Have you ever been in a situation where you have no W-Fi
router, just one network cable and five people who need to use the Internet? Or
maybe you have a 3G dongle that works with your laptop, but leaves your
Wi-Fi-only tablet offline. Sounds familiar? It would certainly be handy to
share the Internet connection amongt all users and devices without a router,
right?
Or maybe this scenario will ring a bell. Many hotels offer
wired Internet access for free, but charge you for Wi-Fi and/ or for using the
Internet on more than one device. So should you just pay the crazy amount they
ask for? Not necessarily.
You can share your laptop or desktop Internet connection via
Wi-Fi to other devices, and for the most part, it's quite simple. Mac users
face no trouble at all, as setting up Internet sharing in OS X is just a couple
of click away, but for Windows users the process can be a little bit more
labored. The built-in options don't always cut it due to the complicated setup
and reliability problems.
Internet sharing on Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1
Thankfully, there are quite a few apps that let you use your
machine as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Before you use any of these apps, you may want to
check the steps on Microsoft's site to see Windows' built-in Internet sharing
and see if you have better luck than we did. We do recommend that you skip that
and use a third-party app instead, since the experience is usually much better.
We tested some popular apps that let you do this -
Connectify and Virtual Router Plus. The latter didn't work very well for us.
Our anti-virus flagged it as a threat and during installation it tried to make
us install unwanted software.
We didn't have the same issues with Connectify. It is a
reliable app for turning your computer into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Before you
proceed, know that you will need a Windows PC with a Wi-Fi adapter (or built-in
Wi-Fi) to make this work. If your computer does not have Wi-Fi, then you can
buy one that connects via USB, such as this one.
Here are the steps to setup your Windows machine as a Wi-Fi
hotspot:
1. Download Connectify and install it. The installation is
pretty straightforward and when installation is complete, restart your
computer.
2. After restarting the computer, check whether it is
connected to the Internet. If it is, run the Connectify Hotspot app.
3. You'll see two tabs in the app - Settings and Clients. In
the Settings tab, under "Create a..." click Wi-Fi Hotspot.
4. Under Internet to Share, you'll see a drop-down menu.
Expand it and select the connection you want to share. We tested this app with
a wired and a wireless connection and found that it worked perfectly with both.
5. Under that, you'll see some more options. Add a Wi-Fi
password. Click Start Hotspot.
That's all you need to do. Now other devices will detect a
Wi-Fi network labelled Connectify-me. Key in the password and you're good to
go.
Connectify is a paid app, but it has a stripped down free
version. You can create a hotspot with the free version, but the main
limitation is that it automatically disconnects every 30 minutes and shows
pop-ups asking you to buy the pro version. You'll have to re-enable the hotspot
manually to start using it again.
The Pro version has more features and costs $25 (Rs. 1,550)
for a year and $40 (Rs. 2,450) for a full licence. Apart from unlimited hotspot
uptime, you get features such as custom hotspot naming, the ability to share
Internet from 3G and 4G networks (for sharing USB Internet dongles), and
advanced firewall controls (choose which devices can access Internet and
personal files on your LAN).
Internet Sharing on OS X
Mac users have it a lot easier. Here's how to share your
Mac's Internet connection.
1. Open System Preferences > Sharing > check Internet
Sharing on the left.
2. On the right, expand the drop-down menu next to Share
your connection from: and select the connection you want to share. You can
share Internet connections from Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or even iPhone USB.
Typically, you'd want to select Ethernet, if you are using a
wired Internet connection iMac, Mac Pro, or MacBook Pro. If you are using an
external Ethernet adapter with a MacBook Air, you'll want to select USB
Ethernet or Thunderbolt Ethernet, depending upon the kind of dongle you are
using (usually it's USB).
3. Just below that, there's a box next to To computers
using: where you should check the box next to Wi-Fi.
4. Click the Wi-Fi Options button below the box. Pick a
Network Name, Security Type and enter the password twice in fields named
Password and Verify. We strongly recommend you choose a password, instead of
leaving the Security option has None. You can leave Channel as the default
value unless you know what you are doing. Click OK.
5. If the connection is active, you'll see a green icon and
text Internet Sharing: On under System Preferences.
That's all. You'll be able to use the Internet on other devices now by connecting to the network you specified under Network Name.