Android, like any of the other mobile operating systems, has a wireless network assistant that allows us to easily connect to any network that is within our reach, however, the information provided by this assistant is quite poor, focusing mainly on the SSID and the approximate signal we received.
There are applications that allow us to obtain much more information about all the networks that are within our reach. These applications are called Wi-Fi network managers and WiFi Manager is one of the most complete that we can find for Android operating systems.
The main function of this application is to know information about all the wireless networks that we have at our disposal to connect to the best service can offer us and even to help us configure our own Wi-Fi network by choosing a channel that is not excessively saturated, however, will also allow us to perform other functions that we will highlight below.
We can download WiFi Manager completely free from the Play Store .
Analyze Wi-Fi networks within reach
Once downloaded, we execute it on our device and the first thing we will see will be a window similar to the following one.
In this window we will see all the Wi-Fi networks that are within our reach. In the right part we can see a graph with the signal that comes from each network (we can change the graph by the dB from the settings menu). We can also see the channel through which each network is transmitting and the type of encryption used by each network (open, WEP, WPA, etc.).
To the right of the SSID of each network we can see a series of icons:
- Heart: Indicates the networks that we have stored in our device and to those that we have already connected before.
- Green Tick: It indicates the network to which we are currently connected.
- Shield: Indicates a network to which we have not connected and which is protected by password.
Connect to a network and configure the IP of our Android smartphone
Once we have listed in the program the network to which we are going to connect, we must click on it to open the connection menu.
Here we must enter the key of our Wi-Fi network and click on connect to establish the connection.
One of the most interesting features offered by Wi-Fi Manager is the ability to establish a manual IP address when connecting to a Wi-Fi network. To do this we must check the tab "Show advanced options" and "Assign an IP. We will see a window similar to the following.
Here we must enter:
- IP address that we want to establish to our device.
- Subnet mask
- Gateway
- DNS
Then click on the connect button and our device will connect to the selected network with the specified IP address.
Choose better WiFi network if we have several available automatically
A very interesting feature for users who have several networks at home or work (for example, several access points) is to automatically connect to the best network depending on where we are. Usually Android automatically connects to the best network if we are not connected to any, but if we already have an established connection we will not change the network until we lose the signal.
WiFi Manager will allow us to choose the best network automatically and connect to it whenever a better network is found than the current one without having to do anything for it.
To enable this option we must open the settings menu and enable the option "Switch to a better network".
We can configure the time that a network must be available to connect to it (to avoid connecting simply by "passing in front of it") and the difference in signal that must exist to make the change and not connect to worse networks.
Radar mode of Wi-Fi networks
Finally, another function offered by WiFi Manager is to show all the networks in a kind of "radar" in which they will be displayed in their corresponding channels in the form of ellipses that will be larger or smaller depending on the amount of signal that come to us
In this way we can quickly know the best networks and the most saturated channels that will help us to configure our network in the best possible channel to avoid interference. In the previous photograph, for example, we can see how channels 4, 5 and 8 are the best to transmit.
Without a doubt a great manager of wireless networks that can not be missing in any Android device.