We distribute the wifi of a computer on Windows 7. How to distribute the Internet from a computer via Wi-Fi? Detailed instructions. Distributing WiFi from a computer using special software

If you have a computer that is connected to the Internet via cable, then you do not need to buy a router in order to connect other devices to the Internet. Instead, you can distribute Wi-Fi directly from your computer and connect your phones, tablets and other mobile gadgets to it.

Distributing Wi-Fi from a computer running Windows 7

The first method of distributing Wi-Fi from a computer to a phone involves using the command line. It works great on both Windows 7 and the more modern Windows 10. Although, if you have Windows 10, we recommend using the second method, which is described a little lower, and this method is best used only on Windows 7.

So, in order to set up Wi-Fi distribution, you will need the command line. Moreover, it must be launched with administrator rights, otherwise the commands will not work. In order to launch the command prompt with administrator rights, open the “Start” menu, type “Command Prompt” into the search, right-click on the found program and select “Run as administrator”.

After launching the command line, you can begin setting up a Wi-Fi connection that will distribute the Internet from your computer to your phone. To do this, first enter the following command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="wifi_name" key="wifi_password" keyUsage=persistent

Wherein the parameters “wifi_name” and “wifi_password” need to be replaced with your own, since this is the name of the Wi-Fi network and the password to access it.

If this command completes normally, you will receive a message indicating that Hosted Network Mode is enabled on the wireless service and that the Network ID and Password have been changed.

After this you need to run one more command:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

This command will launch the previously created Wi-Fi network, after which you can already connect to it. If the command “netsh wlan start hostednetwork” does not work and you get the error “Could not start the hosted network”, then this means that you have some problems with the Wi-Fi adapter. The drivers may not be installed or the Wi-Fi adapter may be disabled. Check everything and try the command again.

After the Wi-Fi network is launched, you can connect to it using your phone, but the Internet is not yet available. In order for this Wi-Fi network to start distributing the Internet, you need to press the Windows-R key combination and run the following command in the window that opens:

This will take you to the “Network Connections” window. Here you need to right-click on the connection, through which your computer accesses the Internet and select “Properties”. Please note that you need to open “Properties” for the connection through which the Internet accesses your computer; do not confuse the network connections.

After this, a window with the properties of the network connection will open in front of you. Here you need to go to the “Access” tab, check the box next to the “Allow other network users to use this computer’s Internet connection” and select “Local Area Network Connection 13” from the drop-down list.

It should be noted that in your case the name of the network you need to select will be different. You can see the correct name in the “Network Connections” window, a new connection will appear there.

That’s all, close the connection properties by clicking on the “Ok” button and check how Wi-Fi distribution from the computer to the phone works.

In the future, if you want to stop Wi-Fi distribution, run the command “netsh wlan stop hostednetwork”. To restart Wi-Fi distribution after stopping or restarting the computer, run the command “netsh wlan start hostednetwork”.

How to distribute Wi-Fi from a computer running Windows 10

If your computer is running the Windows 10 operating system, then there is a much simpler method for you than the one described above. In your case, to set up Wi-Fi distribution from your computer to your phone, you will need to do just a few clicks of the mouse.

So, if you have Windows 10, then you need to open the Start menu and click on the gear button to go to Settings.

After this, you need to go to the “Mobile hotspot” subsection and enable the function with the same name there.

After this, Windows 10 will start distributing Wi-Fi from the computer. In order to connect to the created network, you need to use a password, which is available in the same section of the “Settings” window.

If necessary, the Wi-Fi network name and password can be changed; for this there is a “Change” button.

Today, almost everyone has at least one mobile device, be it a smartphone, tablet or e-reader. The easiest way to connect to the network is using a router. However, what to do if you don’t have a router at hand, but you need the Internet? In this case, you can distribute WiFi from a laptop with Windows 7 and later versions installed. All steps described in this guide also apply to personal computers with a wireless adapter.

Windows Standard Tools

Microsoft has implemented a convenient way to create a WiFi connection between two devices. This method is relevant for most modern network cards and adapters. Unfortunately, this function was not available in Windows XP and it will not be possible to distribute Wi-Fi on a laptop in this way.

Now your mobile device will be able to see the network created on the laptop and connect to it in the usual way, like to a router.

Virtual Router

The open source utility Virtual Router or Virtual Router Plus allows you to almost instantly create a new WiFi network to which smartphones and tablets can connect. You can download the program from the official website of the developer http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/. Just follow the link and click on the purple Download button on the right side of the page. This method is relevant for outdated Windows XP, but requires the .Net Framework to be installed to work correctly.

Install the utility following the Install Wizard prompts and run. You will see a small window with two fields to fill out. Opposite the SSID, enter the name of the future WiFi connection, and in the Password line, enter the password. In the Shared Connections column, select which connection you will distribute and click the Start button.

Thus, in just a couple of minutes you get a fully working wireless network distributed from your laptop. The software works on any version of Windows OS.

MyPublicWiFi

Another small free program with good functionality. Like the previous example, it is easy to use, does not require lengthy setup and is relevant for any version of Windows.

Windows can turn your computer or laptop into a wireless access point if you allow it to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi. Setting up Internet distribution on Windows 7, 8 and 10 is somewhat different. Therefore, to install Internet distribution via Wi-Fi, we will consider separate instructions for each Windows operating system. Go.

The ability to share the wired Internet connection of your computer or laptop to connect wireless devices is available in Windows 7, 8 and 10 without installing additional components. Creating such connections, which are an example of peer-to-peer networks, is as easy as pie. In general, a classic example of a peer-to-peer network is a network of the form computer - switch - computer, and that computers have the same rights on this network. And in our case, the Wi-Fi wireless network interface will be responsible for the role of a switch.

