Develop Bugs

Wi-Fi Settings?

Can someone please tell me how -- or point me to an existing thread that will provide instructions for how -- to get AT&T's Tilt 2 to use wi-fi?
My situation is that I'm new to the Tilt 2, and I'd like to be able to access wi-fi -- rather than the slower than molasses 3G network -- when I'm within range.
My network is wired with a WAP, and it uses static IP addressing. I have no problem accessing the network with my (old) 8525 and my (newer) iPhone or my PDA or my laptop (all configured by me) to use my network to access the Internet and email.
My network is pretty tight (I think, or hope) in that it requires a specific IP address that matches a specific MAC address to gain access.
I've configured my router & WAP to accept a specific IP address for the Tilt 2, as well as the Tilt 2's MAC. I've checked & rechecked too many times to count to make sure I didn't make any typos. I've assigned the IP address on the Tilt 2 by going to Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi > Wireless Networks > Network Adapeter, and I set the Boradcom 8-2.11 DHD Newwork Adapter (is that the right one?) to use the specific IP addy I've assigned.
However, while the wi-fi icon indicates it's connected, I'm unable to use either browser on the Tilt 2 to access the Internet -- all I get are error messages.
I have honestly tried to read here for tips, and while I've read that I need to disable the AT&T proxy, the threads I found were a little (or a lot!) over my head.
I would sincerely appreciate any guidance.
TIA,
Saundra

Please, Need Help with Wi-Fi Settings
Surely I'm not the only one having problems getting the settings right so my AT&T Tilt 2 can connect to a home network, am I?
Honestly, I'm not a moron, but I can't figure it out, and the AT&T store was no help today, either. I recall that I had a similar problem with my 8525, so I went back & looked at my notes from 2008-- the problem was the MEdia Net proxy settings. On the 8525, it was a simple matter to uncheck the "This network uses a proxy server to connect to the Internet" box.
On the Tilt 2, however, I can't see where to give that a try because all I see is a message that says, "This connection is pre-configured. It cannot be modified."
Am I looking in the wrong place, or what? Or is that unlikely to be a problem on the Tilt 2?
I will greatly greatly appreciate any suggestions to try!
TIA

My first question is, are your WiFi router and the wifil on the TP2/Tilt the same? If the router is g and phone is N, they won't communicate.

That's a good question, and one I'd not thought of. My WAP supports B, G, & N & is operating in B/G/N mixed mode-- I don't know what the Tilt 2 is, but I'd think one of the three would cover it, yes?

Try going to this thread and downloading the files in post #13. Run the remove hidden proxy cab and see if that works, that will remove the hidden AT&T proxy server setting that often can't be disabled otherwise. The Tilt2 supports 802.11 b/g, so a router in mixed mode should have no trouble with that. You might try playing around with the network adapters again; I'd personally take another stab at the DHD adapter you tried earlier, since that is the one used on wlan connections. Also, you should probably make sure that the box which says: "My network card connects to:" is set to The Internet, and not work (this setting can be found on the Network Adapters tab of the Wi-Fi applet.
And while a bit off topic, you might want to consider adding additional security on your router (such as WPA2 encryption) if MAC filtering and static IP addresses are your only security; it's quite easy to grab both using free tools like aircrack-ng.

