Computer not recognizing hotspot please help with this

Ok boys need some tech help. So first I live out in the country so we don have Internet out here so I have to tether to get an Internet connection. I have a iPhone 4S it's brand new thats what I tether with. I have and older bout 3 year old dell mini 10... I can hook my iphone up to that with the USB and tether but on the mini 10 it won't let me use the wifi hotspot... Not sure if it ha those capabilities as it is a very plain computer but like I said I can tether flawlessly. The only problem is with that the connection runs slow on browser pages. Any other application such as chat or poker that needa a fast Internet connection works great but I have to keep refreshing the browser page but it will eventually work... Ten minutes later ill have to refresh again... Soooo I bought a brand new HP laptop... Only problem is it won't pick up my hotspot signal. I've called apple an AT&T and neither have helped... I turn on my hotspot and then go under wifi on the computer and it doesn't show up?? Can someone help??? What am I doing wrong... Also is there any other way to use the hotspot like manually set up a wifi connection??? Let me know thanks

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If I can't get it fixed today I'm just gonna drop my iphone data plan down to the lowest plan then but a wifi thing from AT&T which I don't wanna do... If anyone can fix this today ill Paypal you 10$ for you're trouble