Might be someone wanting to share the WiFi on something like a tablet. Or someone using an Android phone as an “iPod Touch”, basically everything the phone has minus cellular capabilities but still wanting to share the WiFi with other devices.
I could see this being very popular on flights and cruises where they charge you per device to pay for this one device and then share with other devices.
zurohki@aussie.zone 4 days ago
My phone will hotspot when it’s connected to WiFi. I can even tether it to a desktop PC and use it as a WiFi adapter.
forrgott@lemm.ee 4 days ago
Well, technically that’s not a “hotspot”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it’s a Wi-Fi extender.
mp3@piefed.ca 4 days ago
And a poor Wi-Fi extender as well, since you halve your network bandwidth by using an extender with a single radio chip.
turbowafflz@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I’ve only seen that option on phones with two radios, it uses the 2.4GHz radio for one connection and the 5GHz radio for the other
kernelle@0d.gs 4 days ago
I’ll have to disagree on that one, WiFi extenders extend an existing network, keeping the same network and DHCP is done by the original access point.
A hotspot creates a new network, and DHCP is handled by the hotspot, not the network on the WAN side.