iPhone Can Android use cellular for Internet while connected to a local wifi network?

[tys]

In iOS 8, maybe 7 too but definitely not 6 or earlier, I can use my cellular LTE data while simultaneously being connected to my home wifi network for AirPlay streaming, etc. (I don't have Internet at home otherwise)
Can Android do this? I couldn't get it to work on a Sony Z3 with 4.4.4, but I'm not really that familiar with Android yet.
As soon as I join a wifi network, cellular data stops working.
Is there a way to get it to work? Maybe Android L will allow it?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
tys

 

[jamezr]

In iOS 8, maybe 7 too but definitely not 6 or earlier, I can use my cellular LTE data while simultaneously being connected to my home wifi network for AirPlay streaming, etc. (I don't have Internet at home otherwise)
Can Android do this? I couldn't get it to work on a Sony Z3 with 4.4.4, but I'm not really that familiar with Android yet.
As soon as I join a wifi network, cellular data stops working.
Is there a way to get it to work? Maybe Android L will allow it?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
tys

Not sure what you mean. How do you do this on IOS8? I have an IP6 and side by side in my house with my N4 and GS5 and OPO they all get the same speeds on WiFi in my house.

 

[mib1800]

In iOS 8, maybe 7 too but definitely not 6 or earlier, I can use my cellular LTE data while simultaneously being connected to my home wifi network for AirPlay streaming, etc. (I don't have Internet at home otherwise)
Can Android do this? I couldn't get it to work on a Sony Z3 with 4.4.4, but I'm not really that familiar with Android yet.
As soon as I join a wifi network, cellular data stops working.
Is there a way to get it to work? Maybe Android L will allow it?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
tys

I think the new note 4 may have this. I haven't try though. It suppose to use both data and wifi at the same time to boost throughput.

 

[tbayrgs]

Not sure what you mean. How do you do this on IOS8? I have an IP6 and side by side in my house with my N4 and GS5 and OPO they all get the same speeds on WiFi in my house.

I think he wants to utilize his home's wifi network for inter device connectivity only but if I understand correctly, his wifi is for data sharing only--no outside internet being shared on the wifi network. So he'd like to stay connected to his home wifi network but get his internet connectivity from his LTE connection.

And I don't know how he managed it either as any time my internet is down (but wifi network still up), my iOS devices won't connect to the internet as they appear to be trying to get access through the wifi network they're connected to.

 

[orestes1984]

Not sure what you mean. How do you do this on IOS8? I have an IP6 and side by side in my house with my N4 and GS5 and OPO they all get the same speeds on WiFi in my house.

The OP wants to use a cellular wifi hotspot for his internet while simultaneously being connected to a local area network for airplay streaming to other devices.

 

[Ccrew]

The OP wants to use a cellular wifi hotspot for his internet while simultaneously being connected to a local area network for airplay streaming to other devices.

That's not the way his question reads.. If you read closer it's that he wants his phone's LTE and his phones Wifi to operate separately. General rule of thumb of networking is that you can't have multiple default gateways. Therefore either the LTE or the WiFi would need to be default. As tbayrgs pointed out, drop the default and it may or may not switch over networks. Set up a default 0.0.0.0 route out the LTE and it's going to ignore the WiFi. Considering you don't have straightforward access to the TCP bindings or the route tables on Android or IOS setting up so that it will failover is a crapshoot at best

Now, as with anything there are outliers, like VPN's with default routes and machines running static routing entries, but we're talking phones here which are generally in the pretty dumb spectrum compared to a Cisco or Juniper edge router.

I do this for a living so the "whoosh" sound you heard as it went over isn't anything to be ashamed of.

 

[jamezr]

The OP wants to use a cellular wifi hotspot for his internet while simultaneously being connected to a local area network for airplay streaming to other devices.

Why don't you let the OP speak for himself?
We haven't heard back yet.......

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That's not the way his question reads.. If you read closer it's that he wants his phone's LTE and his phones Wifi to operate separately. General rule of thumb of networking is that you can't have multiple default gateways. Therefore either the LTE or the WiFi would need to be default. As tbayrgs pointed out, drop the default and it may or may not switch over networks. Set up a default 0.0.0.0 route out the LTE and it's going to ignore the WiFi. Considering you don't have straightforward access to the TCP bindings or the route tables on Android or IOS setting up so that it will failover is a crapshoot at best

Now, as with anything there are outliers, like VPN's with default routes and machines running static routing entries, but we're talking phones here which are generally in the pretty dumb spectrum compared to a Cisco or Juniper edge router.

I do this for a living so the "whoosh" sound you heard as it went over isn't anything to be ashamed of.

