Home WiFi Tethering Help

[ukefc]

Hi. I'm helping a friend, and I don't know a lot about Android.

He is staying with his mum who does not have home broadband, however he can just about detect my home wifi from his S4, but not his laptop. We thought we might have been able to connect his S4 to my home wifi and then tether his laptop to the S4.

I enabled the personal hotspot in settings and, sure enough, his laptop could connect to the phone. However in the personal hotspot mode it appears to switch off wifi as no networks are found. If I try to turn wifi on it says it must disable the personal hotspot.

Next I tried with the hotspot off but using the option to share internet by bluetooth. Despite being pared, there is still no internet connection.

Any help?

Thanks.

 

[svim]

For the situation you're describing, I'm going to suggest an alternative to using his S4 as a hotspot and focus more on your home WiFi. If he can '...just about detect...' your home WiFi network but his laptop cannot, it does sound like you're just far enough away that the signal is just marginally good enough for even his phone. The closer you are to your wireless router the stronger the signal will be, and the farther away you move from your router the weaker the signal -- lower signal equals lower transfer speed.
If your wireless router is on the opposite side of your house from where your friend is, would it be possible to relocate the router the closest side of your house? Or if it's in the basement, upstairs somewhere? Another suggestion is to build yourself a 'cantenna'. The antenna(s) on most routers are omnidirectional, emitting their radio waves out in a wide-ranging, spherical way. A cantenna is more directional, concentrating its radio waves in a more focused way so you have more control to aim it where you want.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Cantenna
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantenna
Also, if you have an older wireless router and you've been putting off upgrading it for no particular reason maybe now's a good time to do it. Lots of sales on them too since we're coming up on Christmas. Wirecutter has great in-depth reviews and this one on wireless routers includes not just their recommendations but lots of info on how they do their testing.
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/