Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia 1520 Group Messaging issue

Recently I had an issue with a Lumia 1520, running Windows Phone 8.1, where my text messages sent to a group text were immediately sent back to me, in addition to the group.  My phone number would be added to the group text and I received each and every text that I sent, as well as those from the members of the group text.  It was more than annoying. 

After doing some research, I found out how to stop this from occurring; the steps are below.  I've already had to apply this "fix" at least three times over the past three months, so I know it works, but I'm just not sure why it happens in the first place.

Here are the steps to correct the issue:

1. On your phone, go into Settings
2. Swipe right to the "applications" tab, and select "messaging"
3. Turn off Group Text by unselecting the option
4. Restart your Lumia 1520 by holding the lock button - camera button - and volume down button at the same time until your phone vibrates and restarts.
5. Once your phone restarts, go back into Settings and turn Group Text back on.
6. I then delete any group text threads where my phone number appears as a recipient.

Again, not sure why this happens, but it started happening in October 2014 and has occurred about four times since the time of writing this post.  I am part of the Developer Preview program so it may have something to do with that, but hopefully it is fixed before the next official OS release / update.

I'm running Windows Phone - 8.10.14219.341, with Lumia Cyan.  Anyway, hope this helps someone else.

Windows 8.1 BSOD while connected to my Nokia Lumia 1020 on internet sharing

A few weeks ago I was still running the Windows 8.1 Preview and my laptop would BSOD (blue screen of death) within a few minutes after connecting to my Nokia Lumia 1020 in internet sharing mode.  I thought that maybe it was due to the Windows 8.1 Preview bits, so I just stopped tethering until I installed the release version of Windows 8.1. 

I upgraded to the full release version of Windows 8.1 last week and decided to see if the tethering was still an issue.  I connected to the Nokia Lumia 1020, and within a few minutes BAM!  BSOD.  So, it was definitely not an issue with the preview.  I started doing some research and found that the issue resided within the Network Connection properties of my tethered session with the Lumia. 

The short fix is that you need to enable FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) on the Wireless Properties of the connection to the Lumia.  The only problem is that the only way to set this property is to actually connect to your Lumia, which can be an issue when your machine will BSOD when you connect to you Lumia.  So, after a few crashes, the machine stayed connected just long enough to allow me to get to the settings. 

Here are the steps for enabling FIPS:

• Enable Internet Sharing on your Lumia
• Settings
• System
• Internet Sharing
• Toggle the sharing option to ON.
• Remember your Broadcast name and Password on this screen as you'll need it when connecting on your machine
• Tethering to your Lumia on your Windows 8 / 8.1 machine:
• Left click on the network icon in the system tray, and the list of available connections are shown on the right side of your screen.  Click on the network connection with your Nokia Lumia broadcast name, and then click connect.  You will need to enter the password for your phone's tethering (if you haven't done this previously)
• At this point your machine is connected, and it may or may not BSOD immediately or it may BSOD within a few minutes.  The point is to not waste any time with the next set of instructions, it's now a race against time.  :)
• Setting the FIPS property:
• Left click on the network icon in the system tray and select:  Open Network and Sharing Center.  You will see your network connection on this screen.  Shown below is the network information for my internet connection with my Lumia:

• You will now want to left click on the blue text (shown above as Wi-Fi (Nokia XXXXXXX), this opens the Wi-Fi Status screen shown below, click on Wireless Properties

• On the Wireless Network Properties screen, click on the Security tab (shown below), and then click the Advanced Settings button.

• Finally, this is the screen that allows you to enable FIPS on your network connection.  Hopefully you were able to get to this screen on the first try before your machine BSOD a few times.  :)

• Simply check the Enable Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance for the network, and you should never see the BSOD again when tethered to your Nokia Lumia.