I want to thank you for your suggestions, but I'm not having any luck so far.
Scratch that -- things seem to be working . . . kind of. All I did was keep redoing the same things over & over, and suddenly, things are working.
I'm starting to think, though, that there's something wrong with this particular phone. Seriously -- I did nothing different tonight to get wi-fi working . . . encouraged by your comments, I just kept doing the same things over & over & over that I did last night.
Last night, running the removeHiddenProxy4CWS cab (it's in the Tools folder) resulted in not being able to connect to the Internet via 3G or wi-fi. Tonight, the results are different: I'm able to connect to the Internet via both after having run for the umteenth time the removeHiddenProxy4CWS file.
Further, while I've read many comments that the Internet is really slow on the Tilt 2, I'm thinking mine is abnormally slow & seems to hang up even via wi-fi. Now, I'll admit that perhaps my expectations are different coming back from an iPhone, but I charged up my old 8525, turned off the phone on the Tilt 2 to make sure I was connecting via wi-fi, and we are talking agonizingly slow on the Tilt 2 -- I was able to browse to six different Web pages on the 8525 in the time it took the Tilt 2 to partially bring up the first page (I used the same starting page on both). And, I say "partially" because it seemed to hang up at only partially displaying the Web site until I eventually hit the little circle in the bottom right of the screen. It does that on lots of pages -- is that the way things usually work on the Tilt 2?
Also, after my last soft reset just before things started working, I got a memory error message after I turned on wi-fi & when I hit the Internet button -- I should have written it down, but it said something about being out of memory on line 2. Any suggestions about that?
If the above are normal experiences for the Tilt 2, then I'll start learning about the tweaks to improve speed & such. If not, then I guess I need to try to exchange this phone. <sigh>
I also really appreciate your a bit off topic comment because I'm a security freak but not sure I understand much! My WAP uses WEP 64-bit encryption in addition to the MAC filtering & static IP addresses, and my wired router has a firewall -- does that sound sufficient. None of my neighbors can "see" my network, and it can't be seen from the nearest public road -- does that sound relatively secure?

Most of your Tilt2 problems could be fixed by flashing a custom ROM. If the phone is a business phone (as in it belongs to your company) or you otherwise can't void the warranty, a custom ROM sounds about right. It will improve the device's speed on all fronts, and will also have more available memory on bootup (mine had 25% less RAM in use on startup with a custom ROM). On my Tilt2, using a custom ROM with the latest Manila 2.5 build, things are still quite snappy, and pages load quickly on 3G and EDGE. If you'd like to know how to put a custom ROM on your device, this link will tell you everything you need to know. If you decide to put a custom ROM on your device, keep in mind you'll lose all the data on your device if you don't back it up.
As for the wireless security: WEP is extremely insecure. It has been proven insecure for many years, and has been replaced with the WPA (okay but obsolete now) and WPA2 (best current router security) protocols. Cracking WPA/WPA2 is much more difficult, as it requires a password cracking program and a wordlist to crack downloaded traffic obtained from the network, which can take days of cracking, sometimes ending in failure regardless. Unlike WPA/WPA2, WEP is much more vulnerable to many different attacks, from programs like aircrack-ng, which are free and readily available. If you don't believe me, check out this video of WEP being cracked on a test router, with the Backtrack 4 Beta security Linux distro, in as little as 2 minutes. MAC addresses and IP addresses can also be grabbed with many readily available tools, and the MAC can then be spoofed quite easily with free programs. And even a hidden SSID can be grabbed with a program like Kismet, which scans all wireless network traffic in an area (regardless of the network it's on) and can grab the hidden router's SSID during the handshaking process (when a client computer connects to the router). If you're absolutely positive that your network can't be detected from any public road (as in, there's no signal whatsoever), you're probably okay and can probably sleep safe at night. But, unless you have old equipment/software which doesn't support WPA2 or WPA, I'd recommend upgrading to the latest WPA2 security (if you're really concerned about security/privacy).

I really appreciate your help!
The Tilt 2 is a week old -- it was a birthday present. Am I correctly understanding that I could flash a custom ROM & then flash back the original if I don't want to void the warranty?
If so, playing with different ROMs would be something I'd be interested in doing . . . I just don't want to void the warranty in case there is something wrong with the phone. I had lunch with a friend with an AT&T stock Fuse (I think) Thursday, and we were playing with each other's phones. I can't say that I noticed her Internet was any faster (I wasn't really paying attention), but she was quite surprised that both IE & Opera failed to display a complete page until the screen was touched. On my end with her Fuse, Web pages opened completely with no fuss.
So, the whole "hang" thing makes me very nervous, particularly with the "out of memory" error message with nothing other than Contacts on the phone yet -- I've not even bothered to configure email (my lifeline). I was hoping the Web interface (I have IMAP) would work OK since that was one of my big beefs with the iPhone -- the onscreen keyboard just didn't work for me. But, with The Tilt 2 taking over 60 seconds to even get to my web-based Inbox, the Tilt 2 is gonna be a problem unless I can get that resolved. Hence my concern about not voiding the warranty.
You are correct: I do have older equipment that only supports WEP. My PDA & my old 8525. If I can get the Tilt 2 working well enough for me, I can rotate the older stuff out and go with stronger wireless security. I know my neighbors can't "see" my network, but I've never tested from the street behind my house since the closest neighbor behind can't see the network. However, due to the configuration of my neighborhood, I'd best check that street. <gulp>
Thanks again -- I really appreciate the help.

