Setup laptop as wireless router

Or, one device at a time. Or, some places offer the wired Ethernet lines only. Sure, you can connect your laptop to the Internet this way, but what about your tablet or the smart phone, wouldn't it be nice to connect them, too?

Turns out, it may be possible to set up your laptop to share its Internet connection with other devices via its built-in Wi-Fi device. The following steps should work well if you have a laptop with Windows 7 or later. If you have Windows Vista or XP, a different procedure may work instead. A hint: search the web for how to create an ad-hoc connection for the specific version of Windows that you have.

The first thing to do is to check that your Wi-Fi network adapter supports the so called Hosted Network mode. To do that, open Windows command prompt and enter the following command:. Don't worry, you don't need to know what hosted network is, all you need to do is find that line. If you see it, you are good to go. If not, then your Wi-Fi network adapter does not support this feature, sorry. Now, let's configure your laptop to offer its own Wi-Fi access point, to which you could connect your other Wi-Fi devices.

First, decide on the name of the wireless network your laptop would create. It could be nearly anything. In the example below, we chose the name MyLaptopWiFi. Second, decide on the password that you would need to enter to connect your other devices to this access point.

If only one computer is connected to a cable or DSL modem, you can convert that computer into a router or wireless router, if the computer has a wireless card. The main requirement is that the computer has to have at least two network interfaces installed on the system. You can either have two network cards or one network card and a wireless card.

Also, on Windows computers, the process of setting up this router functionality is called Internet Connection Sharing. However, in order to have clients connect to the host computer wirelessly, you also have to setup an ad-hoc wireless network that connects to the Internet using the other network interface installed on the machine. For a better understanding, here are the tasks we need to complete in order to make your computer into a wireless router:.

Make sure you are in icon view and not category view. Click on Change adapter settings in the left-hand menu.

Now right-click on Local Area Connection and choose Properties. Note that on some other sites state that you should right-click on Wireless Network Connection, but this would mean the wireless connection would be shared and all clients would have to connect via Ethernet. When you check the box, the dropdown box under Home networking connection will become enabled.

Here you want to select the wireless network connection for your wireless card. If you have more than one listed, it could be that one of them is a virtual adapter.

Make sure to not choose that one. To connect your portable or desktop PC to your wireless network, the PC must have a wireless network adapter.

Most laptops and tablets—and some desktop PCs—come with a wireless network adapter already installed. Select Start , type device manager in the search box, and then select Device Manager. After you have all the equipment, you'll need to set up your modem and Internet connection.

If your modem wasn't set up for you by your Internet service provider ISP , follow the instructions that came with your modem to connect it to your PC and the Internet. If you're using cable, connect your modem to a cable jack. Put your wireless router somewhere where it will receive the strongest signal with the least amount of interference. For better results, follow these tips:.

Place your wireless router in a central location. Place the router as close to the center of your home as possible to increase the strength of the wireless signal throughout your home.

Position the wireless router off the floor and away from walls and metal objects , such as metal file cabinets. The fewer physical obstructions between your PC and the router's signal, the more likely that you'll be using the router's full signal strength. Reduce interference. Some networking equipment uses a 2. This is the same frequency as most microwaves and many cordless phones. If you turn on the microwave or get a call on a cordless phone, your wireless signal might be temporarily interrupted.

You can avoid most of these issues by using a cordless phone with a higher frequency, such as 5. Security is always important; with a wireless network, it's even more important because your network's signal could be broadcast outside your home. If you don't help secure your network, people with PCs nearby could access info stored on your network PCs and use your Internet connection.

If you press this key combination, the Wi-Fi adapter will be turned on or off. If you turn off the WiFi adapter when it is not needed, or if you accidentally disabled it, Asus will save you power. If it is too far away, move it closer. The same way that wired routers are connected, home wireless routers can be connected using Ethernet cable. Wireless connections can also be made between two home routers, but the second router is only capable of acting as a wireless access point.

If your computer is equipped with a wired or wireless connection, you can connect it to a router. Many laptops support Wi-Fi connections, but thin and light models like the MacBook Air lack an Ethernet port for connecting to the Internet.

If that is the case, you will need to purchase a USB adapter. Connect one end of an Ethernet cable to your modem to connect a router to your computer. Set your router up for at least two to three minutes so that it will light up.