PE tethering w/wifi hotspot

[dee_castile]

Tried everything. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, and Mobile Broadband dial-in thingie. Went to Home Depot yesterday because they have free Wi-Fi. Stood right in front of the store. iPhone got a good, clear, fast signal and the eDGe said it was "Out of Range." Maybe I have a bad unit.

[bunodosoma]

There are several apps that look at wifi signal and everyone has there favorite. I recently compared my Nexus phone,Nook Color, and PE using wifi analyzer and found the Nook and PE had the same readings. The Nexus showed about 40% less! Unexpected result.You might try something like this at McDonald's where the PE worked and see what you get. Or if you know someone else with a tablet compare them. Sorry I've been so little help. Luck.

[ivanjt]

Originally Posted by dee_castile

Tried everything. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, and Mobile Broadband dial-in thingie. Went to Home Depot yesterday because they have free Wi-Fi. Stood right in front of the store. iPhone got a good, clear, fast signal and the eDGe said it was "Out of Range." Maybe I have a bad unit.

You can connect at an open hotspot - MacD but you can't connect to your iphone while your laptop can - correct?

First thing to do is to look at the laptop settings and copy them to your PE then you might be a little nearer to what you want.

At work we see a number of apple ithingy owners that have problems connecting to things non apple - some we have been able to solve, others not. Most of the problems are on the apple side with the way they implement WiFi, hence my suggestion to copy the settings that ar known to work.

[dee_castile]

I made one small advance forward. Set up a static IP and got "connected" but got no service, while my iPhone had 4 bars with 3G. I give up until someone pops onto these forums and says, "I have an iPhone and was able to tether the PE by doing this ... "

What looked like an absolutely great idea turned out to be a vast disappointment. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by dee_castile

I made one small advance forward. Set up a static IP and got "connected" but got no service, while my iPhone had 4 bars with 3G. I give up until someone pops onto these forums and says, "I have an iPhone and was able to tether the PE by doing this ... "

What looked like an absolutely great idea turned out to be a vast disappointment. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Don't give up now. Getting connected is only half the battle. You are almost there. According to Apple the iPhone Personal hotspot allows you to share your 3G connection with up to five other devices over Wi-Fi & USB. The iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot is no different than any other Wireless Access Point. The eDGe doesn't care whether it is an iPhone Wi-Fi hotspot, an Android Wi-Fi hotspot, a bookstore Wi-Fi hotspot, a restaurant Wi-Fi hotspot, a hotel Wi-Fi hotspot, an airport Wi-Fi hotspot, or a home Wi-Fi hotspot. It sees it as the exact same thing, a Wi-Fi hotspot.

A typical home DSL or Cable Modem and Router combination with Wi-Fi doesn't care whether it is a Windows computer, Linux computer. MAC computer, eDGe, iPad, iPad2, iPod, HP Touchpad, Kindle, Nook, Pandigital Reader, Xbox360, PS3, Wii, PSP, TV, Printer or any other device. All it sees is the device and all the device sees is a place to connect to a network. Operating system makes no difference. If it did all of these devices would have to bow to Microsoft or Apple as they seek world dominance.


All joking aside. There are certain things that the host (eDGe, PC or anything else connected to a network) needs in order to access the Internet. Normally the host receives these automatically. However, when setting up a up a Static IP there are other settings that must be entered besides the IP address. You will not be able to access the Internet if these are blank or incorrect values are entered. I will briefly discuss these as they appear on the Advanced Wi-Fi Settings Page of the eDGe:

Gateway: This is what the eDGe or a PC in the case of a Small Office Home Office (SOHO) network needs in order to make requests to a remote network, like the Internet. The Gateway requires an IP address and in a SOHO network it is normally the IP address of your hotspot or router. For example: If your router or hotspot IP address is 192.168.1.1 this is what you have to enter as the Gateway address.

