Issues with Internet Sharing on Touch

magisterludi71 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-12-2008, 10:25 PM

I use Internet Sharing on my Touch (Sprint, with the latest quasi-official ROM) and sometime the connection seems to hang up for a long time (a few minutes). The browser on the phone works fine all this time and this makes me believe that it is somehow relate to the Internet Sharing/ USB connection. I run Windows on VMWare on a new MBP (Bluetooth PAN very slow, new MBPs have issues with it). I have PAM add on but I tested the registry change and the issue is independent on Phone as Modem or SPRINT PCS setting. Also, "Enable advanced network functionality" did not make make any difference. The ideal solution would allow me to connect my MBP via USB but apparently this is a big deal. Any ideas?
Thanks

brand · #2 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magisterludi71

I use Internet Sharing on my Touch (Sprint, with the latest quasi-official ROM) and sometime the connection seems to hang up for a long time (a few minutes). The browser on the phone works fine all this time and this makes me believe that it is somehow relate to the Internet Sharing/ USB connection. I run Windows on VMWare on a new MBP (Bluetooth PAN very slow, new MBPs have issues with it). I have PAM add on but I tested the registry change and the issue is independent on Phone as Modem or SPRINT PCS setting. Also, "Enable advanced network functionality" did not make make any difference. The ideal solution would allow me to connect my MBP via USB but apparently this is a big deal. Any ideas?
Thanks

I'm guessing it disconnects when the connection is idle for a while? You could use a keep alive program, or send a 1byte ping over the connection:

Code:

ping -t -l 1 4.2.2.1

magisterludi71 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 01:42 AM

Thanks for the reply. It does not disconnect, the IE on the phone still has internet connection while the laptop does not. It also takes about 1-2 minute after turning on "Internet Sharing" until the laptop gets connected. The network icon in the taskbar indicates a connection to the phone but I am only able to browse after the 1-2 minutes delay.

brand · #4 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magisterludi71

Thanks for the reply. It does not disconnect, the IE on the phone still has internet connection while the laptop does not. It also takes about 1-2 minute after turning on "Internet Sharing" until the laptop gets connected. The network icon in the taskbar indicates a connection to the phone but I am only able to browse after the 1-2 minutes delay.

Yes, but the internet connection sharing may deactivate... alright... so it's a bit of a long shot, just try to immediate send that tiny ping and see if it has an effect.

magisterludi71 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 04:04 PM

Nope.. Didn't do anything. In the meatime, however, I connected my Touch to my old laptop (an old Dell Inspiron 8600). I have to say I'm actually impressed how well tethering works. I guess this leaves only one culprit, my XP on Fusion on OS X. I guess somehow the usb connection through the virtual machine gets messed up and it takes a long time to recover. I tried to find a way to tether directly to the OS X using USB but apparently Apple was not as visionary in this regard. I think I found a lead for fixing the BT tethering problem (very slow, a known issue on the new MBPs), I'll work on it this afternoon and post a sticky if it works.
Please let me know if you have any idea of how to approach the USB via VMWare problem and thanks again for your help.

brand · #6 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magisterludi71

Nope.. Didn't do anything. In the meatime, however, I connected my Touch to my old laptop (an old Dell Inspiron 8600). I have to say I'm actually impressed how well tethering works. I guess this leaves only one culprit, my XP on Fusion on OS X. I guess somehow the usb connection through the virtual machine gets messed up and it takes a long time to recover. I tried to find a way to tether directly to the OS X using USB but apparently Apple was not as visionary in this regard. I think I found a lead for fixing the BT tethering problem (very slow, a known issue on the new MBPs), I'll work on it this afternoon and post a sticky if it works.
Please let me know if you have any idea of how to approach the USB via VMWare problem and thanks again for your help.

Hah! I don't know how well quadruple NATing works!

http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_con..._windows_linux
http://www.virtualization.info/2005/...ion-files.html

You can "research" more on "creating" an image file of xp on your desktop. Here's a screenshot:

magisterludi71 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 05:28 PM

Here's the speed test (XP/Fusion/OS X). Not too shabby IMHO but I'm really new to this.

This speed is probably too low for multiple NATing to be the bottleneck. I get a very similar number tethering directly to my old XP machine.
Thanks for the links!.

brand · #8 (**permalink**) 07-13-2008, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magisterludi71

Here's the speed test (XP/Fusion/OS X). Not too shabby IMHO but I'm really new to this.
<snip>
This speed is probably too low for multiple NATing to be the bottleneck. I get a very similar number tethering directly to my old XP machine.
Thanks for the links!.

Your connect is stable then? I'm confused.

magisterludi71 · #9 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 12:22 PM

The connection on my XP/Fusion/OS Xworks fine for a while and then it hangs up for 2-4 minutes. I ran the speed test while it was working fine. I suspect opening a new port or a new browser window can trigger the disconnect (for instance, almost every time I start a SSH session the thing will hang up) but I haven't rigorously followed up on this scenario.
I also looked into the BT PAN, I am reasonably confident that the BT driver on OS X 10.5 is junk. Hopefully the next patch will fix it.