I know the GS5 was supposed to have a Download Booster when it first came out. But there were issues with it. There were not straight hard rules for when it would come on.....meaning you could think you are safe at home on WiFi and download all the crap you want and then find out later that it used cellular as well and now you are over your data limit.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2014/04/activate-download-booster-in-verizon-and-att-galaxy-s5/

 

[Oohara]

In iOS 8, maybe 7 too but definitely not 6 or earlier, I can use my cellular LTE data while simultaneously being connected to my home wifi network for AirPlay streaming, etc. (I don't have Internet at home otherwise)
Can Android do this? I couldn't get it to work on a Sony Z3 with 4.4.4, but I'm not really that familiar with Android yet.
As soon as I join a wifi network, cellular data stops working.
Is there a way to get it to work? Maybe Android L will allow it?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
tys

I use WiFi File Transfer Pro to transfer files directly (not via internet) between my PC or Mac and Android phone using the phone's wifi hotspot. I can surf the web on the phone using its own LTE while a large file is being transfered. Now, I haven't done any streaming but wouldn't that work the same way? Set up the phone's hotspot and have your other devices connect to it?

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I do this for a living so the "whoosh" sound you heard as it went over isn't anything to be ashamed of.

LOL no I think that whoosh was the sound of us gasping at your arrogance

 

[Tinmania]

The keyword in the OP is "Airplay."

Apple has made yet more improvements to AirPlay in iOS 8 by enabling compatible devices to make direct connections with each other for content streaming. This eliminates AirPlay’s reliance on a Wi-Fi network and fixes one of its biggest limitations.
In previous versions of iOS — including the latest iOS 7.1.1 release — all of your devices must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network to partake in AirPlay streaming. You couldn’t stream music from your iPad to your iPhone while on the train, then, and you couldn’t stream video from an iPhone to an Apple TV in a hotel that doesn’t offer Wi-Fi (not that you’d ever think about staying in a hotel that doesn’t have Wi-Fi).
But in iOS 8, AirPlay catches up with rival streaming technologies like DLNA by allowing direct device connections. So your Mac, iPhone, Apple TV, and other AirPlay devices can talk to each other without a middleman. In turn, this should mean that AirPlay streaming is snappier and more reliable, which is great news for those who use it to play games on their TV.

Read more at http://www.cultofmac.com/282209/airplay-longer-requires-wi-fi-network-ios-8/#8fl8yqkO1Q3dRtAh.99

I think the OP was mistaken about his WiFi "network" being used for Airplay streaming. I believe it was peer-to-peer streaming.




Michael

 

[tbayrgs]

The keyword in the OP is "Airplay."



I think the OP was mistaken about his WiFi "network" being used for Airplay streaming. I believe it was peer-to-peer streaming.




Michael

Good catch Michael, completely missed that and forget about this new functionality in iOS 8.

 

[Ccrew]

LOL no I think that whoosh was the sound of us gasping at your arrogance

Not the way it was meant, but good comeback.

 

[tys]

Hi OP here!
Hopefully I can explain:
Here's what I have going on.
An Airport Express base station that I have used to create a new wireless network in my house. It's only connected to power source and my stereo receiver (via audio jack). Not connected to the Internet at all. My mac, iPad, and iPhone all connect to it for local sharing and music streaming.
Ever since iOS 7, I've been able to connect my iDevices to my home wifi while still being able to use my cellular data. I didn't do anything specific to set it up, it just started working this way with iOS 7. On iOS 6 and earlier, I would lose my cellular data connection as soon as I joined the wifi network.
Now I can open Pandora and stream my music from my iThings over AirPlay to my stereo for example. Both wifi and cell connection active at once!
I want to use my Android the same way, but it doesn't work. It behaves just like iOS did prior to 7.
I'm hoping there's a setting I can choose, but it may just be a limitation of Android. I'm on 4.4.4 currently.

Does that make any sense?
Sorry I don't have the technical knowledge to explain any better than that. I'm guessing not many people try to do what I'm doing. I have unlimited data plans on both iPhone and iPad, but
I'm just not at home enough to justify paying for another Internet plan that only works in the house, hence the internet-less wifi!

 

[Atomic Walrus]

I'm certain the Note 4 did exactly this when I connected it to my home wifi for the first time the other day. The internet connection was down at the time and it reported that fact and remained on LTE. I didn't actually try to interact with any of the devices on the local network so I can't confirm that both were actually running simultaneously, but I'll test that when I get a chance if it's helpful.

Unfortunately I don't know what to tell you as far as settings since this was its behavior out of the box (also Android 4.4.4). Could be a device-specific feature, not sure.

