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[Solved] Why can't a mobile phone hotspot be used for WiFi?

fakeDeltat
Explorer
I primarily use my phone for internet through both a WiFi hotspot and tethering on all of my devices, but on the Oculus Quest I can't. I brought this up during one of my Oculus support inquiries, and wasn't exactly given a reason as to why a mobile hotspot isn't supported, even though the hotspots of some smartphones are, as I tested connecting to the WiFi of my brother's phone, and the Quest was able to find it and connect to it without problems. I also don't think that it's a 2.4GHz vs 5GHz problem as I was able to connect both of those on my terribly slow and short range mobile WiFi modem (which also is technically just a smartphone hotspot).

So is there some specific reason? Can I not connect to my phone because it's paired to my Quest for the sake of no extra functionality? I'd like to be able to try out all the online experiences available on the Quest.
11 REPLIES 11

SteveG7RTA
Heroic Explorer
Your title is slightly misleading. Should be “why can’t some mobiles phones..” 
I can use my iPhone’s hotspot & you said that your brothers phone also works.
the question is, why doesn’t your phone do it. What phone do you have? 

fakeDeltat
Explorer


Your title is slightly misleading. Should be “why can’t some mobiles phones..” 
I can use my iPhone’s hotspot & you said that your brothers phone also works.
the question is, why doesn’t your phone do it. What phone do you have? 


I specifically said that mobile hotspots can't be used since that's what I was told by support, so I assume that no phone should be able to be used as a hotspot, and some phones working would instead be a bug instead of a feature. I have a Nokia 1.

SteveG7RTA
Heroic Explorer
So although you can connect to some phone hotspots, Oculus aren’t offering this as a supported feature? I see what you mean.

In the same way, I’ve been using Bluetooth headphones with my Quest for ages. It’s such an advantage & I haven’t had any problems at all. The Quest clearly works with them, but Oculus do not support the idea (or at least they didn’t, maybe they do now with the experimental setting?) 

Presumably, unless 95% of mobile phones hotspots work with the Quest then Oculus don’t won’t to advertise is as a feature so that they don’t get complaints etc.
As for your Nokia, I don’t know much about them but you could possibly try resetting the network settings. Maybe worth a try.

regards
Steve

falken76
Expert Consultant
My guess would be that it's possible but they are not going to offer support on it because Mobile WiFi is spotty, it may be good in some areas but it sucks in a lot.  Probably too much hassle to support.  I honestly would have expected them to have planned this from the beginning to work with Mobile WiFi since it's a mobile unit and needs a source of internet to get online.  It could be Cell plans also.  In the early days of smart phones the teathering features used to work right out of the box for almost all the couriers.  Now they've locked that down and want you to pay a fee like $10 extra dollars a month just to teather or use your phone as a wifi hotspot.  So plans will be different for millions of people, another reason not to support this feature officially.    I.E.  Sure it's possible, but there's so many variables that it would make it difficult for us to support it, so you can figure it out yourself, we won't be able to answer any tech support questions.  That's what it is....

fakeDeltat
Explorer


So although you can connect to some phone hotspots, Oculus aren’t offering this as a supported feature? I see what you mean.

In the same way, I’ve been using Bluetooth headphones with my Quest for ages. It’s such an advantage & I haven’t had any problems at all. The Quest clearly works with them, but Oculus do not support the idea (or at least they didn’t, maybe they do now with the experimental setting?) 

Presumably, unless 95% of mobile phones hotspots work with the Quest then Oculus don’t won’t to advertise is as a feature so that they don’t get complaints etc.
As for your Nokia, I don’t know much about them but you could possibly try resetting the network settings. Maybe worth a try.

regards
Steve


Thank you for telling me to try resetting the network settings. The button to do that is for some reason called "Reset OOB", so I never would have thought about touching that since I don't know what it stands for. Turns out that I can use my phone as a hotspot, but only if I "Reset OOB" and don't change any settings, including the name and password. I suppose this is a bug with my version of Android.

kojack
MVP
MVP
In this case OOB is Out Of Box. In other words, it's a reset of those settings back to the state they were when you first started the phone.

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
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fakeDeltat
Explorer

kojack said:

In this case OOB is Out Of Box. In other words, it's a reset of those settings back to the state they were when you first started the phone.



But to reset Out of Box? That sounds like resetting the settings it would reset to, so fallback defaults.

Anonymous
Not applicable
I have a Go and loaded a new game , it loaded on my iPhone but when it tried to load on my headed it had and error. Now when I start my headset all I get is a small box with 3 lights that flash. Help?

Anonymous
Not applicable
If a phone can act as a hotspot, then I don't see why it wouldn't work. A hotspot is a hotspot. I can even connect my Quest to a hotspot created on my Raspberry Pi. The only issue I know of with using your phone as a hotspot, is the limitations put on that hotspot by the phone company. Here in Canada, they charge your data plan when setting up a hotspot on the phone.