internet-sharingiphonetethering
Sometimes when I share my Internet network from my iPhone 6 Plus to other devices via Wi-Fi, the status bar shows '3 connections' when I really know that I only have 2 connections: sometimes I get one phantom connection to my iPhone (I guess) via Personal Hotspot.
Why does this occur and how can I prevent it?
If you plug any cellular enabled iOS device with Personal Hotspot turned on to a Mac via USB, the Mac will automatically open a network connection using the Personal Hotspot.
So yes, your Macbook Air will be the 1 connection you see.
The second part of your question is a little trickier and the answer is both complex and confusing but I will try to explain as best I can.
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Based on older knowledge with other multiple interface *nix systems is that it will be a complete toss up as to which connection your Mac will use since both active connections could possible provide the same route to the destination for any network query.
I have even seen, on both Windows and Unix networks, traffic coming in on one network connection and going out on another, which rarely works well.
To get round this, in the Network panel you could disable the "iPad USB" in your default location, but then set up a new location where your "iPad USB" is not disabled.
Finally, the order of your devices should mean that if your wifi is above the iPad USB device in your list when both are enabled, it will get priority over the hotspot, but there are still caveats and this could still use cellular data, but of a lesser amount.
The answer is 172.20.10.1
Found this out by checking out the gps2ip settings and saw there were some provisions for using a personal hotspot and it told me there. You have to tell gps2ip to pipe over the hotspot from within the app to make it work regardless.
Best Answer
Yes indeed if your phone is connected to the computer not necessarily in order to sync, it counts it up. You can easily check by looking at the blue bar with the count on it, unplugging the phone and waiting for the change. Then plug it back in. It confused me as well because I plug my phone onto a desk stand for charging so I hadnt noticed. One day the office internet was out and I shared my hotspot to my laptop and noticed the count of 2.
You might also have a device lying around that you might have forgotten about, like an iPad in your car near your window or an old phone in your desk drawer. That happened to me once :-)