Today I shared my smartphone hotspot with a stranger for like two minutes. When I got back home, none of my devices (which I had also connected to my phone’s data after sharing the hotspot) was able to connect to my wi-fi router, while they did connect with my phone. Restarting the router solved the issue, but it got me wondering: is it possible for someone to hack your phone and infect it with malware through tethering and for that to affect other devices you connect to your phone’s internet? On one hand I’m curious, on the other I’d like to be extra sure that nothing bad might have happened, although I did scan my devices and no malware was detected.
Thx in advance to anyone who’ll reply.
You answered your own question. Your devices were auto connecting to your phone instead of your router. Turn your mobile hotspot off on your phone if it’s not being used. Make your other devices “forget” the action if they don’t need it. Even if I’m on my gigabit wifi, if I forget that my hotspot is on and dont set it to manual join, then they’ll tend to connect to my hotspot regardless of which connection is superior.