10 must-have Android apps for any Computer Engineer

Google’s mobile app market has been growing by the day. It is inundated with apps for just about everything – be it health, music, movies and or something silly and worthwhile. The Google Play is also loaded with apps to assist professionals. If you are a computer engineer or networking professional, your Android phone can serve as a tool for administering computers, remote access and more. Some of these apps could come handy if you are usually travelling around the clients site for troubleshooting or to set up a new networking environment. We have jotted down 10 such must-have, free Android apps for any computer engineer or networking professional. 

Wifi Analyzer - Free
This is a must-have app in your Wi-Fi tool kit. This app lists and analyses the Wi-Fi networks available around you.  It informs the user about the network channels being used and recommends which one is less crowded and apt to use at that point of time. What we liked is the way this app shows graphical analysis of the Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity for a clear understanding; you can pick the option depending upon the signal strength. The app also lists out the signal strength, the SSID and BSSID addresses along with the entire list of securities involved. You can also check the signal strength on an individual Wi-Fi network using the built-in dBM meter.

List and analyse Wi-Fi networks

Fing - Free
Those looking for an easy and simple way to list out all the PCs or devices connected to their Local Area Network can install the Fing Network app. It is quite similar to the Angry IP Scanner for Windows. Basically, the app scans your entire network and lists out every machine connected to it. It vertically stacks all the IP addresses along with machine names, IP addresses and MAC addresses. As you see in the screenshot, it lists out name of the device or network card, IPO address, Mac address and icons. Tapping any device on the list will further provide additional details such as NetBIOS name, domain name, services and few more more. Additionally, you can ping as well as trace route of a device. 

To list the PCs on the network

Wi-Fi HotSpot / Wi-Fi Tether - Free
This is a cool, handy app to convert your Android device into a full blown portable Wi-Fi hotspot. It allows you to share your Android phone's Internet connection with other wireless-enabled devices such as mobiles, notebooks, PSPs and more. It is also beneficial for creating a wireless network whilst outdoors to share data, transfer files or stream media to other devices. 

To create a Wi-Fi network

Ping & DNS - Free
This app combines a slew of features that are essential for network diagnosis. It can ping a server, lookup DNS (with geographical lookup of IP addresses), trace routes (also with IP address geo lookup), inspect HTTP response headers, query WHOIS records and scan for open ports. It remembers recently used servers/IP addresses for auto-completion. Several other options such as using an alternative name server, Ping TTL, Broadcast Ping, HTTPS, HTTP port number, selection of DNS record types to query and more are available through a long-click on the "Go" button. Moreover, this free app is ad-free and a must-have for networking professionals.

To check connectivity of an Internet connection

X-plore Manager - Free
This app is beneficial for cross-transfering files between two PCs, different servers, online servers, local networks and even different subnets. X-plore Manager is a dual-pane file managing app that offers tree view, Root, FTP, SMB, Sqlite, Picasa, Zip, Rar explorer and more. Its main operation is managing files and folders – viewing, copying, moving, deleting, compressing to Zip, extracting, renaming, sharing and more. With dual-pane explorer, it is capable of showing two folders at same time; common operation such as copying files are done from one pane to another. The folder hierarchy is displayed in a tree view. It allows cloud storage access to Google Drive, Dropbox, SugarSync, Box.net and SkyDriv.

Checking or transferring files over networks