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As a part of my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite saga, this time I decided to turn it to a WiFi repeater. As promised in an earlier Galaxy Tab 3 related post, I did some experimenting with my tablet. And to my surprise, the plan went accordingly and well. So keep reading to know how to turn Galaxy Tab 3 Lite to a WiFi repeater.
Motivation
As I have stated in previous posts my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite is already 5 years old and has not much of use anymore. It is painfully slow and most of the new apps either don’t run or run too slow. I’m pretty much disappointed with it and just trying all sorts of experiments with it to find a better use for it and maximize its usage. Although, I still once in a while use it to read some ebooks that I can’t read on my Kindle.
Anyway, this time I decided to turn my tablet to a WiFi repeater. I did that because I wanted to verify the problem of the slow internet connection on my Pinebook with my home WiFi.
So the plan was to connect my Pinebook to Galaxy Tab 3 WiFi which is extending my home WiFi.
Process of using Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 as a WiFi extender
I did some search on the internet to find the easiest and the most efficient approach. Of course, I also didn’t want to pay a single cent. I found a couple of applications on Google Play and tried some of them. Some worked and some didn’t. Those that were working came with limitations, especially on quota. For instance, an app was free only for the first 100 MB or something like that.
Disclaimer: Use these apps at your own risk. I am not liable for any damages to your device due to using the apps introduced here.
While I was in the trial and error process, I found two reasonably good applications NetShare, and NetShare+. Both are from the same vendor. The former does not require rooting but the latter does. I tried both and found both working with some limitations which in my opinion are bearable.
NetShare
Since this app does not require rooting it is a very suitable option for those who do not want to root their devices. The downside is on the client-side you need to configure the proxy settings. This is not a problem on laptops but could be problematic for some embedded devices. I managed to get it to work with my Pinebook and worked alright. But again I didn’t like the proxy configuration and since my device was already rooted I soon switched to NetShare+.
NetShare+
By contrast to NetShare, this app does require a rooted device. But its positive point is you do not need to set any proxy setting on the client-side. This is very convenient. The biggest limitation on this app besides rooting is the free version does not support all protocols. Don’t panic yet. It supports HTTP/S. But for instance, it does not support SSH. That shouldn’t be a big deal most of the time. And anytime you need a particular network protocol that is not supported by the free version of NetShare+, you can switch to NetShare.
My internet speed test on both of the apps was > 1 and < 2 Mbps give and take. This is acceptable, for me at least, given that we are dealing (1) with an old tablet and (2) weak WiFi chip of tablet with no antenna and so on.
Closing
For me using Galaxy Tab 3 Lite as a WiFi extender is a huge game-changer because after the experiment I have realized that the problem of slow internet connection of my Pinebook is because of my home WiFi router. And since I am not planning to change the router soon, I can use my Galaxy Tab 3 Lite as a WiFi repeater to have high-speed internet on my Pinebook.
