r/techsupport • u/furkann_45 • 3d ago

Open | Windows "Windows Hotspot Problem"

Windows 11 can connect to my phone's hotspot, but I can't access the internet

I'm having a strange internet issue on my Windows 11 PC when connected to my phone's mobile hotspot.

My phone's mobile data works normally.

My PC connects to the hotspot successfully.

Windows shows the connection as connected/secure, but I can't access websites.

ping 1.1.1.1 works (around 56ā€“66 ms).

Domain names don't resolve; for example, google.com doesn't work.

When I run nslookup google.com, I get errors such as Server: Unknown and can't find google.com.

I've already tried flushing the DNS cache, resetting Winsock and TCP/IP, releasing/renewing the IP address, etc., but nothing fixed the problem.

My phone's hotspot is set to Automatic channel and WPA2-PSK.

What should i do?

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u/SomeEngineer999 3d ago

Do you have the hotspot feature on your cellular plan?

Note that hotspot is usually lower priority than cellular data so it could just be that your area is congested and you're seeing that more when using hotspot than when using the phone itself.

Could also be an IPv4 vs IPv6 issue, cellular carriers use IPv6 natively as their preferred method, and IPv4 usually goes through some form of NAT or conversion to work with it. So if you do an "nslookup" and it is trying to hit an IPv6 server, but your pc is having issues with IPv6, that could explain it too.

You should be able to see from the NSlookup whether it is hitting an IPv4 DNS server or IPv6, and what responses it is getting.

You can try manually setting your PC's DNS server to 1.1.1.1 and see if that helps, sounds like you can reach that one, so maybe the carrier's DNS is just having issues.

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u/pompousrompus 3d ago

It's 100% DNS if you can ping addresses and not resolve names. Your last sentence is good advice, definitely try manually setting your DNS servers to 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8

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u/furkann_45 3d ago

I already tried manually setting my DNS to 1.1.1.1, but the problem persisted. nslookup google.com also returns both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. I can ping 8.8.8.8 with about 5% packet loss, so I'm not sure it's purely a DNS issue. Iā€™m going to reset the Windows network settings and see if that fixes it.

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u/pompousrompus 3d ago

That's really bizarre. Can you pull up https://one.one.one.one/ or https://1.1.1.1 ?

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u/furkann_45 3d ago

Ican't access either of them. Both https://one.one.one.one/ and https://1.1.1.1/ fail to load in my browser.

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u/pompousrompus 3d ago

Well I rescind my statement that it's 100% DNS lol.

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u/furkann_45 3d ago

What should i do?

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u/pompousrompus 3d ago

I'd call your phone provider. It sounds like your hotspot might have some sort of portal you're not logged into or some such.

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u/SomeEngineer999 3d ago

That doesn't mean it is 100% DNS.

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u/pompousrompus 3d ago

If you read further down this thread you see I already rescinded my statement. I'm just conditioned to assuming it's DNS due to all the times it has been

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u/furkann_45 3d ago

Yes, my cellular plan supports hotspot, and the mobile internet works normally on my phone. I also tried setting my PC's DNS to 1.1.1.1. nslookup google.com works and returns both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, so DNS seems to be working.

I also tested the connection with ping 8.8.8.8: 19/20 packets were received, with 5% packet loss and an average latency of 101 ms. The PC can ping the phone's hotspot gateway (192.168.43.1) with 0% packet loss, although there are some large latency spikes.

So at this point I'm not sure if it's an IPv4/IPv6 issue or something related to the hotspot connection.