Hotspot not working

[Zachwashere936]

Hello to all and I apologise in advance if this is not the right place to post this question. I have the highest priced plan with MetroPCS because I use my phone as a mobile router for my other devices. Everything has worked flawlessly for months but after paying my last bill I seem not to be able to access the internet via hotspot on any other devices.

I've tried troubleshooting this with my laptop. I've connected to WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth hotspot, USB hotspot all at both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bandwidths.I deleted and recreated connection information every time. I deleted mobile hotspot data on my Moto E each time and reset it. I've restarted both devices. Nothing has worked yet.

The curious thing is that I can connect to hotspot via wifi, Bluetooth or USB just fine, and when pinging a website from command line it very clearly shows DNS routes are getting resolved. The IP address is displayed for the site I am attempting to ping, but I always get consistent 100% packet loss.

Sorry for the long winded question, but has anyone ever experienced this, and if so what steps did you take to resolve it? Thanks in advance!

 

[svim]

Is your Moto E phone the original 'E' from 2014:
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_e-6376.php
or the re-released 'E' from 2020?
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_e_(2020)-10287.php
Depending on which model, since you were able to use your hotspot without issues before but not lately and given all the things you've already tried, it might not be so much a local issue (the devices you connect to your hotspot WiFi), but some kind of change on Metro's end. It's your mobile data connectivity (cellular) that provides a signal for any online access when a hotspot is enabled. That older model might be having issues with a change in T-Mobile's cellular network (Metro being a MVNO tied to T-Mobile).
Or you might want to look into your phone's APN settings. Try creating a new APN entry, switch your phone to that new APN, restart your phone, and see if that makes any difference. (link below from Metro's web site)
https://www.metrobyt-mobile.com/sup...altroubleshootingwebaccessissuefromapnaddress

 

[Zachwashere936]

Is your Moto E phone the original 'E' from 2014:
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_e-6376.php
or the re-released 'E' from 2020?
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_e_(2020)-10287.php
Depending on which model, since you were able to use your hotspot without issues before but not lately and given all the things you've already tried, it might not be so much a local issue (the devices you connect to your hotspot WiFi), but some kind of change on Metro's end. It's your mobile data connectivity (cellular) that provides a signal for any online access when a hotspot is enabled. That older model might be having issues with a change in T-Mobile's cellular network (Metro being a MVNO tied to T-Mobile).
Or you might want to look into your phone's APN settings. Try creating a new APN entry, switch your phone to that new APN, restart your phone, and see if that makes any difference. (link below from Metro's web site)
https://www.metrobyt-mobile.com/sup...altroubleshootingwebaccessissuefromapnaddress

Thanks for your answer and sorry for not checking back in sooner. I will check the APN settings and try what You've suggested. I'm relatively sure my phone is later than 2014 as I bought it new in 2020, but I will verify that as well.

Thanks so much for the feedback!

 

[svim]

This is a long-shot suggestion but you might also want to try just powering your E off, re-seat the SIM card in its socket, and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Zachwashere936]

Once again sorry for the long wait between updates. I've tried all of your suggestions(Thank you very much for all of your help, BTW) and nothing seemed to work. Just today I went in and paid my bill. I asked the employee that I talked to about the issue. At this point I had reached my wit's end(almost $100/month isn't worth it if I can't use the hotspot for my other devices). She informed me that it had been happening at an abnormally high rate as of late but she had no clue why. I decide to give fixing my hotspot issue one more try before I switch to another service provider and paid my normal rate. I get home after work and low and behold the hotspot is working again!

I'm still racking my brain to try and figure out what the problem was. Whatever it was, it has to have been on MetroPCS's end. Maybe it is due to T-Mobile(their parent network) going 5G, or employee error or something else entirely. Either way I'll give it another month and if this happens again upon the next iteration of my billing cycle I'll be switching to another provider. Thank you guys for the help and input!