a21 not connecting to the nework

[corvairbob]

i have a galaxy a21 phone. and it is connected to the meto pcs network thru the wifes plan, she got this for life plan added to her phone as an extra number and they connected that number to my a21 phone. i get unlimited calls texts and 2gb data

so today i managed to make it a hot spot phone to see if when we lose power i can use the phone to hook up to the internet just in case i have to check on whatever.

so today at the restaurant i tried to see my cameras and for the life of me i can't connect to them. but the wife can connect to them with her phone. so is this issue due to the for life plan? i kind of figure if i can get online with this phone using the hotspot i should be able to see the cameras. the wife's phone setting ar the same as i have mine set to.

when i turn on the tinycam app i get a no network message. so does anyone happen to know why? i even just turned on the hotspot and the lte is on but i do not see the 4g icon at the top notification bar. the wife's phone shows both the lte and 4g. so maybe this a21 is not an actual 4g phone. any ideas? thanks

 

[ocnbrze]

so which phone is the hotspot phone and which one were you trying to hook up to your cameras? i'm a little confused.

also 4g and lte are pretty much the same thing. lte is slightly slower than true 4g, however. so technically your phone is 4g.

who is your carrier?

 

[corvairbob]

ok lets start again. i have the galaxy a21 phone. that phone came from tracfone and was on their service. they unlocked it for me the first part of march. i could connect to the cameras if i used wi fi. i did not ever try using data on that phone with tracfone service as on tracfone that would cost me minutes or data, so when i was away from the house i used wifi. if it was available.

the wife has metro pcs and she upgraded her phone and they gave her a second line for 15$ for life no more payments to a new number in her old phone, so i took the sim out of her old phone that metro turned on for life and put it in my a21 phone, metro helped me set my phone up to that new sim they put in her old phone. her new phone is the tcl20 xe model. the old one was the lg acetel model

so today i took the a21 phone that is using the free for life sim and managed to get it to work as a hot spot as a test for the days when we are out of power so i can get online to check on power and whatever.

and then we went out to breakfast and at the restaurant, i turned off wifi on my a21 phone and tried to hook up to the cameras using the other settings on my a21 phone and i just could not get it to connect to them. the wife's phone was not connected to the restaurant's wifi so she had to use data to see the cameras with the same app i'm using, and she could see the cameras. so there must be some setting on the a21 phone i'm missing or metro will not let me see my cameras with that second free line? also i set my phone to the same settings she had on her phone. the same network the same data on and so forth.

also on the way home the wife's phone could connect to the cameras as we were driving but my phone still would not connect. and then when we got home i had 4 bars on my phone and it said lte and it still would not connect until i turn wifi back on.

so that prompted me to ask if it is the phone or the second line that i'm using the may not be able to use the data to see my cameras. according to metro pcs i have unlimited minutes and texts and 2gb of data use per month.

so that is why i asked to see if anyone here has an answer for this. if i have to get another phone then i will get one just like the wife has. i was going to try and swap sim cards but i think the phone IMEI number has to be registered on metro to the sim or it iwll not even work, i tried putting that free sim in this phone and it would not work until metro put the IMEI number to that sim card.

thanks

 

[corvairbob]

ok update i just tried it again by turning off the wifi and the wifi calling and it was working. so i wonder if it took time to have this phone make some type of connection to metro to get a file back that let this a21 phone work. i will test it later today as I'm driving to see if it works on the road? i will not be driving the wife will so i can test the phone. and let you know if it still is working for me.

thanks.

 

[corvairbob]

ok took a drive and the cameras did connect, not real great but enough for me to see cars going by the house and the dogs messing up the living room.
so for now i think it is doing about as good as i can expect for a free phone number and data.

thanks