sslund said:
The Tilt 2 is a week old -- it was a birthday present. Am I correctly understanding that I could flash a custom ROM & then flash back the original if I don't want to void the warranty?
If so, playing with different ROMs would be something I'd be interested in doing . . . I just don't want to void the warranty in case there is something wrong with the phone. I had lunch with a friend with an AT&T stock Fuse (I think) Thursday, and we were playing with each other's phones. I can't say that I noticed her Internet was any faster (I wasn't really paying attention), but she was quite surprised that both IE & Opera failed to display a complete page until the screen was touched. On my end with her Fuse, Web pages opened completely with no fuss.
So, the whole "hang" thing makes me very nervous, particularly with the "out of memory" error message with nothing other than Contacts on the phone yet -- I've not even bothered to configure email (my lifeline). I was hoping the Web interface (I have IMAP) would work OK since that was one of my big beefs with the iPhone -- the onscreen keyboard just didn't work for me. But, with The Tilt 2 taking over 60 seconds to even get to my web-based Inbox, the Tilt 2 is gonna be a problem unless I can get that resolved. Hence my concern about not voiding the warranty.
-snip-
Thanks again -- I really appreciate the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, I'm glad I can help. Well, you're partially correct about the whole ROM thing. The deal is, your warranty is only voided if they know you put a custom ROM on it. If they don't find out (ie, you restore the ROM and SPL to their stock counterparts) you're good to go. However, you do technically void the warranty because you put a third party ROM. However, you can take it from me when I say it's almost 100% safe when you follow instructions and it's completely worth it. You get more features and stability with less bloat while using an unofficial ROM. Keep in mind that if the USB port goes bad, you can't restore the device to stock configuration, and you'll have to pay full price for repairs (unless you dispute the warranty violation in court, and try to prove that there's no way an unauthorized ROM broke the USB port). Otherwise, a custom/cooked ROM is completely worth it, and will greatly improve your whole experience over the stock ROM.

[Q] Why hasnt USB tether been hacked?

just curious, is there any particular reason why USB tethering hasn't been hacked yet?
i know there are app's but is there something at the core of the Android OS or HTC part of the OS that is completely blocking USB tethering without the hotspot function.
one would like to believe that, if a programmer wanted to, they could simply do a dump of their current system, then call Sprint and sign up for the hotspot, let it get initialized on the phone, then do a dump of the phone again and do a comparison.
and then shut off the service as soon as you are done using it.
Sprint will prorate the monthly fee if you dont use it all month.
Sprint sends something to the phone to say "Hotspot initialized, Hotspot Authorized" and there has to be something in the OS that is either altered or added that can then be emulated or spoofed in a rooted rom.
thats my thoughts on it.
is there anyone with the knowledge and not just b.s. talk who can actually answer this properly?
3rd party apps are fine but not when they have to be installed on the client side of the link (the pc)
the flipside is that you can simply keep it on your memory card and just pull it off the memory card and install it on whatever pc/laptop you want to tether to.
but again, a 3rd party application to do this i do not believe is needed.
Windows sees the phone as a internet device to be used, so whatever PDANet is doing, should be able to be done on the phone alone, right?

Google Tetherbot... Free, no software on host PC.

v_lestat said:
just curious, is there any particular reason why USB tethering hasn't been hacked yet?
i know there are app's but is there something at the core of the Android OS or HTC part of the OS that is completely blocking USB tethering without the hotspot function.
one would like to believe that, if a programmer wanted to, they could simply do a dump of their current system, then call Sprint and sign up for the hotspot, let it get initialized on the phone, then do a dump of the phone again and do a comparison.
and then shut off the service as soon as you are done using it.
Sprint will prorate the monthly fee if you dont use it all month.
Sprint sends something to the phone to say "Hotspot initialized, Hotspot Authorized" and there has to be something in the OS that is either altered or added that can then be emulated or spoofed in a rooted rom.
thats my thoughts on it.
is there anyone with the knowledge and not just b.s. talk who can actually answer this properly?
3rd party apps are fine but not when they have to be installed on the client side of the link (the pc)
the flipside is that you can simply keep it on your memory card and just pull it off the memory card and install it on whatever pc/laptop you want to tether to.
but again, a 3rd party application to do this i do not believe is needed.
Windows sees the phone as a internet device to be used, so whatever PDANet is doing, should be able to be done on the phone alone, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does the hotspot feature have to do with USB tethering?

