Late reply of mine. Quite busy last week.

The immediate need for the hotspot have reduced as I have now setup the WiFi at the house, and using the Air in a daily basis. But I will still want to troubleshoot and be able to use hotspot mode.

I can see the Axiomair as WiFi. But I cannot select the Wifi to work without internet, then I am no able to use email or online music sources. There is no dialog asking to use that network without WiFi. That is the functionality I would like to recover.