Have an previous Android cellphone sitting round? Use it to spice up your property Wi-Fi

Earlier than you throw away (or recycle) that previous Android cellphone, you could possibly make use of it as a Wi-Fi extender to your dwelling community. Android telephones can hook up with your property Wi-Fi community after which rebroadcast that sign as a hotspot. In impact, the cellphone acts as a easy Wi-Fi repeater, serving to push protection into rooms the place your router struggles to succeed in.

The setup is surprisingly easy. First, join the previous cellphone to your property Wi-Fi community. Then open the cellphone’s settings and search for a characteristic referred to as Cell Hotspot, Private Hotspot, or Hotspot and Tethering—usually these might be discovered underneath Web or Community menus. Flip it on and create a community identify and password. As soon as enabled, the cellphone will broadcast a brand new Wi-Fi community that different units can hook up with.

Remember that placement issues. It’s finest to place the cellphone someplace between your router and the world with weak protection. It wants a robust sufficient sign from the router earlier than it could possibly go that sign alongside to different units. You also needs to plan to maintain it plugged right into a charger too, since operating a hotspot full-time can drain the battery shortly, particularly in older telephones.

There are a number of limitations to this trick although. A phone-based extender gained’t make your web quicker, and it gained’t carry out in addition to a devoted mesh system or industrial Wi-Fi repeater. What it could possibly do is assist remove useless zones and get a usable connection right into a spare bed room, basement, storage, or yard workplace.

For a tool which may in any other case accumulate mud, that’s a reasonably helpful second life. As an alternative of spending cash on new networking gear, strive placing that previous Android cellphone again to work.

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