as normal and creates a network which my devices (I've tried with a few laptops, windows and linux) and they connect but there is no internet, however I get a ping response from the phone (192.168.43.1). I did play with encryption/ re-creating hotspot settings, etc. no result.

With USB it's essentialy same — it connects fine but no internet.

Internet on the phone itself is working just great.

I have tried to use my SIM with oher android phone (my wife's HTC Incredible S) and it tethers perfectly.

I have tried another SIM with my phone and it fails to tether too.

Which makes me think it's a phone issue.

I have tried a full reset — I bet you guess with no luck.

I have also tried customization reset from the service menu which I believe is essentialy same.

Next, I have re-updated it with SEUS (does this rewrite ROM?) — without any result as well.

The phone has internet, it connects client devices but it doesn't share internet.

I did not conciously change any settings but maybe something could happen in my pocket if it wasn't locked.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas.

I'm just a few steps from going crazy.

Thanks.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 10:22:48 GMT

Update: I have a connection in fact, only DNS isn't working.

How do I fix that?

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

Johan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:49:36 GMT

I'm not sure but could it be any restriction set by your operator? If possible try inserting a SIM from another operator. Or check with your operator about this.

Let me know.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:57:16 GMT

My SIM works with another phone (HTC).

My phone (xperia) fails with the SIM from that other phone.

Both SIMs are from the same operator and both are on my contract.

I've tried to copy over the APN settings from that HTC — no result.

Is there a way I can screw up my phone that bad it's not fixed by re-installing the ROM via SEUS?

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:32:42 GMT

Thanks for the Idea, yes it works with other operator's SIM.

I think I'm visiting their office today for some very angry talking.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:30:43 GMT

Okay the facts are:

My operator denies any restrictions and tells me that everything works even without the correct APN settings — and so it does in my other android phone. They've checked my settings and found them correct.

My phone works fine with other operator's SIM,

The only combination which isn't working is a combination of my xperia and any (i've tested 3) SIM from my operator and the problem is that my phone isn't forwarding DNS while tethering or in hotspot mode.

Here is my question: Is there any (i assume very high-level) settings which can persist in the phone after the "factory reset" and re-updaing with SEUS?

If not, the only logical explaination comes to my mind that my operator has blocked this feature explicitly for my device (IMEI?) and lies (?) to me.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

Johan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:50:40 GMT

There are no settings in the phone which you can adjust that would make any difference or changes to this. It's hard for me to say since I don't know how all operators do, but one thing is sure. The operators can detect what kind of data traffic that passes through their networks and also decide what is allowed or not.

Unfortunately I have no direct solution for you, I too think it's quite strange when your SIM card works for this using another phone and other operators SIM card works in your mini pro.

You could of course try to reinstall the phone software but if that won't help I think you'll have to raise this with your operator.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 07:28:16 GMT

Thanks Johan, sure I will try to further escalate this with my operator.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:59:24 GMT

Okay, the problem is NOT RESOLVED.

I did escalate the problem and got all possible assurance from my provider that they are not blocking me in any way.

My SIM works with other phones.

I've also tried my SIM with another sk17 and it works perfectly there.

The problem is between my device and SIM cards from my provider (other provider's SIM work with my phone).

I believe something is wrong with the settings inside my phone despite all reset and re-updating via SUS.

Any ideas please it's terribly annoying.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:29:51 GMT

try and use OPEN DNS like google dns or something.

wish you all the best!

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:07:00 GMT

Hi.

I did try that, I mean manually setting my client computer to use Google's 8.8.8.8

I can ping it while I'm conneted with my xperia but id doesn't resolve.

I can ping, i can even ssh known servers.

And yes sure I did try with other client dvices too.

It's just incredible.

Maybe I'm trying to upgrade it to ICS, maybe that helps.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:10:13 GMT

Still there.

I had some time to play with it.

When tethered, no matter USB or wireless, i can:

ping any known IPs.
open websites by their IPs in my browser on the connected computer which means I can make TCP connections.
ping DNS servers

But there is one thing I can't do: resolve with any DNS servers:

#nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8

fails trying to connect to 8.8.8.8 which I at the same time can ping.

DNS is blocked somehow inside my device and it is not fixed by factory reset/reinstall.

It fails with all SIMs from my operator, but it works with a SIM from other operator.

Is there a way I reset it harder? 🙂

Cryptic.

I have not tried with ICS yet because it's not yet available for my 1249-4753

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

Y2j-Hotaru — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:15:42 GMT

I must say that I have the same problem. When I use my Xperia Arc as a usb modem with my pc it works without problem but if I try to use wifi tether it connects but there's no internet. I don't mind using usb with my pc but I have a Sony tablet S and this is the only way to connect it to internet through the xperia's 3G internet. When I run the wifi test app that comes with the tablet S it just can't connect to the test page (See image below). I tried setting the security with all the three options available in the xperia with the same result. When I updated from 2.3.4 to 4.0.4 I did full flash so I started to use ICS as if the phone were new. I hope ther is a fix to solve this problem . A full reflash is inconvenient for me since I have a lot of apps and it is just a way to see "if works" not a real solution. Thanks in advance for your help.

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

d41k4n — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:15:10 GMT

Same problem here with my Mini ST15a running ICS 4.0.4 on latest firmware (4.1.B.0.587). Thethering doesn't work neither via USB nor WiFi. I have otherwise perfect access to the internet from the phone itself but tethering is definitely broken :smileyangry:. I had this problem with the previous firmware, too.

The Mobile WiFi Hotspot is recognized and I'm able to connect to the phone successfully (same for USB) but without access to the internet...

Has this been confirmed as a bug yet?

Re: internet sharing stopped working - weird

natrmnv — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:02:36 GMT

Hello, OP is back with the updates.

The nature of the problem was that DNS was not functioning because client computer was given a DNS server IP as 192.168.42.129 (the phone) which basically wasn't there. I also couldn't resolve with any other external DNS servers, such as Google's 8.8.8.8, it was blocked somehow. Trying to resolve with some network testing apps directly from the phone, I've found that the phone itself used another IP, seemingly, operator's DNS service, in my case 217.66.145.1 or 217.66.145.2.

With this IPs set on a client computer as DNS servers, everything worked just fine, except for that I needed to set up DNS manually on all client devices.

I have called my operator many many times and set a bunch of support tickets, they've reset my plan a few times and re-connected data options, it was a pain that lasted for months but now it's apparently back working normally just like it was before. I did not change anything about my phone, no system update, nothing, which makes me absolutely confident the issue is not with the phone itself but with the operator's system.

If you have the same problem, give your operators a hard kick again and again untill it's resolved and don't ever trust them when they are like "oh everything should work fine", escalate the issue as much as you can!!!