Wifi Hotspot on Laptop

A hotspot is a physical location where people may obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an internet service provider (ISP).

Public hotspots may be found in an increasing number of businesses for use of customers in many developed urban areas throughout the world, such as coffee shops. Many hotels offer wifi access to guests, either in guest rooms or in the lobby. Hotspots differ from wireless access points, which are the hardware devices used to provide a wireless network service. Private hotspots allow Internet access to a device (such as a tablet) via another device which may have data access via say a mobile device.

There are some situations whe nyou don't have data pack on your cell phone and you need internet on your cell phone urgently, may be for whatsapp or any other purpose. But you may have ethernet (LAN) connection for your laptop. There may also be a situation at your home or office that you have only one ethernet connection available and multiple users want to use it simultaniously or there may be a situation when you have Data Pack on your data card and you want to use tha same on your cell phone.So today i am going to tell you how you can create a Wifi Hotspot on your laptop.

There are  various third party softwares which you can  use to create Wifi Hotspot like Gearbox, Connectify, PC Faster, Virtual Router, mHotspot, MyPublicWiFi etc. But why to use any third party software when you can create one on your own by using Command Prompt.

Whether you're connecting to the internet using a wireless or wired adapter, similar to previous versions, Windows 10 allows you to share an internet connection with other devices with a feature called "Hosted Network".

To follow this guide, you'll need to open the Command Prompt with administrator rights. To do this, use the Windows key + X keyboard shortcut, and select Command Prompt (Admin).

How to check if your wireless adapter supports Hosted Networks in Windows

While some adapters include support for Hosted Network, you will first need to verify your computer's physical wireless adapter supports this feature using the following command:

NETSH WLAN show drivers

If the generated output shows Hosted network supported: Yes, then you can continue with the guide. If your wireless adapter isn't supported, you could try using a USB wireless adapter that supports the feature.

How to create a wireless Hosted Network in Windows

Creating a wireless hotspot in Windows 10 is relatively straightforward - don't let the command line scare you. Simply follow the steps below to configure a wireless Hosted Network:

While in Command Prompt (Admin) enter the following command:

NETSH WLAN set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Your_SSID key=Your_Passphrase

Where the "Your_SSID" would be the name you want to identify your wireless network when trying to connect a new device, and the "Your_Passphrase" is the network security key you want users to use to connect to your network. (Remember that the passphrase has to be at least 8 characters in length.)

Once you created a Hosted Network, enter the following command to activate it:

NETSH WLAN start hostednetwork

How to share your internet connection with a Hosted Network in Windows

Up to here, you created and started a Hosted Network in your Windows 10 PC. However, any wireless capable device won't be able to access the internet just yet. The last thing you need to do is to share an internet connection using the "Internet Connection Sharing" feature from a physical network adapter.

1. Use the Windows key + X keyboard shortcut to open the Power User menu, and select Network Connections.

2. Next, right-click the network adapter with an internet connection - this could be a traditional Ethernet or wireless network adapter - select Properties.

Note: In Network Connections, you should now see a new our new Microsoft Hosted Virtual Adapter which is labeled Local Area Connection* X, and with the SSID name.

3. Click the Sharing tab.

4. Check the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection option.

5. Next, from the Home networking connection drop-down menu select the Microsoft Hosted Virtual Adapter.

6. Click OK to finish.

How to stop sharing an internet connection with other devices in Windows

# If you want to stop allowing other devices to connect wirelessly through your computer, you can type the following command in the Command Prompt and hit Enter:

NETSH WLAN stop hostednetwork

# At any time, you can just use the start variant of the command to allow other devices to connect to the internet using your computer as an access point without extra configuration:

NETSH WLAN start hostednetwork