This phone is broken (broken screen) and was given to me, so I figured I’d use it as a WiFi extender, but I guess I can’t.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    Hotspots share your phones mobile data as a local wifi access point. If you don’t have a sim, you don’t have mobile data, and so, no hotspot.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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      27 days ago

      There’s Bluetooth and USB (with Ghirehtet over ADB or external wireless/Ethernet card) that you can use to make a Wi-Fi internet hotspot without mobile data. Also, you could NOT connect to the internet and use LAN-based apps (KDE Connect, network printers) without extra hardware in a pinch, or just broadcast an SSID in a public space for fun.

  • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    26 days ago

    How would a hot spot work without a sim? Isnt it using the sim 5g to rebroadcast locally?

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      26 days ago

      Some phones essentially function as wifi repeaters if wifi is connected and mobile hotspot is enabled.

      Not all phones can do this.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          26 days ago

          Comes in clutch sometimes. Like when a device doesn’t support captive portals (i.e. in a hotel), or your work laptop has trouble with them (as some work VPNs and security software causes problems).

          Then you can just log in from your cell phone, and then share that. The phone uses WPA2-Personal, which nearly everything supports.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        But if the phone gets wifi… then why doesn’t the other gadget?

        Edit: someone described a few plausible edge cases lower in the thread. I guess it’s not common, but it could come in handy sometimes.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    27 days ago

    Does it have to be a SIM card with service on it? If not, maybe grabbing a random old SIM card would work.

  • Jikiya@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    Samsung used to have their WiFi sharing under the Hotspot setting. Then they changed the layout, and now WiFi sharing is buried deep in menus to make sure (for some terrible reason, I’m sure) it’s not found without a web search. They change the exact location of it with every OneUI update also, to further piss me off. They are surely the company that is actively trying hardest to lose customers.

  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    27 days ago

    Many carriers sell hotspot as a data capped premium feature. They probably want a SIM so you can be monitored and charged for using your own device on your own network and services that you’ve already paid for. Because greed.

    • scytale@lemmy.zip
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      27 days ago

      I really hate how mobile hotspot is considered separate from regular data. It’s the same especially if your mobile speeds are are capped anyway. It’s like dental not being included in your health insurance as if your teeth aren’t part of your body.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        27 days ago

        On that note, I finally tried Comcast’s xfinitywifi service this month, and was pleasantly surprised. They run a WiFi hotspot service accessable to Comcast users, but non-Comcast subscribers can also get a la carte access for $10/month. It’s not a full drop-in replacement for cellular data — no system of WiFi access points is going to have that degree of coverage — but if you live in an urban area, an awful lot of the place is within range of an access point, and my experience thus far has been that it’s considerably faster than running off cellular data.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      26 days ago

      Yeah, I’m definitely blocked from turning on my hotspot with AT&T until it can verify that I’m allowed specifically from the cellular network.

      This could very well be a carrier lock-in.

  • RedC@sh.itjust.works
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    27 days ago

    OP, how old is the phone / what version of android is it running?

    Just tested this on my s24u, connected to wifi with no physical SIM and my eSIM turned off I can still turn on mobile Hotspot. Seems weird that you can’t especially since iirc Samsung let’s you share your wifi connection through Hotspot as well.

    Edit: goto settings>connections>mobile Hotspot and tehtering>mobile hotspot> click on the network name field. You’ll be taken to a screen to change the name but at the bottom there’s an advanced button. Click that and near or at the bottom will be “wifi sharing” turn that on and you can share your wifi connection through hotspot.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      27 days ago

      “Hotspot” is always going to be referring to having the phone act as a WiFi wireless access point, rather than USB or Bluetooth tethering.

      • lefixxx@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        That would be cellular to wifi tethering. How can someone expect to have cellular internet without a sim.

        Is OP trying to use his phone as an routerless wifi access point? That would be a crazy edge case. And it still wouldn’t be tethering.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          27 days ago

          That would be cellular to wifi tethering.

          No, like…what he’s trying to do is to put the phone on an existing WiFi access point, then have the phone itself act as a second WiFi access point:

          This phone is broken (broken screen) and was given to me, so I figured I’d use it as a WiFi extender, but I guess I can’t.

          He’s trying to use it as an ad-hoc range extender. Like, he presumably has one device that can’t see the existing wireless access point, is out of range, so he wants to put the phone somewhere that’s still in range of the first access point, then chain access from the phone to his device by having the phone act as a second wireless access point.

          Android can do that — I’ve done it — but this check that shouldn’t be done and disrupts his use case is causing him annoyance.

  • Kairos@lemmy.today
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    27 days ago

    I don’t know if it’s android or Samsung doing this. Both are trash.

    On the android side it’d be because Google seemingly hires the dumbest project managers possible for the thing.

    Samsung side I’d waver itd be because they think their customers would be too stupid to diagnose an issue with hotspot without a sim (such as if WiFi is working)