[Trick] How to get hotspot working on the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 8

On the unlocked devices in Europe and Asia, you get this feature by default (enabled and working) where you can use the mobile’s data for sharing with other people, or give your laptop an Internet connection. However, that’s not the same in the U.S., where the carriers have blocked this on almost on locked cellphones.

Back in the day, when every single megabyte was metered by network carriers, the hotspot feature wasn’t really looked at under the microscope. But ever since telecom companies have begun offering unlimited data plans, mobile hotspot has not only been restricted but also barred from use on carrier-locked devices.

In regard to the Galaxy devices, users have been looking for a way to unlock the mobile hotspot feature for quite some time, and there has been some success. We’ve sifted through the user forums to bring you two methods that have been tried and tested to get hotspot working on the Galaxy S8 and other devices.

This guide was originally written for the Samsung Galaxy S8 (and S8+), but can be used for other Samsung devices as well, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Samsung Galaxy S9, and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus.


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Method 1: Using the QuickShortcutMaker app

  1. Download the QuickShortcutMaker app from the Google Play Store.
  2. Open the app and enter “test” into the search field at the top of the screen.
  3. Scroll all the way down in the results to find and select “test.LTEfunctionality”.
  4. Once the entry expands, scroll down to the last entry and tap on “try”.
  5. Navigate to the bottom to find the “APN setting” entry and tap on the entry that is already selected (blue dot).
  6. Scroll down to find “APN type” and make sure that you edit the one that reads “default,mms” and make it appear as “default,mms,dun”.
  7. Press the three-dot menu on the top-right corner and select the Save.

That’s it.

Try the hotspot now, it should work. Do let us know in the comments section in case this doesn’t help.


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Method 2: Enable hotspot using ADB

For those of you who aren’t able to make the hotspot work on your Galaxy device with the above method, there’s an intensive, yet effective way to get it done.

Step 1: Use ADB to disable DUN requirement

  1. Make sure that you enable USB Debugging on the device.
  2. Download and install ADB and Fastboot tool on your PC.
  3. Connect your Galaxy S8 to the computer using a USB cable and enter the following command in the terminal window:
    adb shell
  4. Once you’re inside the ADB shell, enable the bypass and disable the DUN requirement by entering the following command:
    settings put global tether_dun_required 0
  5. Now all you need to do is rewrite the DUN APN using the command:
    settings put global tether_dun_apn "APNDUN,n.ispsn,,,,,,http://mms.sprintpcs.com,68.28.31.7,80,310,120,,default,dun,mms,supl"
  6. If the command given above does not work, try the following two commands alternatively:
    settings put global tether_dun_apn "APNDUN,n.ispsn,,,,,,,,,310,120,,dun"
    settings put global tether_dun_apn "APNDUN,n.ispsn,,,,,,,,,310,120,,default,dun
  7. Turn off the Mobile data on your Galaxy device by using the Quick Settings.
  8. Now turn on the Mobile Hotspot, after which you can go ahead and enable Mobile data.

Step 2: Set up a custom DNS server

If the above works out well for you, then ignore this. However, if not, then take this is as an alternative for the step 5 to 8 in Step 1 above.

You can set up a custom DNS server for the mobile hotspot to work, depending on your network carrier.

Step 2.1 Fetch Google DNS or OpenDNS IP addresses and follow the instructions to set it up. If you need to specify a static IP address as well, enter the following commands in the terminal window:

IP: 192.168.43.XXX , where XXX is between 2 and 254
Gateway: 192.168.43.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 or /24
DNS 1: 68.28.31.30
DNS 2: 68.28.31.31

Step 2.2 If at any point you want to revert back to the default settings, you can use the commands below to do so:

settings put global tether_dun_required 1
settings put global tether_dun_apn null

Albeit these steps can be complicated, but they’ve been tested by multiple users and approved to work in most cases. If you still need any assistance with enabling the hotspot on your Galaxy device, be sure to hit us up.


Do let us know if you need help in setting up the fixing the mobile hotspot problem on your device.

Posted by
Husain

Sharing a love-hate relationship with Biotechnology in college, Husain moved on to his true calling of being a tech geek through and through. While briefly being persuaded by the iPhone, he made it back to the Android camp with the OnePlus One and has been a loyal comrade since.

1 Comment

  1. Thanks for the tip, but I am sorry to report that method #1 did not work for me on my S9+. The menu options are slightly different on my S9+ than you describe, but I found my way through QuickShortcutMaker to the default APN. However, Instead of “default,mms” my default APN was “default,supl”. Nevertheless, I changed it to “default,mms,dun”. However, but I am still unable to use my S9+ as a mobile hotspot. Although I can see my S9+ on the WiFi option list of other devices. the other devices will not connect. I had no problem using my S6 as a mobile hotspot, but my fancy new S9+ is a hotspot dud. Unlimited WiFi learly does not mean unlimited WiFi. Thanks dishonest carriers! Please charge me more instead of disabling features of my very expensive phone. I didn’t have time to try method #2. — Bill

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