Often, to surf, smartphones have to be connected to a PC via Wi-Fi or USB cable. This is true in cases where the cellular signal is weak or completely absent. But most smartphone owners do not know how to properly create a Wi-Fi network on a laptop and distribute traffic via a USB cable.
The article will discuss popular methods of distributing traffic from a laptop to a smartphone with detailed instructions. In addition, you can find ways to resolve the most common problems associated with connecting gadgets to Wi-Fi and lack of Internet access.
Ways to distribute Wi-Fi from a laptop
Using a laptop as a WiFi access point is quite simple, and the speed provided when using this device is sufficient for comfortable browsing on the Internet. It is possible to distribute via WiFi from a laptop using:
- Built-in Windows tools.
- Third party software.
There are a lot of programs that allow you to distribute via wifi from a laptop, but not all provide a high-quality connection. However, for certain tasks this is sufficient. In turn, it is possible to distribute a signal to Windows 7,8,10 from a laptop using built-in tools in only two ways.
It is also possible to distribute wifi from a computer, but in this case a wireless adapter must be installed on it. It is installed extremely rarely in the factory assembly; most often an external device is used. This adapter resembles a radio receiver from a wireless mouse and provides a good Bluetooth and WiFi signal.
Preparing the laptop
Distributing Wi-Fi from a Windows 10 laptop
If the laptop is connected to the network via a Lan cable and you need to distribute Wi-Fi from the laptop as a router, there is nothing complicated about it. The main thing is to create a regular connection so that the device itself has access to the Internet. You also need to check the functionality of the built-in network adapter.
It is easy to check the operation of the network cable. When it is connected to a laptop, the “Internet Access” icon appears in the lower right corner of the taskbar:
The main reason why the laptop does not distribute wifi and there is no Internet connection is a faulty cable or its insufficiently tight contact with the socket. In this case, the icon looks like this:
After connecting the cable, it's time to check the operation of the adapter. To do this, you need to go to “My Computer”. This is done as follows: open the Start menu or click on the Windows button. Next, find the “Computer” button and click on it. In the menu that opens, right-click on any free area and select the last item - “Properties”.
In the upper left corner, find the “Device Manager” section, click on it and find “Network adapters” in the list. All installed ones will be displayed in the drop-down menu. You need to find a line where NetWork is mentioned, for example:
Right-click on it (RMB), if there is an “Enable” item, activate it; if there is no such option, it means that it is already working and you can start setting up Wi-Fi.
The necessary virtual wifi access point for the laptop to simultaneously receive and distribute a signal, in this case using Windows 7 (and any other Windows will not cope), requires additional software. You can take a more trivial route and install an additional removable adapter, but below we will tell you how to get by without extra costs using special software.
In what situation is this possible?
Before you distribute the Internet from a laptop to an Android or other mobile gadget, you need to check whether you have everything you need.
A desktop PC requires a Wi-Fi adapter.
Usually this device is already built into the laptop. You also need to make sure that the driver is installed for this wireless gadget. You can check this in the Device Manager window. Here you need to open the “Network Adapters” submenu. You can find the adapter by its name, which should contain the word “Wireless”, or “Wi-Fi”, or “802.11”, or “WLAN”.
To distribute Wi-Fi from a laptop, the adapter driver must support SoftAP technology.
To verify this, you need to open the command line (key combination win+R) and type:
netsh wlan show drivers
This command displays the characteristics of the Wi-Fi network adapter. If the line “Support for a hosted network” is “Yes,” then configuration is possible.
Wi-Fi distribution using built-in tools
How to distribute Wi-Fi from a laptop on Windows 8
The first way to make a wifi access point on a laptop is very simple and appeared in Windows 10 systems, versions older than 1607. This all happens in a graphical menu and without using commands.
First you need to open the “Start” menu, find it in the “Settings” column on the left. Open it and launch “Network and Internet”. Among the list of suggested parameters, find and open “Mobile hotspot”. Then immediately turn it on by dragging the slider, or click on the “Change” button and enter your own password and name for the future connection. That's it, after this the point will work. The answer to the question of how to properly distribute wifi on a laptop has been found.
Security questions
You can secure your network when distributing Wi-Fi via a modem or router by changing the settings:
- device login password;
- network name;
- restrictions on MAC addresses.
Procedure:
- You can get to the settings by specifying the IP address of the device in the address bar of the browser. Typically this is 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. Both the IP address and credentials for entering the settings are indicated on the device body.
- Enter login and password.
- Select “Management” - “Access Control”. Fill in the fields indicating the old password, the new one and its confirmation.
- Click “Apply/Save”.
- You can change the network name in the “WLAN Settings” section.
- By checking the appropriate box, the network is hidden from unauthorized persons. Using the “Filtering by MAC Address” settings menu, you can restrict access to the network.
Note! Only those devices whose MAC addresses will be specified in the settings will have access to the network.
Distributing Wi-Fi using the command line and netsh
How to distribute the Internet via Wifi from a laptop on Windows 7
The second way to distribute the Internet from a laptop is to use the built-in Windows tools. They are also called Wireless Hosted Network, they are available on all versions, starting with “seven”. Following these instructions using the command line, it is also possible to distribute WiFi on a laptop.
To begin, go to the Windows menu and enter “cmd” in the lower “Find programs and files” window; in the proposed programs you can see one single entry: “cmd.exe”. Right-click on it and run as administrator. In the black window that opens, you need to copy and paste the following command: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="1111" key="11111111"keyUsage=persistent.
Where 1111 is the name of the network, and eight units are the wifi password. This data can be changed to something more familiar to the user, as long as the password consists of eight or more characters.
