This phone is broken (broken screen) and was given to me, so I figured I’d use it as a WiFi extender, but I guess I can’t.

  • zurohki@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    19 hours ago

    My phone will hotspot when it’s connected to WiFi. I can even tether it to a desktop PC and use it as a WiFi adapter.

    • forrgott@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      18 hours ago

      Well, technically that’s not a “hotspot”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it’s a Wi-Fi extender.

      • kernelle@0d.gs
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 hours ago

        I’ll have to disagree on that one, WiFi extenders extend an existing network, keeping the same network and DHCP is done by the original access point.

        A hotspot creates a new network, and DHCP is handled by the hotspot, not the network on the WAN side.

      • m-p{3}@piefed.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        18 hours ago

        And a poor Wi-Fi extender as well, since you halve your network bandwidth by using an extender with a single radio chip.

        • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          17 hours ago

          I’ve only seen that option on phones with two radios, it uses the 2.4GHz radio for one connection and the 5GHz radio for the other

          • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            8 hours ago

            I am not entirely sure what kind of radio fuckery happens, but my phone (Oneplus 6 with LineageOS) can be connected to a 5 Ghz wifi network and have a 5 GHz hotspot open at the same time.

            I am assuming the wifi chip has two (or more) somewhat independent frontends, since my home wifi and the phone hotspot are on two different 5 GHz frequencies.

          • forrgott@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            16 hours ago

            That’s kinda required. I doubt one antenna can simultaneously send and receive.

            Anyway, there’s still only one controller, so your bandwidth is still halved.

              • forrgott@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                12 hours ago

                Oh, I should clarify; this is more than send and receive - there’s some amount of network routing involved with being a Wi-Fi extender or relay or whatever.

                What I probably meant to say is one antenna cannot send/receive simultaneously on more than one network.

                But, yes, duh, thank you for calling me out on that one!

            • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              8 hours ago

              I am not sure if the bandwidth is really limited by the controller, or by the modulation / signal-to-noise ratios in practical scenarios.