Hi,
when may Fairphone (FP1U) is connected to a WLAN router it is identified there as “android-xxx” where xxx is a 16 characters long text that looks like a hex-number. Is there a way to change that network name? I think it is referred to as [net.hostname] in Android. So far I did not find a way to set that name manually.
Thanks in advance.
Apparently it cannot be done from within Android, but there are apps to do so (requires root access though).
I saw a link to this on another forum: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.developersinfo.android.dns.changer&hl=en
I don’t have any experience with this app or other apps like this, so use at your own risk.
Thanks!
Since I do not use the playstore I will have to look around for other apps that can change that, but now I know what to look for.
Edit: Just found the solution. For anyone interested:
You need a terminal emulator, e.g. https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=jackpal.androidterm (also available on google play). Start it up and enter su to get superuser rights. (Otherwise you cannot edit the hostname).
Type setprop net.hostname DEVICENAME where DEVICENAME is your name of choice (no blanks allowed).
With getprop net.hostname you can check if the renaming was successful.
Edit 2:
Well, just found out, that this is no permanent solution. After a restart the setting is gone and the default name is there again. Apparently you have to edit the system file build.prop which is not that trivial. I will have a look into this and post my experiences.
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Sorry for the long delay. I didn’t really have time to look further into this. And I wanted to be absolutely sure to not wreck my phone. Messing with system files can go really bad. And I don’t have much experience with Android.
Anyway, I found the permanent solution now.
Before you proceed, make a backup of your build.prop! For example by copying it to your Home folder. It is located in /system. You cannot access /system with the built-in File Manager. I used Simple Explorer to copy it.
Please be careful when editing your build.prop!
You’ll need a text editor with superuser access. I used Turbo Editor from F-Droid.
Open it and add the follwing line at the end:
net.hostname=YOUROWNNAME
Save the file, grant superuser rights to Turbo Editor and restart your phone. Voila, the network name is changed permanently.
To change it back to the default value, just delete the line in the build.prop and restart.
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