Warning - ICS Update Broke Hotspot and USB Tether

[ply17410]

ST18a updated this afternoon to the second release of ICS (was using first release previous to this).

USB Tethering and Wi-Fi Hotspot are no longer working.  I can connect and get an IP address but no internet access.

This is real bad since this is a primary use for my phone.

UPDATE: Confirmed same behavior with a second laptop ... I can connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot on my phone but no internet access.

UPDATE: iPad via Wi-Fi Hotspot, same thing, gets IP address but no internet access.

Bob H

[SuperUser]

Hello All,

I was quite frustrated to see that wifi hotspot was not working after the ics update (xperia arc S).

I tried many suggestions in this forum and others without any success. I  definetly needed to solve it because wifi hotspot was the feature that I used most often on my phone. so I immediately started looking into custom roms.

However I found that I need to spend quite  a lot of time on it. Finding a custom rom is easy but putting all the necessary pc software together to be able to flash it succesfully, backing up all software and data, then putting them back together just to be able to get a feature that I was heaving one day ago was not attractive for me.!

So I decided to give the stock ics rom (587) another try.

First I erased all the APN settings. Than I created it again using my operators settings. It only took a minute.! And suddenly hotspot works like charm again.

So I think the issue with the stock ics rom is not in its roots but it is somehow messing up with old APN settings. So give it a try by deleting and recreating them.

Otherwise the rom is quite OK for me. I know it pushes my Xperia to its limits, but I saw many quadcore phones/tablets which were less fluent on ICS than my experia arc s.

I hope it works for you as well.! (My operator is TR, Turkcell BTW)

Best Regards,

[mykelperz]

Hello guys, I am also experiencing this tethering problem but here's something weird:

I dont know if it makes sense but others may have some explanation.

For some reason, I re-formatted my laptop. But then i realized that i don't have my drivers installation disk with me at the moment. Then i gave my SK17i USB tethering feature once again to download driver files of my laptop. To my surprise, USB tethering worked once again! really it did!

Here's another weird experience. While installing my laptops driver softwares, it needed to restart itself several times. After each restarts, USB tethering is NOT interrupted - I mean, i expected that I need to set and configure tethering options from my phone in every restarts.

One last weird thing i should share:

Week after installing drivers on my laptop, I tried to use USB tethering once more but It's not working again.

OK, to make things short.

1. I can't explain a reason for all of these :smileygrin:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's some info of my laptop in case someone asks:

Model: ASUS K43SD

New OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit)

EDIT:

And here's my xperia phone's info

Model: XPERIA MINI PRO SK17i - (ICS :smileysad:)

Phone Software version:

1244-7088_4.1.B.0.587

Network: Globe Telecom-PH

[CCWH68]

After JB update on my Xperia T, the problem is Not Fixed.

[Johan]

This has been looked at for quite some time now and as I understand when using Android ICS or later the tethering service can be controlled by network operator. This is not something specific for Sony Ericsson/ Sony phones.

I suggest that you contact your network operator to check if tethering is enabled/allowed and that you're using the correct APN settings for this.

[iiolivier]

Are you considering your customer are stupid birds listening to your ridiculous comments on the forum ????

I have waited 1 year Sony to CORRECT THIS BUG.

I gave up few month ago and i took a SAMSUNG GALAXY S2 with ICS 4.0.4

WITH THE SAME SIM CARD, on the SAME OPERATOR, TETHERING WORKS !!!!

Event with an HTC One X, it works !!!

So go back to see your dev team, and ask them stopping jumping around on big balls around the open space, and look at this bug that will cost you thousands of customers leaving your brands

Regards

[nett67]

Can you explain why this **** problem occurs only on Xperia phones???

You should have mode consideration for your customers with problems, ignoring them is not a solution.

A very angry customer still waiting for a solution.

[Johan]

This is something that can be seen in other devices as well, and also in Android native ones. Which indicates that this is something that is not specific for our firmware.

I can't comment on other manufacturers firmware but looking at the Android as native this seems to be according to specifications. In later Android versions this can be managed by network operator. I'm not saying it will be, but it can be.

Looking at the Google code thread, you can see that it's not something specific for Sony phones or firmware.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=38563

Many of the comments shows that users that have been in contact with their network operator have been able to activate this on their subscription.

[iiolivier]

This is completely CRAZY :

Only one picture can describe SONY commercial vision of customer : NUTS.

"Other manufacturer are able to provide TETHER with any operator. Here, at Sony Corp, we decide to let some mystery and operator choice drive our products".

Go buy SAMSUNG, HTC, LG, or any other device guys. Give up Sony.

- A

[nett67]

The google thread is about a jelly bean update.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=38563

the issue we have is with YOUR ICS versions.

Thethering works with the same SIM, same operator, on any Samsung phone i tested.

So it is definitely not an operator subscription only issue!

Just keep on burying your head in the sand

[Johan]

Yes it is but looking at other articles as well on the net, such as the one available at phonearena and XDA you can get a better understanding about this.