you have to pay the $30/mth for the hotspot feature in order to enable USB tethering, it is part of the feature set and says so right in the description of the package.
that is why you get the Error 67 if you try to usb tether and have not paid for the hotspot feature.
tetherbot seems interesting but truth be told, again you are using a 3rd party app to initilize the connection, ADB.
i guess the next question would be, do you have to do the proxy setup everytime you usb tether? or just once?
it would only take 10sec to write a .bat file with the instructions, but i guess it comes down to why hasnt it been hacked to just run ... without all the other stuff.
again, Tetherbot is doing something that is opening the door to a final solution.
if its an app on the phone thats cool and i completely understand but having to alter the communction system between your pc and phone (by using adb to set a proxy port) seems wierd.
why the proxy settings. is port 1080 the only open port on the phone side of the link when usb is plugged in?
i could see that, but if 1 port is open, then they all can be openen, its just a matter of letting it.
i guess i dont see the need for the whole proxy system. shouldnt there be some command to just open everything up like it normally would be and not just one port?

v_lestat said:
just curious, is there any particular reason why USB tethering hasn't been hacked yet?
i know there are app's but is there something at the core of the Android OS or HTC part of the OS that is completely blocking USB tethering without the hotspot function.
one would like to believe that, if a programmer wanted to, they could simply do a dump of their current system, then call Sprint and sign up for the hotspot, let it get initialized on the phone, then do a dump of the phone again and do a comparison.
and then shut off the service as soon as you are done using it.
Sprint will prorate the monthly fee if you dont use it all month.
Sprint sends something to the phone to say "Hotspot initialized, Hotspot Authorized" and there has to be something in the OS that is either altered or added that can then be emulated or spoofed in a rooted rom.
thats my thoughts on it.
is there anyone with the knowledge and not just b.s. talk who can actually answer this properly?
3rd party apps are fine but not when they have to be installed on the client side of the link (the pc)
the flipside is that you can simply keep it on your memory card and just pull it off the memory card and install it on whatever pc/laptop you want to tether to.
but again, a 3rd party application to do this i do not believe is needed.
Windows sees the phone as a internet device to be used, so whatever PDANet is doing, should be able to be done on the phone alone, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just download PDAnet from the Market. USB tether no monthly charges.

v_lestat said:
you have to pay the $30/mth for the hotspot feature in order to enable USB tethering, it is part of the feature set and says so right in the description of the package.
that is why you get the Error 67 if you try to usb tether and have not paid for the hotspot feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not to be a pita - but I've never seen usb tethering in any description of the hotspot feature from Sprint, can you point it out? I've never had the need for either the hotspot or usb tethering, so I probably just glossed right over it.

I don't really see the need for him to point it out. If you are that curious, just go look... what he is telling you is correct. You cannot ICS without the $30 fee... hotspot OR tethering. (Unless it is hacked). I am pretty sure there is no confusion on the hack though. This is widely done with rooted phones. So it isn't a matter of people not knowing how... it is a matter of having the priv on the phone to do it. Without root, other 3rd party options are the only way.

edufur said:
I don't really see the need for him to point it out. If you are that curious, just go look... what he is telling you is correct. You cannot ICS without the $30 fee... hotspot OR tethering. (Unless it is hacked). I am pretty sure there is no confusion on the hack though. This is widely done with rooted phones. So it isn't a matter of people not knowing how... it is a matter of having the priv on the phone to do it. Without root, other 3rd party options are the only way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fair enough - the way he described it, I thought it was a sprint thing and not a hack. I was looking, but I was looking in all of the Sprint materials (website, user guide, etc) about the hotspot feature and wasn't able to find anything about it also allowing usb tethering - only the wireless tethering. I wasn't doubting him or anything. Like I said in my other post, I thought I just missed it since I never really looked into the hotspot feature before.

