iPhone network location doesn't save when disconnected

[robsta76]

Hi guys.

I have an iPhone 4 which has internet tethering. I can either connect this via the USB cable or wirelessly via my intel 6300N wifi card.

When I connect to my laptop via USB cable, the 'Set Network Location' box comes up, which I select Home Network. It is simply named 'Network', but I then go in and change 'Network' to 'iPhone'. This then shows up in the Network and Sharing Centre as iPhone on a Home Network. This works perfectly, is super fast and when I'm finished, I disconnect the USB and shut down.

When I next turn on my laptop and connect my iPhone internet tether via USB cable, I am once again asked to ''Select a location for the 'Network' network''. Windows 7 netwkr and Sharing centre isn't recognising the same iPhone is connected and asks me to set up a home network again.

I've gone into 'Merge or delete network locations' and the original 'iPhone home network' is set up (not in use) as well as the new 'Network' location that it's asking me to set up. If I merge the second 'Network' and original 'iPhone network', this removes the second network and I'm left with the 'iPhone Home network (in use).

If I disconnect the iPhone and reconnect, it asks me each time to select a network location for the 'network' network. If I don't merge them, I end up with Network 2, Network 3, Network 4 etc all the while still having the original iPhone network not in use as well as any other not merged or deleted.

Can somebody please assist? Why won't it recognise the same iPhone as being connected and selecting the iphone home network that I set up and why does it keep asking me to create a new one whenever I connect?

This never happened before, with my laptop previously recognising the iPhone home network I originally created ages ago. There has been no significant updates or changes that I'm aware of, except that I updated my iPhone software, bt this has been done in the past numerous times with previous iPhone updates and hasn't happened before.

I have a Virgin wireless broadband usb modem, which the system recognises each time I connect it. It's only the iPhone connection that's not saving.
The iPhone network is 'unmanaged' but so is the Virgin Broadband USB.

I have a Pioneer Dreambook P170HMx running Windows 7pro x64. If there's any other details you need, I'm happy to supply them.

All I want is my system to save the network configuration and recognise when I connect the iPhone tethering that it's an already created iPhone Home Network.

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards, Rob.

 

[jhansen965]

The problem may be renaming your network 'network' to 'iphone'. Try deleting all your network locations that are related to the iphone, reboot your computer and iphone then try connecting them. Also try connecting wirelessly and see what happens.

 

[robsta76]

Hi jhansen965.

Connecting wirelessly through my 6300N wifi card always remains as iPhone, as it's been set up via the radio as such.

But, if I don't use my wifi car, bypass it and connect directly to my laptop via the USB cable, this is when it happens. Even if I don't rename the 'network' to 'iPhone', every time I do connect, a new network is created, respectively named 'network, network 1, network 2, network 3' etc etc. if I don't merge or delete them, I'd have a numerous amount of numbered networks for the exact same iPhone I am connecting.

In any event, I've completed what you suggested, I've deleted all existing network profiles and rebooted my laptop. When I connected my iPhone, a new 'network' was created. I then disconnected the USB cable and reconnected it and again a new network 'network 1' was created.

I have no idea why this is happening or why it's only recently decided to do this to me.

Hopefully I can find some generous wizard who has had this experienced and also had this fixed.

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers, Rob

 

[edvice]

Hi Robst76

I'm experiencing the same problem with USB connect (wifi ok), right after upgrading to ios5 - sorry I can't help, just want to add my experiencing the same problem. Hopefully someone has another idea as to a fix.
thank you,
Edmund

 

[robsta76]

Re: iOS5 installation

Thanks for replying. At least someone else has the same issue I am having.

This seems to have occurred at the time I installed iOS 5 so it's not a coincidence. This must be happening to all other iPhone users who use Internet tethering and have updated their iPhones to iOS 5.

If somebody comes up with a fix for this, can you please reply to this thread to help us all out.

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers, Rob

 

[benno007]

I'd really like to know if there's a solution to this as well.

