How to turn your Windows laptop into a

hotspot
By Alora Uy Guerrero | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom – 22 hours ago

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Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom - ßepa03374857 A person types on a Toshiba hybrid

device - a combined laptop and tablet computer - with the 'Windows 8' operating system
on it during the second media day …more  ahead of the opening of the International
Radio Exhibition (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2012. The IFA, one of the world's
leading exhibitions for consumer electronics, opens its gates on 31 August and will last
until 05 September 2012 at the fairground around Berlin's old radio tower. EPA/RAINER
JENSEN  less 

So you finally bought a laptop months after telling yourself that you were in dire need of a
portable computer and that an iPad, regardless of processor grunt, wasn't going to cut it.

You even got yourself a 3G USB modem to go along with your recent purchase to connect you
to the Internet without spending the entire day at a coffee shop.

There may be times when those around you—family or friends—can’t connect to the Web and
may need your help, except there's not enough Internet connection to go around the table. That
shouldn't be the case if you own a Windows-based computer that supports a hosted network.

>>SEE ALSO: This will be Microsoft's 'biggest innovation year, ever'

Today, we'll show you how to turn that computer into a WiFi hotspot without using a third-party
software that may likely eat up memory even after it is closed. Any machine running Windows
XP and up, including Windows 8.1 Preview, will do.
Step 1: Hit the Start button, and type "Command Prompt" or "cmd" on the search box. If your
computer is based on Windows 8, you'll need to press the keyboard's Windows logo key to
switch to the system's Modern UI Style and type "Command Prompt" or "cmd." Run Command
Prompt with admin rights. To do that, right-click on the Command Prompt icon and select "Run
as administrator."

Step 2: Type "netsh wlan show drivers" (without the quotation marks) in Command Prompt to
check whether or not your computer supports a hosted network. The "Hosted network supported"
field should indicate "Yes" if your unit supports WiFi sharing. If it says "No," you'll have to
download the corresponding driver for your WiFi adapter first before proceeding.
Step 3: To create a hotspot, type "netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow
ssid=yournetworkname key=yournetworkpassword," and hit Enter on your keyboard.
Remember, "ssid" refers to the WiFi hotspot's name while "key" is said network's password. You
can also use the aforementioned command to change the hotspot's name and password.
 To create a hotspot, type

Step 4: To get the hotspot up and running, type "netsh wlan start hostednetwork." Make sure
your computer's WiFi adapter is also switched on, or the hotspot won't work at all.
Step 5: Again, hit the Start button. Type "Network and Sharing Center," and left-click on it. If
you're using a Windows-based unit, you probably know what to do by now. (Switch to Modern
UI Style, and type "Network and Sharing Center.")
Step 6: Select "Change adapter settings," which can be found on the left-hand side of the
window. Both the network connection you want to share and your newly created WiFi hotspot
are shown here. Choose the network connection you wish to share. Right click on it, select
"Properties," and go to the "Sharing" tab. Check the option "Allow other network users to
connect through this computer's Internet connection." This time, select the WiFi hotspot you
created earlier.
That's it! If everything goes according to plan, you should be sharing your network connection
via WiFi now. Use any smart device you have with you to check if your hotspot is live and
working.

But we're not done yet. We haven't told you how to turn off your hotspot. To do so, type "netsh
wlan stop hostednetwork" in Command Prompt.
Keep in mind that you'll have to enter the "netsh wlan start" and "netsh wlan stop" commands in
Command Prompt to switch your hotspot on and off, respectively, each time you power on your
computer. A simpler and less time-consuming way to do that is to create shortcuts.
Right-click on the Desktop window, select "New," proceed to clicking "Shortcut." Use this
command: "C:\Windows\System32\netsh.exe wlan start hostednetwork” as the location of your
shortcut. Choose "Next," rename the shortcut to "Start WiFi hotspot," or call it whatever you
want, and select "Finish."
Repeat the same step for the "netsh wlan stop" command shortcut, but use this command: "C:\
Windows\System32\netsh.exe wlan stop hostednetwork" instead. Now you have shortcuts for
your WiFi hotspot. Happy sharing!