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[feedback] Using thunderbolt as a primary hotspot/modem?

Hello, I'd like any feedback from any folks using the TB as their main or primary internet connection via hotspot and/or usb modem mode.
I'd like to get rid of my dsl connection, and use the TB with the unlimited 4g data.
Concerns I have include latency (for steam/online gaming), streaming stability (netflix etc), upload/download speeds and hitting any soft or hard xfer caps (usenet etc).
Since this would be the main internet connection and I have alot of devices around the house, avoiding/negating simultanious connection caps is also a concern.
Has anyone used the TB in conjunction with a normal home router, like with wrt-54/dd-wrt or a newer device like netgear wndr3700, or any router with usb modem support.
Ideally I'd prefer plug the TB into a router via usb and use it as the main internet, or alternatively have the router connect over wifi to TB, with the router performing NAT and managing ports/upnp/etc for the rest of the network devices.

Do a search for "home isp".

I have never used it as a main connection before but I have used the Wifi on it many times.. Although it is fast, it will not work as fast as a main line, especially when gaming.. Also, the ulimited 4G wireless hotspot will not always be available, unless rooted, I talked with a verizon rep about it yesterday he said although it is free right now, they will take that away later. When connecting multiple devices to the phone the speed will only go down.
Now, depending on your ISP I could be wrong, it may be faster, but if your signal is not stable your internet connection on your PC will not be either.
Just a couple things to consider before you go through with you idea. One thing you might do is try to set it up temporarily and see how it goes, but keep your DSL service up. That way you can get a better idea of what to expect.

Just because you have unlimited data on your phone doesn't mean you will have unlimited on tethering... I believe its $20 for 2GB. And if you think you'll get away with sneaking behind Verizon's back your very mistaken. They can see your doing it and dont expect them to put up with you sucking down their LTE without paying for it for very long.

th0r615 said:
Just because you have unlimited data on your phone doesn't mean you will have unlimited on tethering... I believe its $20 for 2GB. And if you think you'll get away with sneaking behind Verizon's back your very mistaken. They can see your doing it and dont expect them to put up with you sucking down their LTE without paying for it for very long.
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I agree its not going to happen!!!

Constant network issues

I am on my 3rd device in 3 days. First one was rooted, second one was not. This current one is also not rooted as well.
Unless I am very unlucky, I am going to assume there is a definite issue with the network configuration on this device. Status says I have 3 bars of 4G coverage, however I cannot connect to the internet at all.
Network Signal Info says I am on UMTS with a -93DBM, data is connected. However nothing will load. If I put the phone into airplane mode and then turn airplane mode off the networking comes back online. Speeds are slow though, barely able to perform basic mobile web browsing and watching youtube and such isnt possible. Too slow an too long to buffer.
This doesn't only happen at my house, it happens in other areas as well but it does happen constantly at home. I a not a heavy data user on my account, 1-2GB monthly, so Tmo says they arent throttling me. They have replaced the SIM every time with the devices as well.
Suggestions? If I cannot figure this out soon I am going to cancel my service as I cannot pay for a service and phone that just doesnt work. Tmo seems stumped. They just keep replacing phones since I am within my 14 day return/exchange period.
However, 3 devices all having the same issues sure seems to either prove the phone has an issue, or m general area of Tmo service.
I live in downtown Tempe, AZ.

Your wifi works?
I have the same issue in my house... I have a weak signal and 4g drops down to 2g which is terrible.... 4g downloads are 3Mbps, but uploads are under 100kps
I changed the network mode to wcdma only which helps significantly. 4g drops, but quickly returns...
Give it a try...

I'm having the same issue here in Orlando. I've had 2 phones now (first one was just a bad unit) and both have had horrible network connectivity and reception. I take my SIM card out and put it in my 2 year old MT3G and it gets perfect reception and fast data transfers while the G2x is choking on network transfers.

Go complain here in LG forum. This is software issue.
http://www.lgforum.com/forum/boards/general/lg/topics/g2x-wifi-problems

have full bars but cant download anything. just sits at waiting for data connection.