Netmask: Typically refer to classes of IP addresses. This is how the router knows what network or subnetwork you are on. Chances are you aren't subnetting. Netmask will be determined by the value of your IP address. If your IP address starts with 10 (highly unlikely) this will be 255.0.0.0; if it starts with 172 (possible) this will be 255.255.0.0; if it starts with 192 (most likely) this will be 255.255.255.0. Netmask MUST match the Subnet Mask address of your hotspot or router.

DNS1: This is the Domain Name Server (DNS) address. When the eDGe or a PC makes a request for a webpage it is sent to a DNS server (normally a router in a SOHO) which resolves the common name of the website to an IP address. Without this when you enter www.google.com using the eDGe, a PC or any other device it doesn't know Google's IP address. The DNS Server tells the device that Google's IP address is 72.14.204.147. Of course Google has multiple IP addresses. Try it, put the number in the address bar of any browser and see what happens. Again, DNS1 MUST match the DNS address of your router or hotspot and in a SOHO it is normally the router's or hotspot's IP address.

DNS2: Leave this blank.


You should be able to obtain the addresses from a MAC or Windows PC connected to the iPhone hotspot.

For Mac OS X: From the Apple menu click System Preferences > Network > TCP/IP.


In Windows open a Command Prompt (All Programs, Accessories) and type ipconfig/all

[ivanjt]

Most of that information he should be able to get from his notebook.

[dee_castile]

Obsessed2,
Been there; done that; don't work. Everything I've read says something about Android not reading ad-hoc Wi-Fi and apparently either AT&T or Apple is ad-hoc. I will wait. Things constantly change and maybe, if there isn't an answer out there, one will come along eventually.

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by dee_castile

Obsessed2,
Been there; done that; don't work. Everything I've read says something about Android not reading ad-hoc Wi-Fi and apparently either AT&T or Apple is ad-hoc. I will wait. Things constantly change and maybe, if there isn't an answer out there, one will come along eventually.

There is a thread devoted to switching the eDGe to Adhoc mode. The solution involves a rooted PE and an Android phone but of course you are just interested in switching the PE to Adhoc. Perhaps the member who started it may be of help.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...00#post1709900


I'm interested to know what the IP address of any device connected to your iPhone is. If it is 169.254.x.x it is an Automatic Private IP Address which is what you would normally see in an Adhoc network without Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (automatic IP addressing).

I'm curious, what static IP address did you assign to the eDGe in order for it to connect to your iPhone as you said in a previous post. If the iPhone is indeed an Adhoc network and the PE is not capable of peer-to-peer networking (Adhoc mode) without ZT-180 ...

[tarvoke]

not ad-hoc:

just this morning put my optimus V (rooted, harmonia rom) into hotspot mode and used that as a wpa AP for my PE. worked fine, no big deal. Virgin (as yet) doesn't seem to care that much, as their unlimited-data plan may be cheap (25usd/mo!) but is also crap-slow (fine by me as long as it works)

(in fact, I was in a bus terminal with plenty of full-bars free/open APs, and they all kept crapping out, making the PE give up - but my OV hotspot did not and worked like a champ)

people having trouble with ad-hoc may consider just rooting and putting a better rom on their phone and using the stock (often removed by vendor) built in AP tethering...

[dee_castile]

IP Address: 172.20.10.2
Netmask: 255.255.255.240
Gateway: 172.20.10.1
DNS1: 172.16.206.215
DNS2: 000.00.000.000

eDGe wouldn't let me remove the DNS2 altogether, so I put the zeros in.

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by dee_castile

IP Address: 172.20.10.2
Netmask: 255.255.255.240
Gateway: 172.20.10.1
DNS1: 172.16.206.215
DNS2: 000.00.000.000

eDGe wouldn't let me remove the DNS2 altogether, so I put the zeros in.

I looked on Apples' Support Site and according to them:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3574


To connect to a Personal Hotspot, your device requires:

Personal Hotspot using a Wi-Fi connection (which the iPhone4 has)

A device with Wi-Fi with support for WPA/WPA2 encryption (which the eDGe supports).

So in theory you should be able to use the iPhone as a hotspot with the eDGe.


