Internet by Tethered Cellphone – Reboot
We are currently at a rally in Albert Lea, Minnesota. We’re using our Verizon Cell phone, tethered to our laptop , for our Internet access. (To see what I mean by Tethered cell phone, watch the video on this page.) Albert Lea is not a Verizon area. Our cell phone reports that we are on an ‘Extended Network.’ It’s actually working quite well…
Except when it doesn’t work at all!
I’ll be reading my email, or reading a blog or other website and all is well. Then, I’ll try to browse to another website and I’ll get that message, ‘Cannot Display webpage.’ Usually this means that I don’t have an Internet connection. Nothing has changed, but I see that my Vista Network icon has lost it’s little globe. That means that I am no longer connected to the Internet.
Always, the first thing to try whenever something unexplained goes wrong with your computer, is to restart the computer … reboot. So I tried that. No change. Ok, how about rebooting the phone? I turned the phone off, turned it back on, and waited. It reconnected, and the little globe came back on my network icon. All is well.
Just a little tip I thought I’d pass along for anyone else who uses the Tethered Cell phone method of Broadband Internet access.
Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com
Computer Education for Travelers
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Enjoyed the post on Tethering as we’ve been through the same thing. One additional comment I’d like to make. I found a great Verizon Tech who told me, in situations like yours or if your phone reception is breaking up to try this:
Leave the phone ON and remove the battery. It is not necessary to leave it out for 30 seconds but I do it anyway. Put it back in an let it reboot. It apparently does a more thorough reboot than just turning the phone off and back on. It works for us Diana
We have been getting the same disconnect from the web since we moved to a vista with wireless (no telephones involved) and cold reboots are needed to re-establish, maybe it is a Vista issue.
John,
You say you’re using ‘wireless’ with no telephone. If you’re referring to WiFi, your issue may be a power management setting. See this article about Wi-Fi settings and let me know if that helps.