Author of the article
Anton Bogdanov
Communication Network Design Engineer
Without constant access to the Internet, a person feels uncomfortable. If at home almost everyone can provide themselves with high-speed Internet, then on the street a mobile hotspot on Windows 10 and other operating systems can help. With its help, you can access the Internet even on devices that do not have a modem to receive a 4G signal from a cellular operator.
Definition
HotSpot – translated from English means “hot spot”. A little unclear phrase, but the essence is simple - this is a device that distributes wireless Internet to a large number of users. Owners of various cafes, libraries, cinemas, and shopping centers actively use such points to attract customers. Points can be installed in parks, beaches and other open areas. But this is not necessarily some kind of public place; even a home router that distributes the Internet can be called a hot spot.
There are mobile hotspots that have a built-in battery and operate using a 3G or 4G cellular signal. They can be used while traveling to distribute a signal from one SIM card to various Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as a personal computer, tablet or TV. Modern mobile phones have the same function and can distribute the Internet to other devices. True, the cellular provider usually limits the traffic that can be distributed from a smartphone.
Well, the access point can be a device running on the Windows operating system. This could be a laptop, personal computer or tablet.
Follow the link to read about what wi-fi is and how this technology works.
How diseases manifest themselves
Bone pain under the eye occurs in various pathologies, which are accompanied by certain symptoms:
- Rhinitis is accompanied by nasal congestion, from which clear fluid is released (and even flows at the height of the disease). A person's nasopharynx is sore, there is movement and itching. The eyes usually turn red. Tearing with sneezing is possible.
- Ethmoiditis is characterized by a condition where the bone under the eye hurts when you press on it. In the morning, phlegm may be coughed up, and viscous yellowish and green discharge from the nose is observed. They have an unpleasant putrid odor. Swelling in the eyelid area is possible. The sinuses under the eye also hurt. Patients suffer from dizziness, lacrimation, and, in addition, photophobia.
- With sinusitis, the bones of the face under the eyes hurt. People lose their sense of smell, purulent and sometimes bloody discharge appears from the nose, in addition, the voice becomes rougher and significantly deeper, and breathing, in turn, becomes difficult. If sinusitis develops, there may be a risk of inflammation in the cranial cavity. The chronic form serves as a source of infections, provoking relapses of osteomyelitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis and rhinitis, among others. Acute sinusitis sometimes affects the trigeminal nerve. In this case, people experience severe pain in the facial area.
- With frontal sinusitis, the eyes, forehead and temples hurt most often in the morning. Breathing may be difficult, and thick discharge (even crusty) may appear from the nose. The temperature increases, the eyelids swell, and, among other things, there is pain in the eyes.
- Sphenoiditis is characterized by prolonged pain in the area of the back of the head and crown. Even the use of analgesics does not relieve the painful symptom. It may hurt under the eye when pressed, and vision deteriorates somewhat. Patients feel weak and unwell. You may feel discomfort in the nasopharynx.
In acute forms of these diseases, people may develop a fever, and in addition, they often experience dull headaches and a stuffy nose. In chronic forms, the symptoms are not so pronounced, but getting rid of them is very difficult.
Next, we’ll talk about what kind of diagnosis and treatment is carried out when pain of this nature appears.
Principle of operation
To understand what a mobile hotspot is, you need to understand how it works. The operating principle of a wireless access point is as follows. The device receives a signal via wired or mobile communication and distributes it wirelessly to other devices. Essentially, a hotspot is a simple Wi-Fi router that can work stably with a large number of users connected simultaneously.
What also distinguishes a hotspot from a personal network is the ability to set a start page, which the user will definitely see before gaining access to the Internet.
The start page may contain:
- Information about the establishment, rules for staying there,
- An identification page that allows access using the entered passport data or mobile phone number,
- Authentication page to limit the circle of people who are not part of any group (university students, club members, company employees).
We can say about mobile HotSpot that it is a personal access point that supplies other devices with the Internet from one SIM card and a distribution device (smartphone, laptop).
Advantages and disadvantages
Like almost every device, Wi-Fi HotSpot in Windows 10 has its advantages and disadvantages.
Pros:
- The ability to organize an access point anywhere where there is mobile Internet;
- The ability to organize a Wi-Fi network indoors without a wireless router;
- You only need to pay for one tariff plan and use it on multiple devices;
- Possibility to organize a wireless local or VPN network.