It doesn't seem to be DHCP related, nor just disconnecting and reconnecting. For me its either long periods of being disconnected or restarting the computer that releases the iPhones network location :\

I have iOS5, iPhone 4 and Windows 7. And yeah, its only started happening since I upgraded to iOS5 as far as I can remember.

 

[NApelido]

Same problem...

Hello!

I have the same problem too and it started when I install the iOS 5 on my iPhone.

Does anyone has a solution?

Thanks,

NA

 

[crissi]

Greetings everyone!

the same issue here, exactly after iOS 5 upgrade.

any workaround?

thanks,
crissi

 

[adamh16]

Same here

Same thing here. Definitely iOS5 is where it started.

I use tetheing a lot too so it is really annoying.

Hope we find a solution soon

 

[benhouseman]

Same problem here...

 

[Reggie Duff]

Same

 

[mm42]

Me too

 

[norgus]

Same problem here too

I started getting this after upgrade to iOS 5.x.x. I am yet to find a solution out there and plan to talk to Apple about it, so will update with any progress.

There is another thread about this on the Apple Forum here.

 

[benno007]

Does anyone know if its possible to hack the registry on windows so that you can treat all new networks as 'Home' instead of Public? That may be easier, seeing as this computer is always on a home network... Cos I'm on network 111 for USB and 178 for WiFi, i'm thinking it'd just be easier to select default public, but then i can't share between my laptop and desktop and wd tv

 

[emy77]

Hi!

I have the same problem too. I'm on network 60 for wifi & 38 for USB. Here are my specs: iPhone 4, iOS5.0.1, used Personal Hotspot in conjunction with TetherMe (Personal hotspot doesn't show if TetherMe is not installed)

Other info:

1) While on iOS4.1 (didn't upgrade to the subsequent iOS4.2 & 4.3 etc), I used MyWi 4.0

2) After upgrading to iOS5.0.1, I used MyWi 5.0 but stopped using it after the trial expired. Then, I used Personal Hotspot (in conjunction with TetherMe)
I'm not sure whether any of the above could be the reason this is happening
Hope there's a fix for this soon.
Thank you
Regards,

 

[benno007]

It's weird, AVG is saying my iPhone has a new MAC address every time I connect. I thought MAC addresses were meant to be unique to each physical device? How on earth does it change every day...

 

[mail2diptesh]

Same Problem

I am facing the same problem. Just wanted to subscribe here and see if I find any solution.

 

[Spencer Flibble]

Hi, I can give a little insight in to why this is happening. Sadly, I can't give you a solution. Perhaps my insights might provide someone with some idea for a solution.

I have been tethering my iPhone 4 to my Windows 7 PC for some time. When I used iOS 4.x, the network identification was consistent with the USB cable. That is - the first time I connected it, I renamed the connection to give it a meaningful name (not just "network"). I even changed the icon to be an iPhone. Windows correctly identified the phone as the same connection every subsequent time I plugged the phone in.

Something changed with iOS 5.0.1. The problem with iOS 5.X, as described in previous comments is that each time the phone is re-connected, Windows 7 fails to recognize the phone as the same network it was previously connected to. After a bit of digging, I know why this is happening. Windows 7 goes through a series of tests when it connects to a network to try and identify it. If the network is "managed", that is it's part of a windows domain, then there's one set of criteria involving the name of the domain. That isn't the case here, the iPhone tethered connection is considered an "unmanaged" network.

What it boils down to is that windows looks at the MAC address (the hardware address) of the network interface that's acting as the default gateway for the network. Every time it connects to an unmanaged network like this, it looks at the MAC address. If it's already seen that MAC address before, it believes it's the same network that it was previously connected to.



It turns out that each time you connect the iPhone to the PC, the MAC address of the default gateway is different. I think it's random within a certain set of parameters. This is why Windows 7 keeps thinking it's got a different network.

If you want to know the details, or confirm this for yourself, read on..... here are steps to observe this effect for yourself:

1. Tether your iPhone. Give the network a distinctive name - say "Test12345" or similar.

2. Open a command prompt on your windows 7 PC - so type "cmd" at the run prompt.

3. Type:


ipconfig /all

(note, there is a space after ipconfig)

This will provide a LOT of information about your network connections. You are looking for the "Default Gateway" parameter. On my phone, the IP address of the default gateway is consistently 172.20.10.1, my PC gets an IP address of 172.20.10.2 in most cases.