I noticed in a previous post (#10) you said the iPhone shows "Not in Range" - (Settings, Network Controls, Wi-Fi Settings, Wi-Fi Networks list). This is a good thing and a bad thing all in one. At one point the eDGe had to see the iPhone as a Wi-Fi Network in order to add it to the list. Have you tried long pressing on the iPhone as it shows up under the WiFi Networks and Forget Network? If so, Forget it and go back and disable Static IP and try picking it up again.



I'm not sure of your level of understanding of networking so I'll try to keep this basic. A .240 subnet mask means your network ID is 172.20.10.0 and is subnetted, which is rather strange. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this but, is there a reason why this Netmask was chosen?

Valid host IP addresses for your subnet are 172.20.10.1 through 172.20.10.14 so the IP address and the gateway are good. What's strange is that your DNS server is not in the same network as your gateway. Normally in a small personal network the Gateway and DNS Server are the same. Not that 172.16.206.215 isn't a valid private IP address or wrong but I'm surprised to see it different then the gateway.

You may have already done this so excuse me if I am covering old ground. I'm not meaning to and I'm certainly not trying to insult your intelligence, I just want to see your eDGe work with your iPhone4 Wi-Fi hotspot. Do you have a Windows laptop or PC with wireless that you can connect to the iPhone4 hotspot and get on the Internet? If so, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and Command Prompt. Or click Start and in the Search Box type cmd.exe

Once you have a command prompt window type ipconfig/all and compare the settings (especially Gateway & DNS Server) with those above.



Also, I setup a static IP address on my eDGe and after I entered the DNS1 address I used the back arrow which left DNS2 blank. Go back in and delete any values for DNS2.


You have to excuse if I ask a lot of questions but I don't own an iPhone. In a previous post you said you went to Home Depot because they have free Wi-Fi, you stood right in front of the store, and the iPhone got a good, clear, fast signal and the eDGe said it was "Out of Range." I'm just a little confused by that statement. If your iPhone is capable of being a Wi-Fi hotspot using your cell signal why would you need to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot? Or is this just a backup if you lose cell signal?

[dee_castile]

I am posting this via being tethered to my iPhone. You are not going to believe what the problem was --appostrophes; as in my phone's name being Dee's iPhone. I had this niggling feeling they might have been screwing something up, but it wasn't until I read the link above about ad-hoc networks and it said right there in black and white, "apostrophes may render the network unreadable." I renamed my iPhonee and BANG! got in. I still had to do some tweeking, like reset the PE and turn my hotspot on and off before I made a real connection.

[dee_castile]

Oops. Looks like it is going to take awhile to get used to the keyboard and touch sceen. Anyway, thank yo for all of your help. So, now you know -- the eDGe don't like apostrophes.

[ATFmac]

Originally Posted by dee_castile

I am posting this via being tethered to my iPhone. You are not going to believe what the problem was --appostrophes; as in my phone's name being Dee's iPhone. I had this niggling feeling they might have been screwing something up, but it wasn't until I read the link above about ad-hoc networks and it said right there in black and white, "apostrophes may render the network unreadable." I renamed my iPhonee and BANG! got in. I still had to do some tweeking, like reset the PE and turn my hotspot on and off before I made a real connection.

I'm glad to hear that my ridiculous abundance of info worked out and you don't need a program to force adhoc connection.

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by dee_castile

I am posting this via being tethered to my iPhone. You are not going to believe what the problem was --appostrophes; as in my phone's name being Dee's iPhone. I had this niggling feeling they might have been screwing something up, but it wasn't until I read the link above about ad-hoc networks and it said right there in black and white, "apostrophes may render the network unreadable." I renamed my iPhonee and BANG! got in. I still had to do some tweeking, like reset the PE and turn my hotspot on and off before I made a real connection.

Well I be darned. Glad you decided to stick with. Valuable information has been gained by all. One last request. I know I'm full of them. If you could verify all the IP settings (Netmask, Gateway & DNS) and post them in case in the future someone with an iPhone wants to verify those settings that would be appreciated. Or are the settings in post #25 correct? Again, happy to hear it works.