Very slow wirelesss when using iPhone 4S' personal hotspot for a MacBook Pro (MBP)...
Ant
Contributor - Level 2

Hello.

Last night, I was helping a client with his old iPhone 4S' personal hotspot as shown in http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4517 web page. It uses Verizon Wireless 3G for his 4 GB data cellular connection. We got the wireless (WPA2) connection to work fine, but it was very slow like crappy dial-up modem speeds. Is this normal? iPhone's iOS v8.1.2's top screen says 1X (is this a speed number?) and left of MBP. Updated Mac OS X 10.8.5's top screen shows an infinite(?) symbol instead of that wifi arc symbol.

Thank you in advance. Smiley Happy

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Re: Very slow wirelesss when using iPhone 4S' personal hotspot for a MacBook Pro (MBP)...
nicholasbranson
Specialist - Level 1

yes, 1x is a speed indicator, and it is very slow. Even with 3g speeds, hotspot will be pretty slow, but still ok for simple surfing and emails and such, streaming not so much. For hotspot, you really kinda want to have at least 4g, preferably LTE.

About that 1x speed, you may want to see if you get that everywhere or just in that location. Ideally, in a good coverage area, you should not be getting such slow speeds. Might have something to do with the building you are in though. If you get the same outdoors, and your coverage area is good, you may want to call in and have someone troubleshoot your signal.

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Re: Very slow wirelesss when using iPhone 4S' personal hotspot for a MacBook Pro (MBP)...
nicholasbranson
Specialist - Level 1

yes, 1x is a speed indicator, and it is very slow. Even with 3g speeds, hotspot will be pretty slow, but still ok for simple surfing and emails and such, streaming not so much. For hotspot, you really kinda want to have at least 4g, preferably LTE.

About that 1x speed, you may want to see if you get that everywhere or just in that location. Ideally, in a good coverage area, you should not be getting such slow speeds. Might have something to do with the building you are in though. If you get the same outdoors, and your coverage area is good, you may want to call in and have someone troubleshoot your signal.

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Re: Very slow wirelesss when using iPhone 4S' personal hotspot for a MacBook Pro (MBP)...
47seijar
Specialist - Level 2

The iPhone 4s doesn't have 4G. You're left at 3G or lower because of the hardware limitations. That could be the reason you're hotspot data is so slow - it's your connection. I've used the hotspot feature on my iPhone 6 with a MacBook Air and it was very fast.

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Re: Very slow wirelesss when using iPhone 4S' personal hotspot for a MacBook Pro (MBP)...
Ant
Contributor - Level 2

Thanks! We'll try that.

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Re: Very slow wirelesss when using iPhone 4S' personal hotspot for a MacBook Pro (MBP)...
Ant
Contributor - Level 2

47seijar wrote:

The iPhone 4s doesn't have 4G. You're left at 3G or lower because of the hardware limitations. That could be the reason you're hotspot data is so slow - it's your connection. I've used the hotspot feature on my iPhone 6 with a MacBook Air and it was very fast.

My client just got an iPhone 6 Plus, with the (lat/new)est iOS v8.1.3, yesterday. We tried again with its LTE, and it was a little faster, but not that fast (not strong signal that iOS showed).

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