Old Android Phones Keep Home Routers Online in 3 Ways During 99.1°F Outages
Updated
Updated · ZDNet · Jun 29
Old Android Phones Keep Home Routers Online in 3 Ways During 99.1°F Outages
3 articles · Updated · ZDNet · Jun 29
Summary
Three router-level backup methods let an old Android phone keep a home network online during internet outages without changing Wi-Fi settings on every device.
99.1°F heat in the UK has coincided with power cuts and downed phone lines, prompting the setup as a fallback when the main broadband line fails.
USB tethering works if a router can detect the phone over its USB port, while Wi-Fi-as-WAN needs rarer WWAN support often found on travel routers or added via OpenWrt or DD-WRT.
Ethernet tethering is presented as the easiest, broadest option because it works with nearly any router WAN port, though it needs a USB-C-to-Ethernet adapter that typically costs $10 to $20 and may require separate charging.