Tip of the Week: Transforming Windows 8 into a WiFi Access Point

Nowadays, it is normal to find WiFi hotspots and access points anywhere especially in public places. Most people would even prefer bringing their own portable hotspot with them wherever they go. Everything has become possible especially in the advent of newer technologies but of course, all these stuff will require you to spend especially if you’re the type of user who only knows the basics.

There are plenty of WiFi equipment available at present and most of these take advantage of mobile Internet. For instance, you can purchase a USB broadband stick and use it for surfing the Internet on your Windows machine but if you want to share the connection to your other devices, you will need a router that has a slot for USB broadband modem so you can start broadcasting your Internet connection. This is the best option for normal users however, there is a way to create a WiFi access point simply by using your computer and a good Internet connection. There’s no need of purchasing additional equipment, simply follow the steps below to learn how this trick is done.

What You Need:

1.  A good Internet connection (LAN, Broadband or Dial Up)

2. A working computer (cross your fingers and pray that it supports sharing of your Internet connection)

3. External WiFi adapter (if in case the one built-in to your computer does not support a hosted network)

The Process

The very first thing that you need to do is check whether your computer’s built-in wireless network adapter is capable of broadcasting your Internet connection. Most of the newer models do so if you own a brand new laptop then chances are it will work perfectly in doing this trick but if you have an older model which you just upgraded to Windows 8 then you might need to buy an external WiFi adapter that supports sharing of your Internet connection. To find out whether your computer would work, here are some simple instructions to follow.

1. Open “Command Prompt” with administrator rights. To do this on your Windows 8 machine, simply open the Start Screen and start typing the word “command” on your keyboard.

2. After typing the word, the search results will then display at the left hand side of the screen. In this case, there’s only one item that will appear on the results and it is the “Command Prompt”.

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3. Next, you will need to put the mouse pointer on top of the “Command Prompt” shortcut that appeared on the search results then hit the right-click button. You will now see a bar containing a set of options at the bottom of the screen. From these options, look for the one that says “Run as administrator”.

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4. A shorter method of doing this is by pressing the “Windows + X” keys then on the system menu that appears, simply click on the item that says “Command Prompt (Admin)”. After doing any of these steps, the Command Prompt with administrator rights will open. Now, it is time to start inputting some commands to command prompt so you can find out whether you computer’s built-in wireless network adapter can share your internet connection.

5. On the Command Prompt screen, you will need to input the  command shown below (excluding the quotation marks):

“netsh wlan show drivers”

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After inputting the command, simply hit the Enter key on your keyboard. After doing so, a set of output result lines will appear telling you the details of your wireless network adapter drivers. From these lines, look for an item that says “Hosted network supported:”. This item should have a “Yes” label. If you see a “No” then that means that the hardware installed on your computer does not support sharing your Internet connection. If this is the case then you will need to buy an external wireless network adapter that supports such function.

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Creating the Access Point

If you’ve seen the word “Yes” under  “Hosted network supported”. You can now start creating your own access point by entering even more commands to the command prompt screen. Just like setting up a WiFi router, you’ll need to setup a network name or what is called an SSID and as well as a password for the access point that you are going to set up so you better think of a network name that has more than 8 characters. The password should also contain more than 8 characters and to make it more secure, you can use a combination of alphanumeric characters. To input the SSID and the password, simply follow the command below (excluding the quotation marks).

“netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<ssid name> key=<password>”

For instance, my SSID is WindowsTechies and my password is wintech2014 so I’ll input the command as follows:

“netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=WindowsTechies key=wintech2014”

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After inputting the command with your desired SSID and password, simply hit the “Enter” key and after doing so, the output result should look like the screenshot below.

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As you can see, the result output given by the Command Prompt says that the hosted network has now been allowed and the SSID or the network name as well as the password/passphrase has already been changed from the default to the new one that you just entered. If you don’t see these statements on the output then you could have entered an SSID and a password that has less than 8 characters. Windows only allows a network name that does not go below 8 characters in length and to make sure that your password is not easily cracked, the system also requires it to have more than 8 characters.

Start Your Access Point

Now that the SSID and the password is already in place, the next step is enabling your computer to broadcast your Internet connection so it can be shared to your other devices. To do this, simply input the command below (excluding the quotation marks).

“netsh wlan start hostednetwork”

After typing this into the command prompt, simply hit the “Enter” key and the result output should say that the hosted network already started.

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After it starts, you can check on your other devices and see if there’s a new wireless network being detected by it which bears the SSID that you have set earlier. If you find one then it means that the whole process was a success! Simply connect to it and enter the password that you’ve set earlier to finally be connected to the network.

If you want to turn off your computer from broadcasting your Internet connection, simply input the command below into the command prompt then hit “Enter”.

“netsh wlan stop hostednetwork”

After doing so, the network will just disappear. To turn it on again, simply click input the command for starting the hosted network.

Share Your Internet Anytime Anywhere!

As you can see, the process of sharing your Internet connection using your Windows 8 computer is very simple. With this method, you can easily start your own access point no matter where you are for as long as you have a reliable Internet connection. Love this tip? Be sure to share it with your friends and spread the trick that works like magic. If you encountered problems with the steps shown in this tutorial please feel free to tell us by describing them on the comments section below.