We really need a baseband modem that works better. My bars goes to zero then to edge and then to 3g constantly. Any time it switches between the connections then the the bars goes to zero and it says there is no conection. Also noticed that 3g connection fluctuates very bad while doing a speed test.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

ceroglu said:
We really need a baseband modem that works better. My bars goes to zero then to edge and then to 3g constantly. Any time it switches between the connections then the the bars goes to zero and it says there is no conection. Also noticed that 3g connection fluctuates very bad while doing a speed test.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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How are you getting 3g? Unless you meant to say 4g?

himmelhauk said:
How are you getting 3g? Unless you meant to say 4g?
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T-mobile only has 3g connection avaliable where I live, of course it says 4g on the phone but in reality it is only 3g.

ngerasimatos said:
I am on my 3rd device in 3 days. First one was rooted, second one was not. This current one is also not rooted as well.
Unless I am very unlucky, I am going to assume there is a definite issue with the network configuration on this device. Status says I have 3 bars of 4G coverage, however I cannot connect to the internet at all.
Network Signal Info says I am on UMTS with a -93DBM, data is connected. However nothing will load. If I put the phone into airplane mode and then turn airplane mode off the networking comes back online. Speeds are slow though, barely able to perform basic mobile web browsing and watching youtube and such isnt possible. Too slow an too long to buffer.
This doesn't only happen at my house, it happens in other areas as well but it does happen constantly at home. I a not a heavy data user on my account, 1-2GB monthly, so Tmo says they arent throttling me. They have replaced the SIM every time with the devices as well.
Suggestions? If I cannot figure this out soon I am going to cancel my service as I cannot pay for a service and phone that just doesnt work. Tmo seems stumped. They just keep replacing phones since I am within my 14 day return/exchange period.
However, 3 devices all having the same issues sure seems to either prove the phone has an issue, or m general area of Tmo service.
I live in downtown Tempe, AZ.
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I wonder if there is an issue with our network in Arizona?? I live in Chandler, and work in Scottsdale. my data times out ALLL THE TIME. Both here at home, and at work. Same with my text messaging. Literally, I do exactly what you do with the "airplane" mode. That's the only way to get my data and text working again (besides restarting).
Here are the issues I posted in the LG Forum:
http://www.lgforum.com/forum/boards/carriers/t-mobile/topics/few-issues-with-g2x#26861
(first issue posted is what you are talking about)

I dont think this is a regional issue. Downtown Minneapolis here, and I cant get it to stay on wifi or Edge/4g for more than a few minutes at a time. G1 has no trouble and shows strong 3g while my sisters mt4g shows full 4g. 4g/E symbol just flickers on my g2x leaving me with no connection. I can connect to wifi fine, but even with wifi sleep set to never it still disconnects every few minutes, and has to be toggled on/off to reconnect. Until toggling it just sits flickering 4g/E with no data connection.
I've never seen my Evo drop a E/4g/wifi connection and struggle to reconnect once in the year I've had it. My g2x does it almost every time I pick it up.

Did you try going into Mobile Networks in Settings and changing the mode to WCDA Preferred or something? That'll stop the flip flopping. That's what I have it on and that's what the phone came with out of the box.Also try Auto in that menu.

Unusable WiFi

The wife and I just switched to Sprint and got two GS5's. Her wifi access is tolerable, she can play a youtube video. I can barely even load a facebook feed. My wifi is total garbage, so I went and installed wifi fixer:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wahtod.wififixer
And the alerts say that it's constantly having to reassociate the Wifi. Even with this in the background fixing things up, I can't use my wifi. I also googled the problem a lot, and found that someone manually switching the IP type to a manual IP gave them better luck. Did not help me out.
The Sprint Spark data is incredible, it actually beats my home broadband internet. But I'm in the basement so I can't just use my data :'(
Background on the phone, BOTH are stock out of the box rom, but with TWRP, Root, 4 Way Reboot Menu, and unlocked hotspot flashes.

What WiFi setting are you using and what model router?

Before I tried the setting on the advanced it was stock out of the box DHCP, then I switched it to Static to lock an IP, with little difference. Back to DHCP for now.
I can ask for better details because the router is in someone else's room, but it's the one that Century Link (DSL ) Gave us.

LMAO LOOK AT YOUR LINK SPEED. THAT IS TERRIBLE ALMOST NON EXSISTENT. You need to modify some settings or add a capable router to that. Here is what a decent link speed looks like on this device and this device is capable of more than this.

To add to my previous post is my guess that WiFi you currently have is not mimo meaning multiple people can't be connected at the same time with sufficient link speeds. Your wife was the first to connect and it is giving her 90% of the link speed which is why she can and you cant. Only a new router can correct this more than likely. You can disconnect everyone else from the WiFi toggle your WiFi off then on and go check your link speed with no one else connected just you and I'm gonna guess you will have around 5 MBPS link speed. FYI on link speed it's not that you need a huge number for the link speed to browse the Internet but a minimal of 30 MBPS is needed to have an ideal Web experience especially when it comes to viewing images on Web pages.

