WiFi hotspot: what you need to know about it? We make a wifi access point on our computer without any third-party programs How to enable an access point on a Windows 7 laptop.

Very often on the Internet you can find questions about Wi-Fi networks. The network policy of old OS versions is different from the new ones. Also, the design of the dockers is different, and sometimes it is difficult to find familiar old tools. Setting up a Wi-Fi hotspot in Windows 7 also changed. So today I will tell you about how to create a wireless connection.

In Windows 7, the developers found it necessary to put protection on the network. Undoubtedly, this can protect your computer from being hacked, but it also brings some inconvenience. Therefore, before setting up, you need to disable this protection in order to have access to folders and files over the network. To do this, click on the network icon on the Windows working panel and select "Network and Sharing Center".

Figure 1. Network and Sharing Center.

In the network management window, select the settings for sharing settings. And change the advanced sharing options.

Figure 2. Choose a homegroup and sharing options.

In the window that opens, turn off password protection at the very bottom of the settings and save the changes.

Fig 3. Disable password protection.

After that follows setting up a wifi hotspot in windows 7. We return to the network control center. In the left menu of this center, select: Wireless Network Management and click "Add". A window should open with a choice of two types of network settings. The first is to connect to an access point, the second is to create an access point.

Fig 4. Connecting to a wireless network manually.

Therefore, you must select the second one: "Create a computer-to-computer network." Click next and start setting up. Set the name of your network, for example: "MyNetwork". Next, let's talk about the types of security. WEP type - transmits the encryption key to each computer, according to the Windows developers, the WEP type is easy to crack. But if you do not set up a network in a corporate company or office, then there is no point in hacking you. For a normal home network, this type is also suitable. WPA requires user authorization, it is more secure. The last type is Open, which comes without a password. For example, let's choose WEP and set a password. Save network settings.

Fig 5. Network setup.

After that, the working point is ready! Let's check it and try to connect from another device. I used a second laptop to connect. If you have a dedicated button for turning on Wi-Fi then check if it is enabled. We look at the available points and connect to the previously created one.

Fig 6. SettingWi-Fi hotspot inWindows 7.

In the window that opens, enter the password that was set during setup.

Do you need to distribute the Internet to several devices or create a small network for data exchange, but do not have a router or switch at hand?

This problem can be solved with only a laptop with a Wi-Fi adapter installed.

As you know, the operation of devices in Wi-Fi networks can occur in two modes:

1. Ad-Hoc mode (point-to-point) - in this case, clients interact directly, bypassing intermediaries.
2. Infrastructure mode (client-server) - in this case, the interaction between network hosts occurs exclusively through an intermediary - an access point.

Theoretically, the simultaneous operation of one Wi-Fi adapter in two modes is impossible, just like the simultaneous operation of several operating systems on the same host.

After starting the virtual AP, the built-in DHCP server is activated.

In order for client devices to be able to visit Internet resources, go to the “Network Connections” menu with RMB and click on the adapter through which you connect to the Internet.

In our example, this is a wireless adapter, go to the "Access" tab and check 2 checkboxes in the corresponding fields:

To disable use the command:

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

To disable the access point, enter:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow

The use of Virtual AP organized by the built-in Windows tools has a number of limitations: the creation of only one virtual adapter that works only in access point mode.

The maximum number of wireless client devices on the network is 100.

Creating a Virtual AP Using Third Party Programs

For those who don't feel like configuring the Virtual AP using the command line, there are plenty of shell programs that make it easy to configure the Virtual AP with a graphical interface.

Unlike an access point created from the command line, an access point created using the utility does not require activation after turning on the computer, and its configuration is quite trivial.

For example, using the free Virtual Router Manager application, it takes less than 1 minute to deploy a wireless network.

It is enough to specify in the SSID field - the name of the wireless network, Password - the password for connection, Shared Connection - the interface on the basis of which the Virtual AP will be created, and then click the "Start Virtual Router" button.

How to turn a laptop into a wifi hotspot

Laptop as a Wi-Fi access point - complete instructions for setting up the adapter

Sometimes situations arise when you need to connect a tablet, smartphone, game console or TV to the Internet, but there is no router at hand. It does not matter if you have a laptop, netbook or ultrabook at hand. The main thing is that he has a working wireless network module. Thanks to the ICS function built into Windows, you can make an access point from a laptop and distribute the Internet via WiFi.

The only significant limitation is that you must have Internet access either via a network cable (ethernet) or via a 3G/4G modem. You will not be able to distribute Wi-Fi from a laptop and use it at the same time. It is for this reason that this method can only be used as a temporary one. It is not suitable as a permanent one and it is better to buy a router, albeit inexpensive, but still.
There are two ways to set up distribution - simple and more difficult. I'll start with the simplest and fastest.

WiFi Sharing Program

This option is “for the lazy”, that is, for those who do not want to bother, climb through the settings and parameters of Windows, but simply run the program and enjoy life.
On the Internet, you can find many programs that allow you to make a Wi-Fi access point from a laptop. The most famous of them is Connectify. She was one of the first and therefore remained paid. That is why it does not suit - we love free software! Of these, the mHotspot utility used to impress me the most. But lately, a bunch of unnecessary rubbish has been built into the installer, which is put on the computer and then hard to remove.
Recently, on the advice of a good person, I came across one excellent program for distributing the Internet via a wireless network - OSToto Hotspot. This is the simplest utility, and also completely free!

