Android apps not getting access to LAN hosts

General
#1

I’m having trouble with Android apps not being able to access hosts on LAN. That happens with apps that need to set up local home devices, such as cleaning robots or smart plugs and such. Those apps tell you to connect to an unsecured/passwordless wifi network that is set up temporarily by a home device and then apparently try to connect to it on its internal LAN. While wifi connection gets established just fine, the apps always fail to connect to the actual device on said wifi network. I’m already having trouble with two such apps.

Is there a way to allow unrestricted access to LAN hosts for Android apps, when they’re also connected via passwordless wifi networks?

#2

I don’t think there are any blocks in place for this.
And i wouldn’t be surprised if it is instead some other part of the process failing; like when that app wants to scan for WiFi networks to give you a list to select from when configuring the device. Network configuration is one of those types of APIs that is not available for Android apps.

1 Like
#3

No. Both apps specifically tell me to connect to a wifi network manually since auto-connecting fails, and then tap “continue” after I’m connected. So it’s not that.

#4

That’s not what i said.

In then next step, when you are connected to the temporary network, what should happen is that your app finds the device, and then lets you tell it what actual WiFi network to use, right?

I have a couple of devices that behave like this, and their apps get tripped up when they can’t scan for networks at this stage of the process to present you with a list of networks to tell the device to connect to. Depending on how the app is done, this could well manifest as non-discoverability (not even moving to the discovery phase). This i have seen happen.

Another option is that whatever means of discovery it uses, is not implemented in-app or a base functionality of Android, but part of Play Services. This however, is purely speculation.