Flag WiFi as slow on Android?

GeX · 30 May 2015 at 18:57

My home connection is slower than my 4G phone connection. When home I'd rather my Nexus 5 used the 4G for data rather than WiFi. I need to remain on my WiFi for Chromecast and other media control.
I recall Android flagging a WiFi connection as slow and not using it for Internet, can I manually force that anywhere?

demonix · 30 May 2015 at 19:03

As long as wi-fi is switched on and you are connected to a stable network it will prioritise all data to that connection regardless of the speed.

It will refuse to connect to a wi-fi network that is considered unstable (it has done that for no apparent reason on my device even though I was next to the access point) and as far as I know it can't be forced to do that unless someone else knows otherwise.

Orcvader · 30 May 2015 at 21:39

When Android flags a wifi connection as unstable, it basically does not connect to it at all.

There's no way of making the phone use your mobile connection while still connected to the wifi network. I know the recent Samsung phones can use both connections simultaneously, but other Android phones don't have this feature.

How fast is your home broadband? Personally I would stick to that even if 4G was faster, simply because latency will be a lot lower, the connection is more reliable, and if you have a data limit, it won't eat into that.

GeX · 30 May 2015 at 22:20

Home broadband is 12Mbps down, ~1Mbps up. I wonder if I could put the phone another SSID and not let that route to the outside. But would Android drop connection to that once it realises that there's no outside connection there?

4G signal is excellent and I have no data caps.

Orcvader · 30 May 2015 at 22:48

What phone do you have? Some will just stay connected to the wifi network, not budging to the mobile connection even if the wifi does not provide internet access.

Surely 12mb is enough for your phone needs at home

?

james.miller · 30 May 2015 at 23:07

GeX said:
Home broadband is 12Mbps down, ~1Mbps up. I wonder if I could put the phone another SSID and not let that route to the outside. But would Android drop connection to that once it realises that there's no outside connection there?

4G signal is excellent and I have no data caps.

I am in the same position. Home connection hovers around 12mb down, phone 30-40mb. I leave my wifi off St home unless I need something on the network.

Paracelsus · 31 May 2015 at 10:07

No way in Android itself, but a quick google found somebody on stackexchange suggesting this firewall app can do it - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netspark.firewall .

Read the description and it doesn't explicitly say it can, but it might be worth a punt. Texting etc must still use the cellular network when connected to wifi so it's not like the OS completely locks it down.

GeX · 31 May 2015 at 10:29

Orcvader said:
What phone do you have? Some will just stay connected to the wifi network, not budging to the mobile connection even if the wifi does not provide internet access.

Surely 12mb is enough for your phone needs at home ?

Nexus 5 running 5.1.1.

12Mb is *enough*, but I often upload from my phone and the ~30Mb upload is much more useful on 4G.