Turn your PC Into A WiFi Hotspot & Share Your Internet Connection

You’ve got an Internet connection via a network cable, but you want to have your other computers and devices get Internet connections wirelessly. Can you do this? Can you make your Windows computer run like a WiFi router?

The short answer is a qualified, ‘Yes.’ The key component in this process is making sure that your Windows computer has a wireless network card. If you have that installed properly, then you can turn your Windows computer into a WiFi hotspot and share your Internet connection.

How It Works

Most WiFi cards for PCs can be used to share wired Internet connections, wirelessly. Mind you, it does take some software, or special configuring, to use that capability. Essentially, the software or configuration is what will act as the ‘virtualrouter’ to enable your computer to share that Internet connection. We’re going to look at a few different ways that you can do this on a Windows computer, as well as the positives and negatives of each method.

first step we will talk about is the popular Ad-Hoc Wireless Connection via Windows Menus

Ad-hoc is a Latin phrase meaning ‘for this’. It is meant to describe something that is set up for this particular purpose only. Often it is something of a temporary nature with minimal setup, planning, or support. There are two ways to set up an ad-hoc wireless network in Windows: one is through the graphical menus, and the other is through the command line interface. Let’s take a look at the graphical menus first.

Click on your Start Menu, then Control Panel, then Network and Sharing Center. You’ll see the following window:

Now click on  Set up a new connection or network. When the new window opens, scroll down until you see Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network. Highlight that option by clicking once on it, then click theNext button.

You’ll now see a window that explains what an ad-hoc wireless network is and it tells you a few things about it. The most important thing to note is that any devices using the ad-hoc wireless network must be within 30 feet of each other, in any direction. Consider that as a maximum upper limit, as so many other things can affect the range of a wireless signal. Expect maybe half of that. You can optimize the range by following a few tips on what we’ve come to call wireless feng shui.

The second most important thing to note is that if you create an ad-hoc wireless connection, any wireless connection you have to a device right now will be dropped. So, if you think you can connect wirelessly to one network and share that network wirelessly with others – you can’t. It’s one or the other. Click the Next  button to move on to the next window.

This window is where you set the name of your network and what kind of security it has on it. It is recommended to use the WPA2-Personal choice for Security type.This gives you the best security you can get with an ad-hoc connection like this. Use a password that you don’t mind giving to other people. Don’t recycle a password you use for other things like Facebook or banking. You’ll soon regret that, if you do. If you intend to set up an ad-hoc wireless network again in the future, you can check the box that reads Save this network and click the Nextbutton.

Congratulations! You’ve just created an ad-hoc wireless network! Share it with your friends and family as you see fit.

The positive is that this is an easy connection to set up and quick to disable. This method is best suited for allowing short and temporary connection of devices you know that will work.

 The Software Approach

There are plenty of software applications that make setting up your Windows PC as a virtual WiFi router as easy as can be. Most of them take care of the various issues that you might encounter with the more traditional ad-hoc networks. Virtual WiFi Router (free, our review), VirtualRouter (free, our review), WiFi Hotspot Creator (free), Thinix ($13 USD) and Connectify Hot Spot PRO are just a few of the applications available that can do this. Connectify HotSpot Pro has consistently been the best virtual router software that I have used, so I’ll share a bit more about it with you here.

Connectify Hot Spot PRO – $40 USD

In my experience, Connectify is the best application to use for this, as it is super simple to set up, runs flawlessly, and I’ve never had an issue with any device being able to connect to it, as long as it was in range. I’ve connected Android phones and tablets, iPads and iPhones, BlackBerry Playbooks and phones, and of course, Windows PCs. The most I’ve had connected at one time has been five devices and it performed wonderfully, with no noticeable lag on my PC or the other devices.

Sure, Connectify costs a few bucks, but the aggravation it saves easily pays for that. The software also aids in sharing of files between devices connected to it and access to the Local Area Network. I’d go as far as to say that Microsoft should consider acquiring Connectify and making this software part of Windows.

The image on the left shows just how easy it is to configure, and the image on the right shows you how it keeps track of who is connected, and has previously connected.

Some of you might be thinking, “Why would I buy Connectify to do this, when I could just buy a wireless router?” That’s a valid question. If your PC is typically going to be stationary, then getting a WiFi router makes a lot of sense. However, if you have the need to be able to set up a WiFi router in different places, if you travel for work, then software is a lot easier to lug around.

Connectify is ideal for people who might be sales people, corporate trainers, lecturers, and more.

Ad-Hoc Wireless Connection via Command Line or Batch File 

is also a solution in a case where you find problem using the above listed methods,but this process can a a lil bit long,i'll make a video to explain everything in my next post concerning WIFI sharing on PC,

Always Remember To Use The Share Buttons,Sharing Is Caring

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