One has only to launch the application and the hotspot will automatically deploy a WiFi network. In the main window, you can see a list of connected users and, if necessary, you can send any of them to the Blacklist. If you need to change the network name "SSID" or the default password, then click on the word Edit and these fields will become editable.

The utility settings are not rich, but for most cases they are quite enough.

Here you can enable autorun and automatically turn on the access point on the computer. You can also change the operating mode, enable or disable hibernation and hide the icon in the system tray.

Built-in Windows hotspot

The programs described above use a special mechanism built into the operating system by developers for their work. It first appeared back in Windows 7 and from there it smoothly migrated to all subsequent versions, up to the most modern today - Windows 10. To configure this feature manually, you need to right-click on the Start button. In the menu that opens, select "Command Prompt (Administrator)". In the black window of the Windows command console that appears, enter the command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Set-Os key=121223344

In it, the SSID is the name of the access point being created, and key is the password for Wi-Fi.

We press the "Enter" button. The parameters are set, now you need to start the wireless network with the command:

The command should work without errors.

With this, we set up and launched a virtual WiFi hotspot on a laptop. Another icon will appear in the list of Windows network connections - "Wireless Network" with a number. I have it number 3.

But this is not enough - now we need to force the distribution of the Internet, that is, in fact, to make a full-fledged laptop router. To do this, open network connections (press the Win + R keys and enter the command ncpa.cpl). In the list of available connections, select the one through which you are connected to the Internet. In my example, this is a LAN connection:

Right-click on it and select "Properties".

Note: If your provider uses the PPPoE or L2TP protocol, then you need to select the high-speed connection icon.

In the properties window that appears, open the "Access" tab:

On it, check the box "Allow other users to use this computer's Internet connection." A list of home network connections will appear below. In it, you need to select the created wireless network and click the "OK" button.

Now your laptop works as a WiFi access point and can distribute the Internet like a regular router. All the best!

Now wireless Wi-Fi networks are supported by a huge variety of devices, from watches to TVs. Usually for such devices use a Wi-Fi router. But, if there is no such router, then you can get by with an ordinary laptop or computer with a Wi-Fi adapter. In this article, you will learn how to create a Wi-Fi hotspot on a computer or laptop running Windows 7 or Windows 10.

Creating a Wi-Fi Hotspot on Windows 7

First, let's look at a more complicated way to create a Wi-Fi hotspot. This method is based on using the command line, so it works fine in both Windows 7 and Windows 10. Although in the case of Windows 10, it is better to use the second method, which is described at the end of the article.

So, in order to create a Wi-Fi hotspot based on a Windows 7 computer, you need to open a command prompt with administrator rights. To do this, open the "Start" menu, enter the phrase "Command Prompt" in the search, right-click on the found program and select "Run as administrator". This is the easiest option though.

After the command line is launched, you can start creating a Wi-Fi access point. To do this, run the following command:

Netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="wifi_name" key="wifi_password" keyUsage=persistent

Please note that this command has parameters "wifi_name" and "wifi_password". This is the name of the Wi-Fi access point to be created and the password to connect to it. In order to create a secure access point, it is better to change these parameters.

After executing the specified command, a message should appear on the command line to allow the hosted network mode, as well as to change the SSID and passphrase.

Now you need to run a command that will only launch the previously created Wi-Fi access point:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

After executing this command, you should get the message "Hosted network is running". If you get the message "Failed to start the hosted network" then you have a problem with your Wi-Fi adapter. It may be disabled or not working due to driver issues. Solve the problem with the Wi-Fi adapter and run the "netsh wlan start hostednetwork" command again.

At this point, the Wi-Fi hotspot has already been created and is working. You can even connect to it, but you won't be able to access the Internet. In order to enable Internet sharing, you need to open the "Network Connections" window. To do this, you can press Windows-R and run the "ncpa.cpl" command.

In the "Network Connections" window, you need to find the connection through which you connect to your Internet provider. Right-click on this connection and go to "Properties".

Next, you need to go to the "Access" tab and enable the "Allow other network users to use this computer's Internet connection" option there. Also here you need to open the drop-down list and select the Wi-Fi connection that was created earlier by executing the commands. In the screenshot below, this connection is called "Local Area Connection 13", but in your case the name will be different.

This completes the creation of a Wi-Fi access point on Windows 7. Close the window with the "Ok" button and check how Wi-Fi works. To connect to the created access point, use the password you specified earlier.

It should be noted that the "netsh wlan start hostednetwork" command must be run after each Windows 7 startup. In order to stop the access point, use the "netsh wlan stop hostednetwork" command.

Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot on Windows 10

If you have Windows 10, then you are lucky, in this operating system the process of creating a Wi-Fi access point is greatly simplified. Here you do not need to execute any commands, everything is done in a couple of mouse clicks.