fachadick said:
fair enough - the way he described it, I thought it was a sprint thing and not a hack. I was looking, but I was looking in all of the Sprint materials (website, user guide, etc) about the hotspot feature and wasn't able to find anything about it also allowing usb tethering - only the wireless tethering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
technically it is a sprint thing and the phone has to be hacked to make it work.
the hack being rooting the phone.
Sprint locks the phones, so when you enable USB tethering on the phone, your PC sees it, calls it an internet connection at something like 460mbps (because its usb) and expects internet traffic in and out of that connection.
BUT
the phone checks itself and sprint, then says, oh wait, i dont have the hotspot feature enabled because i dont have the authorization key,,, so... no USB tethering, and here is your Error 67.
now the authorization key is just a theory but a legitimate one and one that is used daily on thousands of devices.
if it is all surrounding the hotspot feature, which it very well may be, then i guess finding a hack for the hotspot would be next. and not wifi tethering for root users, but a legit hack to the HTC/Sprint program.
usb tethering is available for paid app's or free apps that just make a proxy.
i guess my whole point is to just ask what is it about the usb tethering that isnt hacked to NOT give the error 67....
there is something there that can be bypassed or otherwise....

Instead of complaining that something hasnt been done or done fast enough for you, do a search!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712706
Quite active thread with the dev themselves posting often. It is close to being finished with a few kinks needing to be worked out.

superevilllama said:
Instead of complaining that something hasnt been done or done fast enough for you, do a search!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712706
Quite active thread with the dev themselves posting often. It is close to being finished with a few kinks needing to be worked out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where was i complaining? i think i clearly asked aplain and simple question.
i was aware of that thread until it was broken and not working (the tether function) then i moved on...
i am not sure why its in apps and themes where it should be more into the development section even though it clearly is an app
but either way i will investigate it more as i see there is more chatter about it working.

superevilllama said:
Instead of complaining that something hasnt been done or done fast enough for you, do a search!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712706
Quite active thread with the dev themselves posting often. It is close to being finished with a few kinks needing to be worked out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this doesn't work on froyo kernels ATM
and what he is asking for isn't a freaking APP READ he is asking about making a rewrite to the core of the phone to allow NATIVE tether without adding some kind of app to work around the issue.

Hey guys.... so
I've personally wanted this myself, yes there are other 3rd party apps, then you have to install their software on your machine...petty of me I know, but what can I say.
So after rooting with a bunch of ROMS on my EVO, I moved to FreshEVO which so far is my favorite.
Today I upgraded to v 3.4.0.1, according to the release notes, this has just what the original poster is after:
Changes from Fresh Evo 3.3.0.1 to 3.4.0.1:
* Based on a new Sprint OTA (3.30.651.2)
* New kernel by HTC (g0f673ed)
o Modified slightly to allow apps2sd and remount to work
o Has fps unlocked by default, straight from HTC's source!
* Upped MMS size limit to 5mb (thanks to calkulin)
* Added mod to prevent MMS from compressing image unless it's over 5mb limit (thanks to calkulin)
* Added mod to unlock Sprint wired tether so that you can tether straight through the normal USB menu when you plug in your phone (thanks to calkulin. If it's not working for you then you are probably missing drivers on your computer. Check device manager. Works on 3g or wifi only)
* Updated Wireless Tether to 2.0.5-pre-11
* Updated DarkTremor apps2sd to 2.7.5.2
* Updated Google Maps to 4.5.1
* Updated Google Search to 1.1.2
* Updated YouTube to 2.0.26
* Updated busybox to 1.16.0
* There were no radio updates or updates to any system apks or jars in this OTA.
* 3.4.0.0-3.4.0.1: Fixed a browser bug. Find the small patch in Fresh Updater if you were on 3.4.0.0 already
Just thought this may be useful for those who have not come across it as yet.
Cheers
Sheldon

Why is stealing 30$ a month from sprint OK, but movies/tv warez stuff is off limits?
I get that our phones have unlimited plans, but when your tetherd to a computer there is a huge difference in usage. If they dont have the 30$ tethering charge, then they cant make enough money to keep internet unlimited. If they cant do that then we just wont have unlimited data in the future.
Also how can this forum justify not allowing info on streaming movies, which would add up to the cost of a netflix subscription (9$), while at the same time allowing a practice that costs 3 times that AND will lead to the crippling of our data plans?????
Sorry to play devils advocate but this has bothered me for a while.