 

[hallux]

I think this is something that's coming in Lollipop.

 

[tys]

I think this is something that's coming in Lollipop.

I hope you're right! Thanks.
FYI: the iPhone only shows wifi bars in the status bar when actually connected to wifi internet. At home, on my internet-less local wifi, it still shows LTE on the status bar despite showing wifi connection in settings. This is a good thing since it prevents you from accidentally using up cellular data because you thought you were on wifi!

 

[mi7chy]

Galaxy S5 has had this feature called Download Booster. Other phones might have something similar but with a different name.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/skp/faq/1061358

 

[hallux]

My phone (Moto X) ALWAYS shows the 4G LTE icon in the status bar(provided 4G is available), even when connected to a WiFi network with internet access. That doesn't mean it's USING that network. 90% of the 4G data use on my phone is music streaming when I go for a walk or go to the gym, most of the time I'm connected to a WiFi network (home, work, parent's house).

 

[nunuAbe]

... General rule of thumb of networking is that you can't have multiple default gateways.

That is not true! There is always the possibility to have multiple default routes. The question is how do you want to use them. One simple and most appropriate way is to assign weight on the routes. But as I understood the original question, the user wants to know if it is possible to activate (use) both wifi and cellular interfaces at the same time in android? I came to this thread because I have similar interest too. At the moment it seems android dose not allow the simultaneous use of these two interfaces, however, there is a community that is running tests on the possibility (Multipath Control app Alpha Testers) . You may find them on google+, and you must become a member to test the app.
Hopefully, someone already has an idea how this might be possible

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Galaxy S5 has had this feature called Download Booster. Other phones might have something similar but with a different name.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/skp/faq/1061358

This feature is irrelevant (inapplicable) to this scenario. It can be used only to download files from a specific website. Moreover, there are many criteria to be fulfilled first, to be able to use this feature.

 

[Stephen-lev]

That is not true! There is always the possibility to have multiple default routes. The question is how do you want to use them. One simple and most appropriate way is to assign weight on the routes. But as I understood the original question, the user wants to know if it is possible to activate (use) both wifi and cellular interfaces at the same time in android? I came to this thread because I have similar interest too. At the moment it seems android dose not allow the simultaneous use of these two interfaces, however, there is a community that is running tests on the possibility (Multipath Control app Alpha Testers) . You may find them on google+, and you must become a member to test the app.
Hopefully, someone already has an idea how this might be possible

----------



This feature is irrelevant (inapplicable) to this scenario. It can be used only to download files from a specific website. Moreover, there are many criteria to be fulfilled first, to be able to use this feature.

Do you have any information about that Google+ group? I'd really like to contact them, because I have similar interest too, but till now nobody approved my join request to the group. (https://plus.google.com/communities/112421770331871180500)

 

[cd193]

That's not the way his question reads.. If you read closer it's that he wants his phone's LTE and his phones Wifi to operate separately. General rule of thumb of networking is that you can't have multiple default gateways. Therefore either the LTE or the WiFi would need to be default. As tbayrgs pointed out, drop the default and it may or may not switch over networks. Set up a default 0.0.0.0 route out the LTE and it's going to ignore the WiFi. Considering you don't have straightforward access to the TCP bindings or the route tables on Android or IOS setting up so that it will failover is a crapshoot at best

Now, as with anything there are outliers, like VPN's with default routes and machines running static routing entries, but we're talking phones here which are generally in the pretty dumb spectrum compared to a Cisco or Juniper edge router.

I do this for a living so the "whoosh" sound you heard as it went over isn't anything to be ashamed of.

This is an old post but because I am running into the same issue I will say that it is not possible on an Android yet.. The user wants basically to access a local network in this case on wifi and use LTE for Internet. In the person I am trying to help's case, they have no Internet access, just a wireless printer that can also basically be an AP/router. All he wants to do is be able to get something off his phone connected to the Internet over cellular, then print it on the printer over wireless. If he is connected to wireless, he can't get to the internet and if he's on the LTE side, he gets disconnected from the printer. This is an easy fix on an iPhone, I am just talking from the options meaning on the iPhone, I put a static ip on the wifi side with NO gateway and boom, everything works. On an Android, that is not an option, you can put in an ip address but you MUST put in a gateway or else it won't let you save the setting. Totally stupid. If I am going in there to modify this, then I hopefully know what I am trying to do. If anyone got this to work, I would be super happy to hear it. I also tried using a wireless router to do this in the hopes that I could send out a DHCP address to the printer and router but not put in the option for a gateway but on the POS Netgear I have, that also is not possible.... Stupid proofing the devices makes the solution not work.