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I have two laptops, one with a working Wi-Fi connection (Laptop 1) and one without (Laptop 2). As I have no Ethernet plugs nearby I want to connect Laptop 2 to Laptop 1 via an Ethernet cable so that they can both use Laptop 1's Wi-Fi connection.

Both laptops are running Windows 7.

Is this possible, and if so, how?

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1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

If you are actually allowed to do this e.g. DHCP is unrestricted and it is simply you want to know how, the easiest way is to go to the network connections page, highlight both the Wireless and Wired internet connections and then right click and choose "Bridge Networks"

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If however this is not your network and/or restricted, uses MAC security or anything advanced, you may have problems and need to assign IP's manually and/or install additional software - in this scenario, I usually tie the network card in to an IPCOP or MONOWall Virtual Machine and share it out from there.

You may also have luck using Window's own network wizard, but I cannot really recommend and/or give advise there.

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Yeah, I did try that. As you have shown, I bridged the wireless connection with the ethernet connection, but this simply routed it through the ethernet port. This is half of what I want, but I want to be able to use wireless on my laptop as well as routing it through the ethernet port for the other laptop. Thanks for your quick reply. – Connor W Dec 22 '09 at 20:51
Huh. Back when I moved and didn't have a network cable in my room I used my laptop's wireless on my PC through this option. The PC acted like it was on the cabled network... – sinni800 May 22 '12 at 11:32

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