You might have a WiFi dongle installed on your computer or even it might have come preinstalled in your laptop. While you will be able to access internet through a WiFi connection, but when it comes to sharing your internet connection via WiFi, you would have to rely on a third party tool such as connectify.
As most software, Connectify was once a freeware and disappointingly the developers decided to put a price tag on it. While connectify still has a free version available, but there are many restrictions on it.
Fortunately, Software such as connectify are just a secondary method of creating WiFi HotSpots for sharing your PC’s or Laptop’s internet connection. The primary method of creating WiFi HotSpots is very simple but it requires the use of the command prompt.
For those who want to create a WiFi HotSpot from their PC or laptop in order to share your internet connection through WiFi, the instructions below will guide you through the process.
Note: You will need to have a WiFi dongle or card installed on your PC in order to host a WiFi Hostspot.
How to turn a PC or Laptop into a WiFi HotSpot
Step 1: Open the Command prompt with Administrator rights.
Step 2: Type in the following command
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=HotSpot key=12345678
Here ” HotSpot ” will be the name of the WiFi HotSpot you are going to create. You can change it to any other name of your choice.
Similarly the Key value i.e. “ 12345678 ” is the password to connect to the WiFi HotSpot, you can also change this to any value of your choice.
Step 3: Next type
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
The result should look like this.
Step 4: Next you will have to Network and sharing center in Control panel and right click on your main network and select properties. i.e the network that you are using to access the internet.
Step 5: Finally click on the sharing tab and check ” allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connect “
Thats it now you can search for the WiFi HotSpot from any WiFi enabled device and connect to it with the password key set by you.
If you have any queries/feedback, please write it in comments section below OR mail me here : Snehal[at]Techproceed[dot]com
Happy Wi-Fi sharing :-)
