Phone stuck on 'Obtaining IP Address' when setting up WiFi hotspot with Internet Connection sharing

Question

Phone stuck on 'Obtaining IP Address' when setting up WiFi hotspot with Internet Connection sharing

Anonymous

In Windows 10, I have a working internet connection via Ethernet. My LAN subnet is 192.168.18.0/24, and my router assigns dhcp addresses between 192.168.18.2 and 192.168.18.254.

I have a WiFi adapter in my computer that I'm trying to use as a WiFi access point / hotspot. I've verified the adapter allows use as an access point. I've configured and used the same adapter running from a linux host and it works fine both as a client and as an access point. From this Windows 10 computer, I'm able to ping other devices on my LAN

I have been through the Windows 10 'hotspot setup' process many times, with many reboots and a 'network reset' in between, and every time I have nominally the same results... my phone can see the my hotspot SSID that is broadcast, and I can try to connect the phone to it. It appears to authenticate, but then goes into an "Obtaining IP address" stage, and ultimately fails to connect.

I've enabled 'Internet Connection Sharing' on my Ethernet connection, and set the 'Home networking connection' to the virtual adapter connection of my hotspot ("Local Area Connection xx").

I've also been through the following threads, and the same "fixes" that I see in here repeatedly don't make any difference on my setup...

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider\_wintp-insider\_web-insiderplat\_pc/mobile-hotspot-connections-are-stuck-at-obtaining/365b496a-14db-4bec-951d-08726752ce98

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider\_wintp-insider\_web/mobile-hotspot-connections-are-stuck-at-obtaining/365b496a-14db-4bec-951d-08726752ce98

I don't understand how this is even possibly going to work, as I typically will see the following (excerpts from 'ipconfig /all' output, after setting up my hotspot and Internet Connection Sharing....

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I218-LM

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-4B-4F-93-8F

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

...

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.18.24(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 22, 2018 4:44:22 PM

Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 23, 2018 4:44:22 PM

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.18.1

DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.18.1

...

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.18.1

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #2

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

...

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.137.1(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

...

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.18.1

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

The subnet that the hotspot is assigned to is 192.168.137.0... and DHCP is disabled for it... there is no default gateway... I don't see how my router is going to assign an IP address to a device that connects to the hotspot? At any rate, I can't ever seem to get an IP address assigned.

What am I missing?

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4 additional answers

Answer 1

The ip address 192.168.137.1 is assigned by Windows to the virtual adapter "Local Area Connection 11 and this is correct. The reason why that ip address is not present in the tcp / ipv4 protocol of the virtual adapter could be due to the new version 1803 of Windows but the mobile hotspot should work the same.

In that tab you do not change anything, leave everything as set by Windows ..

Try restarting your PC and then re-enable the mobile hotspot and try again.

If it still does not work, try to reset your network connections: Open PowerShell or Command Prompt and run as administrator, type the following commands by pressing enter at the end of each command line:

netsh winsock reset

netsh int ip reset c: \ resetlog.txt

netsh advfirewall reset

ipconfig / flushdns

ipconfig / release

ipconfig / renew

Close and restart the computer at the end of all the commands.

Then re-enable the mobile hotspot.

Answer 2

Hi HS_Rfbird,

first of all when using the Windows mobile hotspot function, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) MUST NOT BE ENABLED otherwise mobile hotspot will never work.

Disable mobile hotspot.

Then go to the Sharing tab of the network adapter connected to the internet and deselect both checkboxes and confirm OK.

Activate the mobile hotspot and check if your device connects to the hotspot.

What is the build or version of your Windows 10?

Answer 3

Hi HS_Rfbird,

I'm glad you solved it.

The commands for the network reset must be copied / pasted in the Command Prompt otherwise there is the probability of making mistakes. Of course, there are spaces, just copy them as they are written and paste them in Command Prompt.

No, your problem was not due to the interference of the wi-fi channel but to the fact that you had enabled ICS on the network adapter connected to the internet.

Thanks for your feedback.

Answer 4

Franco,

I went through the reset steps you sent above (I believe there are some extra 'spaces' in some of those commands). At first it again didn't appear to be working (got dhcp failure on my phone), so I also moved my router's wifi to a channel farther away from the one that my hotspot was coming up on (previously they were only 2 channels apart; I now moved the router's wifi channel 4 channels away). And then I started getting connections.

So perhaps the issue all along was too much interference from the other wifi channel? Or the reset did it and my phone just needed to forget some previous settings after the reset? Not sure, but now things appear to be working.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 5

franco,

Thanks for your reply... I tried your suggestion of disabling ICS from the Ethernet network adapter, and restarting the hotspot. But it didn't fix the problem of my device trying to connect to the hotspot... it still fails, with the mobile device indicating "DHCP_FAILURE" in its failure status.

My Windows 10 version is 1803 (OS Build 17134.48).

I'm not sure what my "Local Area Connection 11" TCP/IPv4 properties are supposed to be set to... currently when I look there, I see it set to 'Use the following IP address', but the IP address, mask, and Default gateway settings are blank. And when I turn on the hotspot, I see the IPv4 address that is assigned to my hotspot Connection is 192.168.137.1 ... not sure where that address is coming from?

If I try changing this to "Obtain an IP address automatically", it changes it back to "Use the following IP address" when I turn on the Hotspot, but it leaves the address, mask, and gateway fields blank... and then I again see 192.168.137.1 assigned as my hotspot Connection address, when I run 'ipconfig'.

If I try setting a manual address in the Local Area Connection 11 IP address / mask /gateway fields, and put in an address on my router's LAN (e.g. 192.168.18.11), then when I run ipconfig, I'll see two IPv4 addresses for the hotspot device, both 192.168.137.1 and the address I assigned, e.g. 192.168.18.11... but still, my phone won't get an IP address assigned and won't connect.

Any other info that will help diagnose this (route PRINT, etc.)?

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Phone stuck on 'Obtaining IP Address' when setting up WiFi hotspot with Internet Connection sharing

4 additional answers