Is there an option in Windows 7 (or 3rd party) to offer Tethering (that is, act as a WiFi hotspot while being connected to a WiFi network?)
4 Answers
Take a look at Connectify: http://connectify.me
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5there's really no need for this since it's supported natively by win7 as shown in the answer by paktas.– ZoltánDec 1, 2012 at 8:00
A detailed step-by-step to setup wifi tethering/hotspot in Windows 7, Windows 8 WITHOUT any 3rd party software:
From admin Command Prompt type:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=mywifinetwork key=mysecretkey
Enable new virtual Wi-Fi adapter (it might be disabled upon creation)
From admin command prompt type:
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
From current internet conection adapter share (ICS) internet to the new virtual adapter
Connect from wireless client to virtual SSID. Wi-Fi client gets an auto IP and you're good to go.
After host computer restart you only need to repeat steps 3 & 5 to be up and running.
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I got an error telling me that I need administrator privileges (which I had). Turns out that creating ad-hoc networks is disabled in our company (the error message is a bit misleading). You can check that via
netsh wlan show filters
. Aug 13, 2013 at 7:52
Create an ad-hoc network. Here is the guide for Windows 7 from the Microsoft site. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Set-up-a-computer-to-computer-ad-hoc-network
You could use the ad-supported Connectify app, as someone else mentioned, or use http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/, or do it my hand with the netsh command and ICS with a little bit of effort:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=YOURFRIENDLYSSID key=SOMEPASSWORD
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
... then share the real connection through the virtual WiFi NIC.
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1FWIW, I equate "ad-supported" with adware, whereas, unless it's changed since last I used it (unfortunately it causes my laptop to bluescreen when putting it to sleep - Broadcom, surprise surprise), it's "ad-supported" in the same sense that Adobe Reader and Java are, in that the installer asks you if you want to install the unwanted e.g. Google Toolbar with it. Feb 28, 2011 at 22:01
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" then share the real connection through the virtual WiFi NIC." - how should one do that? Aug 24, 2015 at 12:25
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@pihentagy I'm not going to repeat everything here but you can find this online quite easily e. g. windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/… Aug 25, 2015 at 14:07
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virtualrouter.codeplex.com is a great alternative to the command prompt solution. I think it's just a GUI for the CMD option. Oh it's open source too! So that's always cool :)– BramNov 18, 2015 at 8:37