Minuses:
- If the battery on a mobile hotspot runs out, all devices lose access to the Internet;
- The data transfer speed and connection quality will be lower than if you use a Wi-Fi router.
Check for usability
To set up a mobile hotspot in Windows 10 and distribute the Internet from your device, you need a Wi-Fi module with installed drivers.
Firmware version
First of all, it is worth updating the software version to the latest one. Because even the presence of a wireless module does not guarantee successful setup of a hotspot. You can upgrade your Windows 10 version since there was no such feature before version 1607. However, this is an old version, released in August 2016. So if after this date the operating system was updated at least once, then the function should be present.
You can update the operating system through Windows Update. To do this, click the button with the image of a gear in the “Start” menu, and in the window that opens, select “Update and Security”. In the settings, you need to click on the “Check for updates” button and update the device if a new version is found.
To update the network card driver, you need to go to the website with drivers for the installed network adapter and select the one you need. After downloading the driver, you need to install it by running the installer.
If there is no installer, then you need to click on the magnifying glass image on the taskbar and write “Device Manager” there. Next, you need to open the “Network adapters” list and update the desired device by right-clicking on it and selecting “Update driver”. In the window that opens, you will need to specify the path to the driver saved on your computer.
Connectivity
To check whether it works, you need to go to the command line or Windows Power Shell. This can be done in several ways.
Press the “Windows” and “X” keys on your keyboard, and in the window that opens, select “Windows PowerShell (administrator)”. You can also right-click on the Windows logo on the taskbar.
You can also use the search function. Click on the magnifying glass image on the taskbar and write “Windows PowerShell” or “cmd” in the text field to open the command line. After the desired item appears in the results, right-click on it and select “Run with administrator rights.”
After selecting any of these applications, you need to enter the following command from the keyboard “netsh wlan show drivers”. A lot of information will appear. You need to find the line “Hosted network support”. If it says “yes”, then configuration is possible, if “no” and all updates and drivers have been installed, then you will not be able to use the function.
What it is?
Now in more detail. This is a feature that allows laptops and PCs to become an impromptu access point. It first appeared in version 7 of the Microsoft operating system. However, in subsequent versions, Microsoft hid the feature from the accessible part of the user interface. However, the connection remained possible when using the built-in command line.
The situation changed with the release of Windows 10 update number 1607. The change, released in August 2022, significantly simplified working with the function.
A software feature built into the operating system allows you to turn the device into an improvised router that allows other computers and gadgets to join the network. Provided that these devices also have hardware that allows them to work with a wireless network and the Wi-Fi protocol.
To create an access point on a desktop PC, buy a USB Wi-Fi adapter. Some motherboards with top-end chipsets have an integrated Wi-Fi module.
Activation on Windows 10
If technically all conditions are met, then you need to activate this function in the operating system. In the latest version of Windows 10, this can be done in several ways.
Graphical interface
You can use a graphical method that is more familiar to most users. To do this, go to “Windows Settings”. You can do this in the following way.
Go to the “start” menu and click on the button with the image of a gear.
A menu with operating system settings will open. You need to click on the “Network and Internet” button, you can find it by the image of the globe.
In the window that opens, in the left column you need to find the “Mobile hotspot” item. By clicking on which, you can access the wireless network settings. By default this feature is disabled. Before you activate the network, you need to make some settings. But you can use it right away if the default settings are suitable.
In the “Internet connection sharing” item, you need to select Wi-Fi as the more popular method of connecting to the Internet. If there are several of them, then you need to choose one of them. Through this connection, Internet access will be provided for its distribution.
Below is the default network name and password. If you need to change them, then there is a “Change” button right below this information.
The only requirement for a password is that it must contain at least 8 characters.
You can also activate the Internet distribution function remotely from another device via Bluetooth, for example, from a mobile phone.
After completing all the manipulations, you need to move the “Allow the use of my Internet connection on other devices” slider to the “On” position. After activation, information about the number of connected devices will appear. The maximum available number of one-time connections is 8.
You can access the access point settings through the search bar; to do this, click on the magnifying glass image on the taskbar and enter “hot spot” in the text field.
You will have access to two panels at once, one for configuration, the other for connecting to a wireless access point. To configure, you need to select the bottom item “Hotspot 2.0 Settings”.
