The organization of the distribution of a wireless WiFi signal directly from a personal computer terminal for many users today is very relevant. What do you think, how can you make a PC give out WiFi, and even with minimal costs for acquiring the equipment necessary for this? Indeed, it’s worth considering the creation of an access point (in our case it will be an access point), without using a router (ADSL modem or router), but using only the very minimum of software and hardware. To perform such actions, you can offer several basic methods that are quite simple and do not require special knowledge in the field of computer technology.
Can a PC give out WiFi, and what do I need to distribute?
Since most stationary-type personal computers mainly use the Internet connection via a wired connection (the provider's cable connected directly to the terminal), we will proceed from this, considering that we do not have a router that could initially transmit a wireless signal. But how to distribute WiFi from a PC without a router or ADSL modem? A basic wired connection will be sufficient for this, but the computer must be equipped with an additional wireless module.
This refers to the simplest WiFi adapters connected to the terminal via the USB interface. They are cheap enough, and the signal broadcast radius is not bad for an apartment, house or even a small office. If the terminals are far from each other, an additional repeater (repeater) may be required, but the easiest way is to configure one of the computers as another access point through the originally created wireless network.
Distribution settings in network settings
So, we decided on the equipment. Now let's see how to distribute WiFi via PC in practice. The first solution will be to configure a new network connection through the standard network management section, which can be found in the Control Panel. In this section, you must choose to create a new connection and specify the type of wireless connection "computer-to-computer".
After that, in the settings you need to set an arbitrary name for the new network, set WPA2-Personal as a security protocol and come up with an access key (password). If desired, the displayed options can be immediately saved by checking the corresponding item below. At the final stage, it remains only to activate the shared access to the created connection. All. The network is ready for use, but the connection may not yet be available for other devices.
Additional actions and settings
Now, in the settings of existing connections, you need to go to the point of changing the adapter properties or call the desired section from the "Run" console with the ncpa.cpl command, which is much faster and easier.
Then, in the properties on the access tab, activate permission items for other users to use and manage the created connection.
In addition, for a PC that acts as an access point, you must enable network discovery, and if necessary, enable shared access to printers and files or set permissions to modify files on the network.
The nuances of choosing a network type
Often you have to solve for yourself the problem of choosing the type of network created. The system itself offers to set either public or private in the parameters. By and large, both of these profiles are not particularly different from each other. But for some reason, most uninitiated users believe that a private network is more secure. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The fact is that in the home profile the restrictions are much less than those set for a public network. In principle, if you are sure that only your relatives and friends will use the connection, and there is no extremely confidential information on computers, laptops or mobile devices, expose the use of a private network (although, as mentioned above, this does not play a special role). But when creating such a connection in offices, it is better to prefer a public network.
Create and activate through the command line
How to share WiFi with a PC using the simplest method is a little understandable. Now we’ll use a more complex solution, which, however, compared to the previous one, is more practical in terms of the actions performed and requires less time. Of course, we are talking about the command console, which must be used only with start on behalf of the administrator. In this way, in Windows 7, you can call it with a combination of cmd directly in the Run menu, marking the desired start point. In other versions of the system, where in the Run console there may be no start point with administrator privileges, the start can be made either from the Task Manager or directly from the cmd.exe executable file located in the System32 directory.
How to distribute WiFi from a PC using this technique?
To create and activate a new connection, you need only two commands (we assume that the wireless adapter driver is installed and works correctly):
- netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode = allow ssid = "NAME" key = "XXXXXXXX" keyUsage = persistent - create a network, where NAME is the network name and XXXXXXXX is the access password (at least eight characters);
- netsh wlan start hostednetwork - inclusion of the created network with distribution of a wireless signal.
Note: from disabling broadcasting, a command similar to the second one is used, but instead of the "start" operator, "stop" is written.
How to distribute WiFi from a Windows 10 PC?
With the tenth modification of Windows, the situation is quite simple, since its developers themselves took care to include a special distribution activation tool in the main set without using additional settings. This is a built-in tool called a mobile hot spot. How to distribute WiFi from a PC using this application?
To do this, just turn on the distribution by clicking on the special tile, which is located in the menu of the notification section, which is displayed in the system tray. You do not need to configure anything yourself, and if necessary, you can change some options and settings through the appropriate section in the options menu, but most users do not need this at all.
Third party programs
Finally, let's see how to distribute WiFi from a PC using third-party software for this. You can find a lot of such applications on the Internet, but in the names of most of them there will be something like a hot spot or virtual router. Just programs of the Virtual Router class are best suited because they are as simple and clear as possible to any ordinary user and do not require any special settings.
In the applications themselves, you just need to set the connection name and password, and then turn on the distribution. The rest of the program will do it for you.
Possible errors and failures
If for some reason something does not work, first of all you need to pay attention to the status of the wireless adapter and the operation of its drivers. Sometimes users forget to enable broadcasting in the network connection settings. There are cases when the created connection can be blocked by antivirus software or third-party installed firewalls. However, most of the problems are connected with the equipment and its control drivers. If necessary, reinstall them or update, for which you can use non-standard means of the system, but do this using special automated utilities like Driver Booster. In extreme cases, if the driver cannot be found, through the “Device Manager”, determine the VEN and DEV equipment identifiers, search the Internet for software on them, download and install the driver yourself.