4. Now, still in the command prompt, type:

arp -a

(note, there is a space after arp)

This shows the contents of the Address Resolution Protocol cache (ARP cache). Many of the IP addresses that your PC has connected to will be listed here, including the default gateway address. Along with the IP addresses, the MAC addresses will be listed.

The MAC address will be a set of 6 pairs of hexadecimal numbers. So as an example:



ac-de-48-7d-bd-2f

Remember, it's the MAC address of the default gateway you care about, NOT the MAC address of your PC's network card or similar. Make a note of the relevant MAC address.

5. Untether the phone. Wait a while (2 minutes ?). Tether it again. You should be prompted to identify the network as a new network. Give it a different name that's also distinctive (say Test23456).

6. Again, confirm what the default gateway IP address is (probably still the same as before, probably 172.20.10.1).

7. Type:

arp -a

(space after the arp before the -a, just like last time)

Again, to see the MAC address. It will be different. Probably the first 3 pairs of values will be the same as last time, but the second 3 pairs will differ.

Record this MAC address too.

Every single time I tether my iPhone, the MAC address of the default gateway always looks like this:

ac-de-48-XX-XX-XX

So only the last 6 digits change. So there are 16^6 possible combinations = 16,777,216. So even though it's random, you will statistically speaking NEVER hit the same MAC address you had before. If you kept connecting every 10 seconds, all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take over 5 years to exhaust every possibility.

7. Now close the command prompt and launch the registry editor. (regedit.exe). Navigate to this key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList


You will see two subkeys called "Signatures" and "Profiles".



First look in "Signatures", then in to "Unmanaged". Underneath you will see several (or many) further subkeys with very long numeric names. Look in each of these in turn, or search until you find the first MAC address you recorded earlier. Inside each of the numeric named folders, there will be a value named "DefaultGatewayMac". Against this will be the MAC address of the default gateway.

You should find an entry for both the MAC addresses you recorded earlier. It's because the MAC address of the default gateway changes that Windows thinks it's a new network every time.

I don't know for sure, but I'm willing to bet that in iOS4, the MAC address of the default gateway was a constant. It's probably something they changed to accommodate the improvements to the personal hotspot capabilities in iOS 5.x.

8. Now in each of the "profiles" that correspond to the MAC addresses, you will see a value called "ProfileGuid". Now look in the folder called "Profiles" that's on the same level as the registry as the "Signatures" folder. In the "Profiles" key, you will see subkeys corresponding to each ProfileGuid value. Look in the two subkeys that have names matching the ProfileGuid values from your two MAC addresses.

Note that inside those subkeys, you will see values called "ProfileName". Note that they have named like "Test12345" and "Test23456", the names you provided earlier.

So the net result is that the MAC address of the default gateway changes every time you connect, so Windows thinks it's a new network.



So great - what can the users do to fix this ?

I don't know. Sorry.

The only thing I can think of is a "brute force" approach to create every possible signature... so write a script to populate the registry with every possible signature....


ac-de-48-00-00-00
ac-de-48-00-00-01
ac-de-48-00-00-02
...
ac-de-48-FF-FF-FD
ac-de-48-FF-FF-FE
ac-de-48-FF-FF-FF


That would take HOURS to do even as a script and mean there would be 16,777,216 entries in the registry... so since each one is around 100 bytes of information, that would mean your registry would grow by 1.6 GB in size or so.... that's just not realistic.


So far as I know, there is no way to put wildcards in the signatures section..... pity..... If anyone knows how to do this, please let us know, that could be a solution.

The best fix would be for apple to fix the iPhone tethering so it has a consistent MAC address. But of course, even if they do build a fix in, we would have to upgrade the iOS version on the phone to get the fix. That would mean losing your jailbreak in all likelihood.

Any ideas ? Hopefully this at least explains why it's happening.
Cheers.