Command line
You can configure a hotspot via the command line; this is a slightly more complicated method, but it helps if you cannot configure the access point via the graphical interface.
To start setting up, you need to go to the command line with administrator rights and enter “netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=”Name” key=”12345678″ keyUsage=persistent”.
Ssid=”Name” is the name of the wireless network.
Key=”12345678” is the password.
After entering these parameters, the settings will be set, but the network will not be active yet, it is launched with the following command:
“netsh wlan start hostednetwork”.
If all the settings have been applied correctly, the command line will look something like this.
Difference from other protocols
To evaluate a PPPoE connection, it is worth comparing it with other protocols - PPTP and L2TP.
Compared to PPTP, a PPPoE connection has advantages:
- higher speed;
- increased reliability;
- PPPoE requires one connection, PPTP requires two (for receiving information and for service data);
- Easier to set up: only login and password are required for authorization.
L2TP is a more secure connection than PPPoE, as it requires two-factor identification in the form of a certificate installed on the router or PC, and entering a login and password. But this advantage requires more power from the router to establish an uninterrupted connection at high speed.
Among the advantages of PPPoE compared to L2TP:
- easier to set up on a PC or router;
- cheaper to operate for the provider;
- The protocol is less demanding on the technical parameters of the device.
Of all the listed protocols, PPPoE is the optimal one. It offers better security than PPTP, but is inferior to L2TP in this regard. At the same time, PPPoE is easier to configure and maintain.
Third party programs
You can connect a hotspot on Windows 10 using third-party programs. For example, you can use Wi-Fi HotSpot Creator. You can download it for free using this link. The application offers all the same settings, only in a simpler and more beautiful shell. Here you can enable or disable the wireless network, set a name, password and connection through which you will access the network.
We distribute a Wi-Fi network by connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi
This sounds a little strange, but you still need to check this connection method. It makes virtually no sense, but maybe it will suit someone. Thus, it turns out that the Internet on a laptop can be connected to an existing wireless network, activated an access point and provided via Wi-Fi to other computer devices. This connection case is suitable, for example, in the case of signal amplification for devices located at the greatest distance from the source.
We configure the access point to broadcast the Internet received from the Wi-Fi wireless network.
This type of connection also works in our case. Now, the laptop is an access point for other devices using an Internet connection from another wireless network.
Possible mistakes
As in any process performed using complex computer technology, various errors are possible that interfere with the work. There may be several reasons why the hotspot does not work on Windows 10.
Cannot configure. Turn on Wi-Fi
This error occurs if there is a problem with the network adapter driver. To solve this, you need to go to “Device Manager” and update the drivers, or use inactive devices. The device may not appear in the manager.
Then you need to go to the “View” tab and check the “Show hidden devices” checkbox. If such are found, then you need to use them and update the drivers for them.
No connection to mobile network
If you are unable to connect to the mobile network, then the problem is related to your network connection. You need to check the functionality of the 4G modem, its settings and the balance on the SIM card.
No connection
There may be problems with the network card. Or some program, for example, an antivirus or firewall, is blocking access to the network. You can temporarily disable all applications and try to connect again.
Devices do not connect
Devices may not connect to the network due to an IP address conflict. If any address is already set in the connected device, then it may coincide with the one assigned by the hotspot to another device. Therefore, you need to reset the network card settings, setting all settings automatically.
Devices may not be able to access the network due to the computer from which the distribution is taking place. In the “Network and Internet” tab, you need to find “Network connections” and select the adapter through which the device connects to the Internet.
In the properties of this connection, you need to give it general access and allow other devices to access the Internet using this connection.
Cannot connect via command line
If the mobile hotspot does not turn on even when configured via the command line, this may be due to problems with the network card driver. Therefore, you need to remove them and install them again. To do this, you need to find the network card in Device Manager and select “Remove device” in the context menu. Then you need to install a new driver.
Distribution mode is enabled, but devices do not connect (no Internet)
If, with a correctly configured access point, there is no connection to other devices (long authorization, obtaining an address and other problems). A large number of users face this problem, but there is no single solution. We will describe probable and working solutions in more detail in the next article.
In this case, you can try disabling blocking antivirus programs, turning off the firewall (set neutral parameters) or checking the IP address settings by setting the automatic mode.
