How to Turn Your Windows PC into a WiFi Hotspot

You can turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot to share its wired or wireless Internet connection with other wireless devices. But do you know how to set it up? Well, it entirely depends on the Windows version you’re running. Whether you’re using Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7, our tutorial will help you to get it done easily. Allow us to walk you through the process.

Turn Your Windows PC into a WiFi Hotspot

Windows 10

Are you running Windows 10 Anniversary Update on your PC? If so, you’re in luck! The update boasts a single switch to turn any Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot and it doesn’t matter whether the Internet connection you wish to share is wired or wireless. The steps are as follows:

1. Fire up Settings by pressing the Windows + I key combination. On the main Settings page, click on the Network & Internet section

2. Once on the Network & Internet page, click on the Mobile hotspot option at the left side of the screen

3. Toggle the Share my Internet connection with other devices switch toward the right. In case you want to change the default name and password, click on the Edit button

4. In the Edit window, type the desired network name and password and then click on the Save button

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Windows 8

Unfortunately, Windows 8 has stripped away the graphical interface for setting up an informal network, so it’s not quite tricky to turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot. Here are the steps:

1. First of all, make sure that your existing wireless network is shared with other network users. Press Windows + R hotkey to open the Run dialog box. Afterward, type ncpa.cpl in the box and press the Enter key

2. In the Network connections window, right-click on your Wireless network and select the Properties option from the context menu

3. Click on the Sharing tab and check the box saying ‘Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection’ and uncheck the box that says ‘Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection’. Once done, click on the Ok button to continue

4. Launch the Command Prompt with administrative privileges. Right-click in the bottom-left corner of the screen or press the Windows + X hotkey. A menu will arise. Select the Command Prompt (Admin) option to turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot

Note: In case you see PowerShell rather than the Command Prompt option, it’s a switch that comes with the Windows 10 Creators Update. You can change it to show Command Prompt if you want or you can give PowerShell a try. You can do pretty much everything in PowerShell that you can do in the Command Prompt.

5. Once the Command Prompt opens, type the following command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=”<SSID>” key=”<PASSWORD>”

Here, <SSID> indicates your network’s name and <PASSWORD> is the password you want users to connect with. The access point is created using WPA2-PSK(AES) encryption.

6. Now, start broadcasting your network with the following command:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

7. If you want to see information about the connection, use the following command:

netsh wlan show hostednetwork

It will show things like the channel that your connection uses, SSID name, radio type, authentication type, as well as the number of clients connected to your network. In this way, you can turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot.

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Windows 7

The ability to turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot is integrated into Windows 7’s networking interface via an ad-hoc network, which is a simple and direct connection between two devices.

In order to use Windows 7 PC as a mobile hotspot, you need to create an ad-hoc network between your PC’s wireless connection and wireless devices you wish to connect.

It’s worth notable that when you set up an ad-hoc network using your PC’s WiFi, it will disable any existing connection that makes use of that WiFi adapter. Thence, this method only works if your Internet is coming from an Ethernet source.

To set up an ad-hoc network, you need to:

1. Open the Start menu, type Wireless into the Search box, and then select the Manage Wireless Networks option.

2. Click on the Add button to add a wireless network

3. Next, click on the Create an ad hoc network option

4. Enter the network name and security key and check the box that says Save this network

5. It will take some time to create your network. Once created, you can start hosting an ad hoc network that other users can connect to

Remember to check the box that says ‘Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection’ so that your PC will share its wired Internet connection with the devices connected to your PC over the ad-hoc network.

This was all you need to know about how to turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot. If you still have any queries, feel free to drop them in the comments section. We will reach out to you soon.

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Summary

Article Name

How to Turn Your Windows PC into a WiFi Hotspot

Description

You can turn your Windows PC into a WiFi hotspot to share its wired or wireless Internet connection with other wireless devices. Here's how to set it up.

Author

Rajni Kapil

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SoftwareVilla

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