How I used an previous Android telephone to repair my Wi-Fi

If you happen to occur to have an previous Android telephone mendacity round in a drawer or closet, the excellent news is that it does not need to stay there in perpetuity. There are numerous methods to repurpose an old smartphone, all of which may breathe new life into that long-forgotten cell pal of yours.

You are most likely acquainted with sure repurposing options, like utilizing your previous Android telephone as an exterior webcam, a safety digicam, a dashcam, a storage drive, and even as an emulation machine. However there are additionally a number of lesser-known choices on the disposal, together with one specifically that is fairly under-appreciated: utilizing it as a makeshift Wi-Fi extender.

Conceptually much like information hotspotting, most trendy Android telephones allow you to prolong the vary of the Wi-Fi community they’re linked to, blasting out a brand new sign that may then be tapped into by different units which have entry to the password. By reworking your previous gadget into an extender, you may enhance the attain of your web all through your own home, all with out having to dish out cash for a devoted exterior extender product.

What’s a Wi-Fi extender?

A tool that broadens the wi-fi attain of a given community

A Wi-Fi extender, also known as a booster or a repeater, is a devoted piece of {hardware} that captures an current Wi-Fi sign, amplifies it, and re-transmits it into the air. By doing so, the usable vary of a wi-fi community could be bolstered, eradicating lifeless zones or different areas with poor sign reception.

Wi-Fi extenders have been available on the market for a few years, they usually are available in all sizes and shapes. Some repeaters are extra inexpensive than others, with the high-end section of the market dominated by robust mesh network systems consisting of a number of extenders.

For essentially the most half, fundamental Wi-Fi extenders solely prolong the vary of a given community, with out bettering on efficiency itself. In truth, you may anticipate slower speeds when linked to a Wi-Fi extender than when linked to a router itself, particularly as you progress additional away from the latter gadget.

How do I flip my previous Android telephone right into a Wi-Fi extender?

Most modern Android units natively help the performance

To repurpose your previous Android gadget as a Wi-Fi extender, observe these steps:

1. Launch Settings.
2. Navigate to Community & web > Hotspot & tethering > Wi-Fi hotspot.
3. Subsequent, toggle on Use Wi-Fi hotspot.

From right here, you may configure the title of your Wi-Fi hotspot, change its password, modify velocity and compatibility settings, and extra. Observe that when utilizing this technique, your ‘prolonged’ Wi-Fi will seem as a definite community entity on different units, that means it doesn’t show or join utilizing your current Wi-Fi community’s title or password.

As soon as you have arrange your Wi-Fi hotspot, it is off the races. You may connect with your prolonged connection simply as you’ll every other Wi-Fi community, and, on some units, a scannable QR code could be generated for even faster pairing.

You will have to experiment with the exact placement of your Android-phone-turned-network-extender, to seek out the spot that produces the strongest potential sign. I might additionally advocate plugging mentioned Android telephone into energy to make sure it stays on-line — Wi-Fi hotspotting consumes extra energy than idle, and so your battery will drain over time.

To avoid battery wear-and-tear, and to additionally cut back warmth manufacturing, I like to recommend turning in your previous Android telephone’s battery limiter setting if it has one. Most trendy Android units let you set charging to cease at round eighty p.c, which ought to assist protect battery well being in the long term whereas remaining plugged in to the wall. In case your telephone supports passthrough charging, which bypasses the battery solely, I might actually advocate toggling that possibility on.