How I used an outdated Android cellphone to repair my Wi-Fi

For those who occur to have an outdated Android cellphone mendacity round in a drawer or closet, the excellent news is that it does not need to dwell there in perpetuity. There are numerous methods to repurpose an old smartphone, all of which might breathe new life into that long-forgotten cellular pal of yours.

You are most likely accustomed to sure repurposing options, like utilizing your outdated Android cellphone as an exterior webcam, a safety digital camera, a dashcam, a storage drive, and even as an emulation machine.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 slightly under-appreciated: utilizing it as a makeshift Wi-Fi extender.

Conceptually just like information hotspotting, most fashionable 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 gadgets which have entry to the password. By reworking your outdated machine into an extender, you may enhance the attain of your web all through your own home, all with out having to dish out cash for a devoted exterior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, sometimes called 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 will be bolstered, eradicating lifeless zones or different areas with poor sign reception.

Wi-Fi extenders have been in the marketplace for a few years, they usually are available in all styles and sizes. 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. The truth is, 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 machine.

How do I flip my outdated Android cellphone right into a Wi-Fi extender?

Most up to date Android gadgets natively help the performance

To repurpose your outdated Android machine as a Wi-Fi extender, observe these steps: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. Notice that when utilizing this technique, your ‘prolonged’ Wi-Fi will seem as a definite community entity on different gadgets, which means it doesn’t show or join utilizing your current Wi-Fi community’s title or password.

As soon as you’ve got arrange your Wi-Fi hotspot, it is off the races. You may connect with your prolonged connection simply as you’ll some other Wi-Fi community, and, on some gadgets, a scannable QR code will 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 doable sign. I would additionally suggest plugging stated Android cellphone 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 outdated Android cellphone’s battery limiter setting if it has one. Most fashionable Android gadgets permit you to 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 cellphone supports passthrough charging, which bypasses the battery completely, I would actually suggest toggling that choice on.