So, in order to create a Wi-Fi hotspot on a Windows 10 computer, you need to open the Options window. To do this, you can open the Start menu and click on the gear icon. You can also right-click on the Start button and select Settings from the menu that appears.

In the "Settings" window, immediately go to the "Network and Internet" section.

And then open the subsection "Mobile hot spot". Here, at the very top of the window, there will be an available “Mobile Hot Spot” function. Enable this function and the Wi-Fi hotspot will be created automatically.

Below you can select the connection to be shared via the Wi-Fi hotspot, and view or change the hotspot name and password.

We remind you that attempts to repeat the actions of the author can lead to the loss of the warranty for the equipment and even to its failure. The material is provided for informational purposes only. If you are going to reproduce the steps described below, we strongly advise you to carefully read the article to the end at least once. The editors of 3DNews are not responsible for any possible consequences.

In the case of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, this is just one of the many innovations that has gone almost unnoticed, although it is extremely easy to find materials on this topic on the Web. Strictly speaking, the Wi-Fi specification implies that the network operates in two main modes - either point-to-point (ad-hoc mode), when all clients connect to each other, or in access point mode (infrastructure mode), when data exchange between two hosts goes through a third party. The operation of one physical adapter simultaneously in these two modes is theoretically impossible.

In practice, Microsoft decided to turn their attention to the now fashionable virtualization technologies and created a layer that abstracts the wireless adapter. In fact, we can have several Wi-Fi modules in the system, each with its own settings, which in reality use the resources of only one physical device. This subsystem is called Virtual Wi-Fi. Intel has a similar development - Intel MyFi (My Wi-Fi). We will not go into the technical details of the implementation of each of the technologies - it is important for us that we can make the adapter work in the Software Access Point (SoftAP) mode.

So why would you need SoftAP? Firstly, to quickly organize a local wireless network to which you can connect another computer, smartphone, and so on. Secondly, you can distribute the Internet from the main machine inside our small network. In this case, the clients will be behind NAT. It doesn't matter how we access the Network on a machine with SoftAP - via Ethernet, WiMax, 3G, Dial-Up (anything happens) or something else. It is noteworthy that a computer can be connected to any wireless network and at the same time be an access point.

Thus, it is easy to create a repeater by placing a laptop on the edge of receiving the main wireless network and setting the same SoftAP settings as the parent access point. Thus, we will expand the range of the network, and all clients, if necessary, will automatically reconnect to the repeater and vice versa. Another possibility is the easy "institution" of wireless client traffic to any available network interface, for example, to a VPN tunnel. There are other possibilities for using a software access point that go beyond the moral framework of our rubrics.

To implement SoftAP, we need a Wi-Fi adapter whose drivers support this mode. In principle, almost all modern wireless modules, built-in or external, have this capability. Moreover, Virtual Wi-Fi support is one of the prerequisites for the adapter to be included in the list of certified compatible devices for Windows 7. Do not be too lazy to find out this point before starting the setup and update the drivers just in case from the official website of the Wi-Fi module manufacturer. However, in most cases, the driver that “arrived” along with system updates will work as it should. Unfortunately (not very big, really), now we can create only one virtual access point with mandatory WPA2-PSK / AES encryption.

In order to create an access point, it is enough to launch the console (command line) as an administrator and execute a single command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="SoftAP Tst" key="Yourpassword" keyUsage=persistent

Naturally, in the ssid parameter, you must specify the name of the access point, and in key, set the password for accessing the network. In the future, you can change the AP parameters in the same way. After executing the command, the OS will install the required driver and the Virtual Wi-Fi we need will appear in the list of wireless adapters. To remove an adapter, specify mode=disallow in the command and omit all other parameters.

Now you can start the point with the command:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

To stop the work, we logically change the start parameter to stop in the command.

Highly discouraged when working inSoftAP disable physical adapterWi-Fi for example pull it outUSB ports - this can lead to an emergency shutdown of the OS !!!

To view the current settings of a virtual access point, you can use the commands:

netsh wlan show settings

netsh wlan show hostednetwork setting=security

When SoftAP starts, the built-in DHCP server will automatically start. To “share” an Internet connection for users of a newly created wireless network, you need to go to the “Sharing” tab in the properties of the network interface that just has access to the Network. There you need to enable permission to share the network and select our virtual adapter in SoftAP mode.

To simplify working with a software access point, two programs can be recommended: VirtualRouter and Connectify. The first is absolutely free, but a little outdated and does not always work out of the box, and the second asks to pay money for access to some functions. However, it's worth it. The functionality of the utility far exceeds the built-in capabilities of the OS for working with a virtual access point. It has an UpnP server, it allows you to choose a different type of encryption, it has more convenient management of wireless clients, and much, much more. In general, a real little software monster for organizing a hot spot. If you really need this advanced functionality, then $30 a year doesn't sound like much. You can also create a software hotspot on Linux or Mac OS X. True, in the first case, you will have to tinker with the settings, and there will be fewer opportunities than in Windows 7. In the second case, in the best traditions of Apple's OS, everything is done elementarily. In addition, with the advent of AirDrop and AirPlay, the exchange of information between i-devices has been greatly simplified. On this, as they say in these your Internets, we will consider the topic open. Good luck!