I know that century link is worthless but I doubt it's the problem. I can stream youtube, Hulu and all that kinda stuff pretty decently on my laptop, decently on the wife's phone, worthless on my phone. Any hour, when everyone is asleep, I still have a piece of ****.
Last night I remembered that when I did the hotspot unlock I accidently did the NC1 or whatever it is Hotspot fix file, then corrected it to be the ND2 file. So I went and fully reloaded the phone back with the stock TWRP backup and didn't help

theratdude64 said:
I know that century link is worthless but I doubt it's the problem. I can stream youtube, Hulu and all that kinda stuff pretty decently on my laptop, decently on the wife's phone, worthless on my phone. Any hour, when everyone is asleep, I still have a piece of ****.
Last night I remembered that when I did the hotspot unlock I accidently did the NC1 or whatever it is Hotspot fix file, then corrected it to be the ND2 file. So I went and fully reloaded the phone back with the stock TWRP backup and didn't help
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You should re read I never said century link was the issue

Oh I'm sorry, I thought that's what the link speed was referring to. We used to have cable but our neighborhood doesn't have new cabling or something so they can't work here.
It's just weird and frustrating that it's just MY phone. The other 4 GS5's in the house do fine.

theratdude64 said:
Oh I'm sorry, I thought that's what the link speed was referring to. We used to have cable but our neighborhood doesn't have new cabling or something so they can't work here.
It's just weird and frustrating that it's just MY phone. The other 4 GS5's in the house do fine.
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Link speed is from the WiFi router itself. what happens is your WiFi starts at (for example) 52 MBPS with one device connected. Then that gets split each time a new device connects. When you have a new router that's more capable it does not split the link speed as much with each connected device. Link speed is the speed in which the device is communicating with the WiFi router
,

My phone gets 5, the wife's gets 117. My best I've gotten was 39mbps on this phone, but at 4AM when everyone is asleep I still only get 5mbps.

You can try forgetting the WiFi network then add it back and see if that makes any difference

jbadboy2007 said:
You can try forgetting the WiFi network then add it back and see if that makes any difference
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Also, check whether the router supports 5 GHz over 2.4. If so, try switching to that.
You may find with the cable wireless gateways that you're better off buying your own.
Comcast's isn't bad but get more than 10 feet away and you start seeing it drop off.

Unusable wifi

I'm loving my z3 but for the life of me I cannot get a tidy wifi connection.it doesn't drop the actually connection but just freezes or slows down to an unusable amount.it's not my wifi as I have tested my note 3 on the same connection and it's the same on other networks.does anyone else have this problem or a solution

simon.n.jonez said:
I'm loving my z3 but for the life of me I cannot get a tidy wifi connection.it doesn't drop the actually connection but just freezes or slows down to an unusable amount.it's not my wifi as I have tested my note 3 on the same connection and it's the same on other networks.does anyone else have this problem or a solution
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I am struggling with Wifi speeds on mine. I am having to switch to 4g regularly.
I am not too worried yet as I have 8gb data, but eventually i'll be worried as it runs out lol/
The speed tests show a good speed and ping, but it disconnects or slows down/freezes a lot.
I'm waiting on updates.

Thanks for the reply.I get data fine over 4G too.the chappy wifi is annoying as I have wifi everywhere I go...but no 4G signal at home

simon.n.jonez said:
... I cannot get a tidy wifi connection.it doesn't drop the actually connection but just freezes or slows down to an unusable amount.
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Confirmed, same experienced here.

Didn't the z1 have this problem

That may depend on the router or its settings. Had the same "freeze" issue when connected to my AVM 7490 router set to use channel 100 for 5GHz. Ever since I changed it to channel 48 no more such problems so far.

My bluetooth is similarly awful, in both range and functionality.
WiFi constantly drops and freezes, always has a weak connection compared to my other devices.
Sony have always cheaped out on wireless chips for any of its hardware products, especially things like playstation products (PS4 wifi is the worst I've ever seen), but I didn't expect it for a £500 smartphone!

Ditto. Great 4G on a 10GB cap.
But shocking wifi. It won't connect to I my router half the time, and the other half drops the connection after 10 minutes.
Out of various devices it's the only one, and I've had more devices on.
I'll change the chanel, clear dhcp allocations and usual stuff and see if there is any difference
Sent from my D6603 using XDA Free mobile app

Mine seems to have sorted itself out.had excellent wifi at home and up the parents.