um, excuse me for being a party pooper, but it has been hacked. Look for caulkin's evo fixes. One of these is the usb and wifi authorization fix. It still can't work with 4g because the authorization is somewhere else with that, but it works both ways perfectly on 3g just as fast as without. U r welcome
dk

scev5 said:
Why is stealing 30$ a month from sprint OK, but movies/tv warez stuff is off limits?
I get that our phones have unlimited plans, but when your tetherd to a computer there is a huge difference in usage. If they dont have the 30$ tethering charge, then they cant make enough money to keep internet unlimited. If they cant do that then we just wont have unlimited data in the future.
Also how can this forum justify not allowing info on streaming movies, which would add up to the cost of a netflix subscription (9$), while at the same time allowing a practice that costs 3 times that AND will lead to the crippling of our data plans?????
Sorry to play devils advocate but this has bothered me for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've only used tethering to see how it worked once, when the device was still on 2.1, and then, 4G had that bug which allows it to run for free.....
Personally, I dont think that allowing tethering on the device would put much of a dent in Sprint's profit margin at all.
Wifi tethering allows you up to 8 devices, but split this on 3g or even 4g and your speeds are going to be anything but spectacular.......
Usb tethering limits to 1 device, but at higher speeds yes....still the bandwidth coming through to the phone I have found to be only for use in emergencies, since its by no means near my cable connection (even on 4g, since indoors my 4g strength is 1/5 bars).
Now if I'm travelling with a laptop, the first thing I'm going to do is go to a coffee shop, pay 4 or 5 bucks for some coffee and get a real connection, not rely on tethering off my phone.
If I was out in the middle of no where, the battery usage alone of the phone and/or laptop would not exactly have me sitting around for hours downloading gigs of data.
With as much as I use this phone (and I use it a lot), streaming, downloading roms, music, market apps, browsing, email....I still have yet to see my data usage exceed 300Mb per month.
Downloading on 4G for large files is acceptable, but the dent to my battery is such that it is not worth the effort, 3g is painful enough for large files that I feel like I'm still living in Africa (yes I'm from there with the good ol 56k modem).
I'm not supporting stealing at all, but if anything would hurt Sprints finances, it would probably be the ginormous amount of dollars they sponsor to things like nascar, not the small portion of subscribers that are technically literate enough to root their phones and get free tethering, let alone how much they would actually use it.

[Q] Bypass Incredible request for Phone Number

A friend gave me his used HTC Incredible. It is a Verizon phone however they are not my current carrier. I would like to be able to use this phone, with my WiFi connection, by trying out all of its features (those that don't use a data plan, etc of course).*
What has happened so far:
Got the phone and the power completely drained*
Recharged phone*
Upon starting up the phone listed 3 choices (I believe they were reformatting options)
I believe I chose "clear" or something similar, as I wanted my friend's info removed anyway
Phone now requests my (Verizon I assume) phone number before allowing me to access anything further. I noticed that there is a keyboard option when entering the phone number... Is there an access code that will bypass the phone's request for my number??*
Any other suggestions? Thank you, in advance, for your help with this. I'm baffled...
Sarah

