[Q] Tethering/Internet works intermittently

[hbar98]

Hey all,

On my 2013 Moto X, sometimes when I turn on the wifi tethering the internet doesn't work either on tethered devices, or on my phone. If I turn the wifi tether off, my phone will connect to the internet again.

If I restart the phone and then enable tethering, I can use the internet on any device for a few minutes, then it refuses to connect. Again, if I turn tethering off on my phone, I can then get online on my phone.

I am rooted and Xposed, and don't have gobs of apps on my phone. I can't think of any app that I've installed recently that started this.

Any ideas what I could try to figure out what is going on?

 

[dtg7]

You say it works for a few minutes after reboot. Do you try it immediately after the phone finishes booting up? what I'm getting at is sometimes apps start up on boot but there is a delay, so maybe a root app or Xposed module is interfering, but because of the delay right after rebooting you have a brief window to use tethering.
One way to check this is don't try to tether immediately after rebooting. instead let the phone sit for a few minutes while all the apps that run automatically on boot finish starting up. then try tether, and it should fail.

Check SuperSU to see what apps have root access and see if any of them look suspicious. you can disable superuser access temporarily from within the app.
Also check your Xposed modules. anything that deals with Wi-Fi or data, or has some option in its menus that changes Wi-Fi or data, is a suspect.

If nothing jumps out as suspicious, I'd probably temporarily uninstall Xposed access (just use the uninstall button in the Xposed installer menu, you can reinstall later, your modules will still be there, don't uninstall the actual Xposed installer app) and reboot and try tethering, and if that doesn't help then disable superuser from within SuperSU, reboot, and try tethering.

Safeboot is another option, but I'm not sure how that behaves in regards to having Xposed. Safeboot is accessed by long pressing the Power Off option that appears when you long press the power button.

 

[hbar98]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try them out and see what happens.

I've started disabling some Xposed modules, but I need at least one in order to tether. So I'll disable them all, one by one, until it works.

 

[hbar98]

Okay, so I've been working on this for a while now trying to figure out what is going on... Here's what happening:

If I turn on tethering, it will work for a few mins, then I'll still be connected to the phone hotspot, but I can't go anywhere. Web pages time out, streaming stops, that kind of thing. If I pick up my phone and try to do anything internet related when this happens, I won't have any internet connection on the phone either.

The problem persists if I turn off the hotspot or toggle airplane mode. The only way I can reestablish an LTE connection is to reboot the phone. Until then I won't have any internet connectivity.

Here's what I've done so far, and the problem still persists... Note: I'm on Verizon and have grandfathered unlimited data.

1) I have zwilie's kernel, so I removed that and restored the stock kernel. Problem still persisted.
2) I have xposed installed and several modules. I disabled and uninstalled every module except xposed itself and the moto x tether enabler. Problem still persisted.
3) I used mflash and reflashed system, boot, modems. Problem still persisted.
4) I found a different method of using hotspot that doesn't use xposed. I uninstalled xposed and used the other app. Problem still persisted.
5) I wiped the phone completely and restored to stock 4.4.4 using mflash and the stock 4.4.4 images for my phone. Rooted and reinstalled xposed and moto tether. Problem still persisted. **HT to KidJoe for his excellent guides on flashing**
6) I entered safe mode. However, because that disables all third party apps, I couldn't tether to try that, so that's an unknown.

I don't know what else to try or what else to do. We started using my wife's S4 as a hotspot, but it is starting to exhibit strange behavior as well (data only works for a while, but it will reconnect if I toggle airplane mode). It is also rooted, xposed, and using the tethering enabler.

The only other thing I can think of that I can't try is to reboot in safe mode and try tethering from that. But because the only way I know to enable tethering is to use xposed or a 3rd party app, I can't figure out how to make that work. Also, when I restored my phone, I let it install all my usual apps before I tried tethering again. I don't have a lot of apps, but if anyone knows of ones that may interfere with tethering I'd try uninstalling them.

I'd appreciate other suggestions, please!

Thanks for your time!

{edit} Added HT to KidJoe {/edit}

 

[hbar98]

Okay, I have a couple other things to add...

If I use FoxFi to enable USB tethering, I can tether until the cows come home. This doesn't exactly work for what I'm wanting to do, but it does allow me to tether.

Also, for some really, really, really strange reason, if I change the SSID of the hotspot I can wirelessly tether for a while until a couple devices connect, then it drops out again until I restart the phone.

Am I looking at a really specific, really strange software bug??