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Hyperman99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2023
8
3
Strange issue. I know there is an Apple suugested work around on this but I am curious to know if anyone has experienced this. I have a MacPro M1, running latest software. The past 5 years I had an iPhone SE, when I needed to connect to it as a hotspot, not problems! The SE died in May of this year (5 years to the day I bought it!) and I replaced it with a 16E. Swapped SIMs, otherwise everything the same. WHen I went to use the hotspot a few weeks ago, Macbook connects, but no internet. I tried my iPadAir with the 16E, no problem! I have an old 2015 Mac (running a few versions of sw behind) and it connected to the 16E and had internet. I looked at the details of that connection, when connected to the 16E it had a 172.x.x.x IP (Private IP, dynamic DHCP). going back to the M1 Mac, when connected to the 16E I had a 192.168.x.x IP. To get things working, I set the IP manually to a 172.x.x.x IP and everything worked. Going back to the home router, I had to reset back to the 192.x.x.x IP. SO I have a work around, but it is annoying. Had anyone else experienced this, if so, is there another solution? This was the suggested solution in Apple community .. I have not tried this (I don't want to screw up my home internet connection but perhaps I am being too cautious on this) https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250721256?sortBy=rank
 
You've explained the problem perfectly and it is that the Mac is not getting the correct DHCP. The problem isn't at the phone end but you've been tricked into thinking that because it's the phone that's changed
Typically is should be 172.20.10.1 as you have discovered and that works as you've found out
If it's being assigned 192XXX then it's not getting an IP from the phone it's either falling back to a previously cached manual setting or is self-assigning from a remembered configuration i.e the problem is with the mac and as you've seen other devices work with the phone.
So what should work is go to system settings on the mac (system settings>network>wifi) find the hotspot and 'forget this network'.
Refresh, let it find it and sign in again and it should get an assigned IP which will work.
 
Thanks. I thought I had done that but perhaps not! Just tried it and voila .. got the 172.x.x.x IP.. Many thanks!
 
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