Verizon Lumia 735 on T-Mobile - bad signal / no LTE after 10.0.14393.1593 update

So tantalizingly close to full functionality of Verizon Lumia 735 on T-Mobile network, but after a blissful full day of trouble-free operation, back to phone not connecting to LTE, with connection to lower-speed signal cycling on and off.
Timeline:
On July 23rd, had phone working well after upgrade from WP8.1 to 10.0.14393.1480. While travelling in Canada (home service is in US) phone continued to work well. Until I connected to hotel WiFi on 8/8, and - thank you automatic updates, and why can't I find a way to make hotel WiFi be seen as a metered connection?? - received an update to 1593. But that update didn't successfully complete due to me not being connected to WiFi when system restarted later in the day. Phone stopped working reliably at this point.
At home: fresh install of 8.1 via Windows Device Recovery Tool - phone functioned well, picking up LTE wherever present. Ran that for a few days without problems.
Upgrade (via regular channel - upgrade advisor app, phone update settings panel). After all updates successfully completed, phone was again running 10.0.14393.1593. Bad behavior immediately after 1593 update, but one more power off/on restored normal operation. I had a full day of excellent operation with this setup - in fact, stronger / more consistent LTE than I had been getting with 8.1.
...and then... nothing. Phone just stopped picking up LTE, is mostly without signal, and no amount of power cycling or soft resets kicks things back in line.
I've tried:
Added MMS APN as I had done in the past here. Didn't expect that to have an effect, and it didn't. But I had that change in place last time my phone was working, so what the heck.
Showed and then selected "4G only" as highest connection speed in SIM settings. (To make option available, used Interop Tools to add registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Cellular\MVSettings\IMSISpecific\Default\CellUX\HideHighestSpeed4GOnly = dword:0). With this setting in place, network search shows multiple LTE networks available. But selecting mine (T-Mobile LTE) still resulted in SIM settings showing "no network found" for active network.
Tried to get more detailed information via Field Test (enabled ##3282# as per here, for instance. Sadly, this appears to not be a functional option for my phone. Field test launches and gives me the "do not change any values..." warning, but after I click accept, it shows nothing other than the "field test" text at the top of the screen.)
I have only guesses as to why my phone went back to crap functionality after things went swimmingly for a day: background restore of earlier backup? Silent update of one or more Windows components a day after 1593 update was completed? Attempted silent update failed? When bad behavior set in yesterday, it was a few hours after I connected to WiFi - possibly relevant. Running Pasquale Pignataro's Device Diagnostics Hub always shows "Backup Assistant Plus" as one of the processes currently running. I'm guessing this is the non-functional Verizon thing I can't delete nor configure nor run from the control panel; but since it's a Verizon thing, it could possibly be messing with my off-network bliss? Or there is a Microsoft app/agent with the same name and it had a hand in my day-after-fix problems?
Wish my question could be more focused, but that's all I've got. Hoping some of you might have an idea of where I can start digging.

After hard reset, and turning off automatic app updates, phone did pick up LTE perfectly with 10.0.14393.1593 installed, and again worked for about a day before tanking. On the bright side, the loss of functionality isn't permanent, (though it's unpredictable and finicky). Basically: Once LTE is connected properly in one location, I have a very good chance of continuing to get LTE wherever I go. However, at any point, if/when I lose LTE signal, the phone can fail to see it for reconnection - it gets stuck cycling through none/2G/3G/none... for phone signal. I've had some luck getting it back into a good state with a soft reset followed by cycling the power on/off one or more times. Sometimes that puts things right for a full day or more, but sometimes (like just now), I get back into the bad state after a short time of having LTE. Might be tied to making a phone call.
This screams software issue to me, and my gut feeling is that it's Verizon-specific software that's likely to blame. I've so far seen and ignored updates for Verizon's backup assistant, and one other that's simply "name not available". Is there a known way to uninstall the Verizon apps like backup assistant? I haven't been able to find one with my searches. Happy to muck around in the registry, etc. as needed.

Wow, you know my pain. I recently (2 days ago) jumped from Verizon to T-Mobile (job related) and have the exact same problem. Go figure... Anyway, hoping someone may have had some luck looking into this, but I am guessing not. fingers crossed. I also have the Alcatel Idol 4S Windows 10 shipping, but hoped I could keep this one kicking.
Thanks for any help.

Which to root for hotspot?

Hello. Ever since switching to T-Mobile, I have not been able to get hotspot to work properly without limit the way it did on Sprint with an old rooted Galaxy S4. I have unlimited data without hotspot service added on and a second line that I always used to use for hotspot. I really need to be able to hotspot without using pdanet and other applications like that.
For this second line, I currently have the following phones that I can put on that line:
-Note 9 that is stuck partway through the root process (it is saying it needs version 8 of the combo firmware, which I can't find, so I'm hoping it's not a lost cause at this point)
-Nord N200
-Galaxy A32
Anyone know which would be the best candidate for this? I am also open to suggestions for getting another cheap phone to put on the plan if there is a different optimal candidate for hotspot. With the ones listed, I assume it will require root, and I've had a much harder time figuring out how to do that on these than I used to with older phones even after doing research here a bit ago.