Yeah for all their positives sony do pass on some crud wifi chips. Ps4 good example.
Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

I seem to of narrowed my problems down to the router at work so Yaay lol.
As for Ps4, I think they're getting some unfair stick. I have mine connected to crappy BT home hub and the wifi connection is excellent.

mega_bite said:
But shocking wifi. It won't connect to I my router half the time, and the other half drops the connection after 10 minutes.
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Swapped it for another router (I got a random duplicate from my isp, glad I kept it) and the problems gone. Mostly. still drops from time to time. but usable

Jonathan-H said:
I seem to of narrowed my problems down to the router at work so Yaay lol.
As for Ps4, I think they're getting some unfair stick. I have mine connected to crappy BT home hub and the wifi connection is excellent.
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It seems to be random. My mate has a launch day model like me, and his WiFi is excellent to his 6 year old Sky wireless G router.
I have the newest homehub, one of the best rated routers on the market right now, and the connection from my PS4 to it is incredibly unstable. Every online game lags horrendously, especially BF4. Plus on my 80mb connection it allows for 3MB/s downloads at most. With an wired connection, no lag at all, and the download speed hits max every time.
The same thing seems to apply to the Z3. So its a sony thing. My first Z3 the wifi and BT were unusable. 3rd Z3, and wifi is the best I've ever used on a mobile device, and I havent even connected to my AC network yet to try. Bluetooth I've yet to try though.

istrikerx said:
I have the newest homehub, one of the best rated routers on the market right now, and the connection from my PS4 to it is incredibly unstable. Every online game lags horrendously, especially BF4. Plus on my 80mb connection it allows for 3MB/s downloads at most. With an wired connection, no lag at all, and the download speed hits max every time.
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AVM Fritz!Box here, newest model, got it when I moved because I'm on a business contract, even though I didn't want it. Has a multiuser NAS, SmartHome and whatnot, and one app for everything.
But when on WiFi with my MacBook Pro, ping times sometimes go up to over 250 ms, then back down to the usual 12. I have no idea why, it doesn't happen when connected to it via Ethernet. Bandwidth itself never seemed to be an issue though, and the Z3 performs great with it though.
TL;DR: Trying a different router can make a huge difference.

I was having the same wifi issues...my network was saved, I kept re typing my password thinking maybe I entered it in incorrectly but kept getting the "Authentication Failed" message. I was able to get the phone connected to my home wifi buy simply hitting the "Forget" option...then it automatically read the IP address and accessed the network...smh hopefully this helps for Everybody else....or some at least

Verizon/Moto G4 Plus - any way to improve wireless data at home?

Hey all - so I'm grandfathered unlimited on Verizon and *love* my unlimited 4g. At my girlfriend's house (right near an interstate), the data is absolutely rocking. But at my house, about two miles away, I usually have decent signal (half or a bit better), but the internet seriously struggles. For instance right now I've got my phone on Pandora and am wifi hotspotting to my laptop, where I'm FB Messenging. Every 30 seconds or so, my laptop says that my hotspot has no internet connection, and I have to wait 30 seconds or so for it to come back. I've just paused Pandora and at least I can chat uninterrupted now. Seems like I should at least be able to do these two things successfully...
Is there anything at all I can do to help it?
Many thanks!

thetastycat said:
Hey all - so I'm grandfathered unlimited on Verizon and *love* my unlimited 4g. At my girlfriend's house (right near an interstate), the data is absolutely rocking. But at my house, about two miles away, I usually have decent signal (half or a bit better), but the internet seriously struggles. For instance right now I've got my phone on Pandora and am wifi hotspotting to my laptop, where I'm FB Messenging. Every 30 seconds or so, my laptop says that my hotspot has no internet connection, and I have to wait 30 seconds or so for it to come back. I've just paused Pandora and at least I can chat uninterrupted now. Seems like I should at least be able to do these two things successfully...
Is there anything at all I can do to help it?
Many thanks!
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You'll probably have to move in with your girlfriend
Maybe the area in which you live is extremely congested or there aren't enough/any cell towers nearby.
Nothing you can do about that.

Haha - fair enough!! Just so weird that the connection just stops working even though I've got decent service showing. Is there any merit to any of the "signal booster" stuff you can buy? Can't really see how any of that could work...

thetastycat said:
Haha - fair enough!! Just so weird that the connection just stops working even though I've got decent service showing. Is there any merit to any of the "signal booster" stuff you can buy? Can't really see how any of that could work...
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They're of no use whatsoever. Even worse than all those "cleaner" apps out there (thats supposed to say something).
If you live in an apartment/building with multiple walls/thick walls, that might impact signal strength and speed. You'll probably have to check out various locations inside your house (or even outside) and see where the reception is best. Near open windows good.