Share your laptop's internet connection

Recently, I wrote about how to share a desktop's internet connection. This time I will discuss how to share a wired laptop's internet connection wirelessly also known as an ad hoc connection.

An ad hoc connection is simply a connection between computers via wifi. If it is a wire connection, it is not considered an ad hoc connection.

How does this differ differ from my previous post How to share your desktop internet connection? That post was intended to share a connection via a router that way it is still shared wirelessly via wifi while this how to will turn your notebook into a wifi hotspot without needing to connect a wirelss router.

Here is what needs to be done.

Start by sharing your internet connection
1. Go to your network connection (Start ->All Programs -> Accessories -> Communications -> Network connections). On your network connections find your connection to the internet, right click it then click on Properties.

2. On the properties window, click on the Advanced tab.

3. On the Internet Connection Sharing box, check the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection. Any warning that comes up, just click ok.

4. In case you are using a USB modem and not a wired connection, a drop down window just below this check box will offer you two choices either Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection. In this case choose wireless network connection. Choosing Local Area Connection will tell the system to share the internet through the ethernet port which is for wired connection.

5. Uncheck Allow other network users to control or disable the shared internet connection. This step is to ensure that nobody but the owner has control over the network.

6. ClickOK and the internet connection is now shared.

Now turn on ad hoc connectivity and make your laptop a mobile wifi hotspot.
1. Again on Network Connections, right click Wireless Network Connection and click Properties.

2. On the properties window, click on the Wireless Networks tab.

3. Look for the Preferred networks box and just below it is the Add button.

4. On the Association tab of the new window, input any network name you desire (Network name SSID).

5. Choose Shared for Network Authentication and WEP for Data Encryption.

6. Uncheck The key is provided for me automatically to be able to input custom password.

7. Check This is a computer-to-computer ad hoc network. Then click OK to accept the settings and close the window.

8. Click OK on the properties window to start the ad hoc network.

9. The ad hoc network should be ready by now. For other computers to connect to this network, the network has to be provided.

**Note that as of this writing (April 7, 2013) an Android device could not detect it. This was tried on an Android tablet with Ice Cream Sandwich but it could not find the ad hoc network. Nokia phones however with symbian O/S were able to detect it.

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