Sometimes your wireless network can seem to make things harder rather than easier. If your signal is poor you might as well be on dial up and if it’s bad enough it can keep dropping out. One short term fix has been the idea of using an Android WiFi repeater app.
What is a WiFi Repeater?
A wireless repeater does exactly what the name suggests. It takes an existing WiFi signal and ‘repeats’ it creating a second point of access. The point of this is that if you have a poor signal strength to the original source of the wireless network (the wireless router or access point) the repeater can be placed closer allowing you a stronger signal.
This is commonly done around homes and offices to improve wireless signals in areas where you normally have a weak signal or dead zone. The idea of using an Android phone as a replacement is normally more of a temporary setup.
Using an Adroid WiFi Repeater App
At the moment there is no currently working app for this. The closest you can possibly come is connecting your phone to an internet connection (or using the wireless data connection on your phone) and tethering it to create an access point out of your phone. But it just doesn’t have the ability to take an existing signal and repeat it again.
Alternatives
But just because an Android phone can’t do it doesn’t mean the technology doesn’t exist. Wireless repeaters have been around for a while now (long before the Android) and while they might not be small enough to be carried around in your pocket and make calls they can certainly improve your wireless signal.
Whether you’re in an office, a house or hanging out of your window trying to get a better wireless signal to a wireless hotspot a repeater can help you out. By placing the repeater close to the hotspot allowing it to get a signal you can then connect to the repeater itself which will give you the same signal strength in the surrounding area. So then, for an example, you would get a connection around your hose for the HotSpot on the other side of the street.
It’s really just as well that the Android doesn’t have the functionality. It would be nice for a portable option but it wouldn’t get anywhere near the same kind of signal strength as a proper one built for the task. The only thing worse than no WiFi signal at all is one which frustrates you by constantly cutting out.
So get something made for the task and go for a real repeater. They’re easy to setup and provide a strong signal boost. You can take a look at our WiFi repeater page for the overall options or go straight for our current #1 best WiFi repeater review instead.