This is the basic command for distributing WiFi via the command line. If everything is done correctly, an entry will appear informing you that the Virtual WiFi network has been created:
All that remains is to launch a virtual network so that the laptop distributes WiFi. To do this, copy and enter another command: netsh wlan start hostednetwork. If the launch is successful, you can see that the hosted network is running.
If, after all that has been done, the Internet does not work when distributing from a laptop, you need to additionally enable the virtual adapter created by the system. Usually it starts automatically, but there are also bugs. It is used so that you can connect to the created WiFi from other laptops and from Android. To do this, go to “Device Manager”, in the “Network Adapters” section and enable the virtual adapter that appears in the list. How to turn adapters on and off was described above. Only now our adapter has a specific name - Microsoft Hosted Network Virtual Adapter.
If you decide to enable a WiFi access point on a laptop running Windows 10, you need to check whether sharing is enabled. To do this, click the PMC on the “Start” window, find “Network Connections”, click on the PMC, go to the “Properties” tab, “Access” and check both boxes in the menu so that everyone uses the connection.
Via USB to Android smartphone
If the WI-FI adapter on your PC is broken, then you can distribute traffic from it to your Android smartphone via a USB cable (it is better to use the original one). This method is especially relevant when the smartphone is discharged or has a weak battery, since the gadget quickly discharges during surfing.
This requires:
- Open the gadget settings using the top curtain or the gear icon in the application menu and select “More” there.
- Then check the box next to the line “Sharing the Internet with a Windows PC via USB cable.”
- In the new window, specify the type of PC operating system and click “Next”.
- In the next window, click the “Done” button.
Before making these settings on your Android smartphone, you need to activate USB debugging using the “For Developers” item (if it is not in the device settings, then you need to click 10 times in the “About the device” line “Build number”).
- Then open the “Network Sharing Center” using the small network icon located in the notification panel.
- Then select the line “Change adapter settings”.
- Next, open the parameters of the unidentified network and select “Internet Protocol version 4” with the mouse. Then open its properties to make sure that all fields in the parameters are empty. If the numbers are present, then you need to set receive everywhere automatically and click “OK”.
- Then you need to open the properties of the network through which the PC is connected to the provider. Here you need to select “Access” and check all the boxes there. Then in the “Connecting a home network” window, set the network settings that you checked earlier and click “Ok”.
- Then the Internet will appear on your smartphone, so you can use all the capabilities of the device (watch online videos, communicate in instant messengers, listen to online music, browse various sites, etc.).
This method requires that the “USB Debugging” option be activated on the smartphone, otherwise the Internet will not be connected to it via the cord from the laptop.
Distributing Wi-Fi using programs
If difficulties arise during the creation of a Windows 7 wifi access point and the system does not work, you can look for the reason for a very long time. It's easier to use programs. They automatically connect all services, launch the virtual router manager, so the user practically does not have to do anything. Also, some programs from a laptop “create” a repeater. It turns out this way: for it to distribute WiFi, you do not need to have a computer connected via a Lan cable. You can distribute the Internet and at the same time receive it yourself via wifi from another laptop or even a phone. But, of course, not every free version of the application provides this opportunity.
Connectify
If it is difficult to understand how to distribute Wi-Fi from a computer to a phone using an adapter as a router, then for Windows 7 there is a very simple and intuitive program - “Connectify”. You need to download the free version of the program from the official website or another source and install it, then restart your computer and start setting up a new network.
Understanding how to set up wifi distribution via a laptop running Windows 7 is quite simple. After launching the application, a program window will appear with several empty fields:
- “HotsSpotName”: here you must enter the name of the future network. It will appear when searching for WiFi from a tablet or phone.
- “Password”: create a password for the network.
- “Internet to Share”: select which Internet connection will be broadcast.
- “Share Over”: determine the method of Internet distribution. Either via a local network, if there are devices connected via a Lan cable, or WiFi. You need to choose the second method.
- “Sharing Mode”: selecting an adapter to broadcast the signal if the computer has one adapter capable of distributing WiFi. This means that at this point there will be only one of the options.
The “Connectify” program is a paid version, it sets almost all the settings itself, but using these hints, the user will configure everything independently, quickly and correctly.
MyPublicWi-Fi
This application is another way to quickly distribute wifi from a laptop. First you need to download and install the program. Next, right-click on the shortcut located on the desktop and run it as administrator.
There are very few settings here; in the first field – Network Name – you should enter the name of the future network. Network key is the future password. Enable Internet Sharing is the most interesting part of the program, since here it is possible to select both a local cable and another Wi-Fi as the initial connection. That is, this program on a computer uses it as a router and repeater.
Mypublicwifi is a free product that has powerful and convenient functionality, despite its simplicity.
MHotSpot
After downloading and installing this program, run it as an administrator in Windows and proceed to the setup stage. The standard menu is used here, as in previous programs. One difference: in the last column you can select the maximum number of users who can connect to the network. The program creates WiFi using only a Lan cable as an Internet connection, but allows you to distribute the Internet from a computer to a phone or to another laptop without problems and very quickly.
Virtual Router Plus
This is the easiest way to distribute WiFi from a laptop. Download the program and run it. The menu is simple: only three fields. In the first section, enter the name of the network, in the second - the password (at least eight characters) and in the last section, select the method of Internet distribution: WiFi. That’s it, click on the “Start” button and enjoy the availability of Internet connection.
Necessary equipment
Unfortunately, unlike laptops that have a built-in Wi-Fi module, you will have to purchase one of the following devices for your computer:
- USB adapter. It will help connect your PC to Wi-Fi
- PCI strip connected directly to the motherboard. This method is the most stable and reliable! Especially if your computer operates exclusively via Wi-Fi, without having a wired connection to the network.