Please note that when setting up a peer-to-peer network using the Wi-Fi adapter of your computer to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi, the current Wi-Fi connection, if any, will be disabled. Since the Wi-Fi adapter will be used to distribute the Internet and will no longer be able to receive it.

I would like to inform you that I do not show here how, after all the settings, you can find the resulting access point on your smartphone or laptop and connect to it. Due to the flourishing of the smartphone market, I think that everyone can connect to a Wi-Fi network.

How to share internet with Windows 10

1. Launch in any way convenient for you: by clicking +I on the keyboard, through the START menu by clicking on the icon. On the main settings page, click the button Network and Internet.




4. In the edit network information window, set the network name and enter your password, consisting of at least 8 characters.


That's all you need to do in Windows 10 to distribute the Internet from your computer via Wi-Fi. This is one of the best features of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

We distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi from a laptop or computer in Windows 8

Unfortunately, Windows 8 does not have a graphical interface for setting up a peer-to-peer network, so we will use the command line for some steps to set up the Internet via Wi-Fi.

It must be said that this method of distributing the Internet via Wi-Fi, described for Windows8, is also suitable for Windows 7 without any additions. All steps are completely identical.

1. Open Network connections in a way convenient for you, for example, by pressing the combination + R on the keyboard and typing in the window Execute team ncpa.cpl, press the button OK.

3. Switch to the tab Access and enable the option Allow other network users to use this computer's Internet connection. If the second parameter Allow other network users to control Internet connection sharing. Then click the button OK.

4. Next, you need to run the command line with administrator rights. Open the START menu and enter cmd. In the search results on the line Command line right-click and select from the context menu.

5. At a command prompt with administrator privileges, enter:

Netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=" "key="

Where this is the name of your network and The password for connecting to the network, which will need to be entered to connect to the access point. In this case, the connection will be based on WPA2-PSK (AES) encryption.

Netsh wlan start hostednetwork

From this moment on, your computer or laptop is ready to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi.

7. At any time, you can view connection information, where you can find out what channel your connection is using, access point name, authentication type, Wi-Fi type and the number of clients connected to the network.

Netsh wlan show hostednetwork

8. You can stop broadcasting Wi-Fi Internet distribution with the following command:

Netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

Internet distribution via Wi-Fi in Windows 7

As mentioned earlier, you can set up Internet distribution in a way that is suitable for Windows 8. But we will consider using a computer-to-computer network (Ad-hoc) to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi. This method is interesting because you do not need to use the command line to configure distribution.

1. Open in Control Panel Network and Sharing Center. In the Change network settings section, click Setting up a new connection or network.

2. Then in the window that opens, select and click Further.

  • Network name– we come up with it to your taste;
  • Security type– select WPA2-ptersonal;
  • Security Key– set a password that will need to be entered to connect to the network.

4. The system will automatically configure Internet distribution via WiFi and display a window that is ready to connect to the Wi-Fi network with the specified parameters. In the window that appears, click Enable Internet Connection Sharing.

We distribute wired Internet through the application

We install, launch, specify the network name (SSID), set the desired password, and select our wireless connection that we want to distribute. Press the button Start Virtual Router, and you're done. Below you can see a list of connected devices. It just couldn't be simpler.

Setting up Internet distribution via Wi-Fi may seem like a hassle to some, but in reality it is not that difficult. It all depends on what version of Windows you are using. In addition, you can always use a third-party application, which comes down to an even simpler way to turn your computer or laptop into an access point.

Now you can always use this article to distribute your Internet channel via Wi-Fi, even if you don’t have a Wi-Fi router at hand.

Vladislav

12/22/2018 at 09:06 (5 months ago)

Sergey, hello again. Vladislav. Your advice about turning off and on both access “worked”: it was possible to select a virtual adapter in the list. We managed to connect two smartphones to the Internet at the same time, and both smartphones and both network adapters have four different IP addresses, although if you go to myip.com from the browsers of both smartphones and a computer, the site shows the same address - the same as the “Connection” adapter over a local network”, where the three IP addresses came from, which, by the way, differ only in the fourth digit, I cannot understand.

However, connecting smartphones to the Internet was possible with one caveat - by disabling the firewall. If turning it off for one or two minutes for experimental purposes is still acceptable, then exchanging Wi-Fi for a permanently disabled firewall is unacceptable. For a potential malicious program, it only takes one second of exchange of information with its site; Every time I turn off the firewall (public networks), I immediately see splashes of both yellow (receiving data) and red (sending data) colors in the Task Manager. I know about the Resource Monitor, but it has four tables on top of each other, and I don’t know how to use them to understand which program or browser tab just caused a spike in the graph. It’s also annoying that the “Wireless Network Connection 2” graph is always empty, meaning it’s impossible to separately see the traffic distributed via Wi-Fi. It is also possible, with the firewall turned off, the location changed to “Home” and Wi-Fi being successfully distributed, to look at the network map (picture) to find out how Windows names the devices.

Regarding the creation of new rules for outgoing and incoming connections. There is a lot written and described on the Internet about this. But nowhere is it written how to create rules for network locations, network adapters, hardware devices (smartphones) by their name or physical (MAC) address. And in the interface for creating new rules (future rule properties), the corresponding fields are not provided, but a field is provided for the IP address. I created both outgoing and incoming rules for the addresses 192.168.137.1 (virtual adapter), 192.168.137.26 (one of the smartphones), which were later replaced by the range 192.168.137.(0-255). I note that the myip.com website does not show any of them.

The interface was first listed as “Wireless”, then was changed to “All interface types”. The following rules were also transferred from prohibiting (red) to allowing (green):

rules for outgoing connection:

Wireless portable devices (SSDP - outgoing) all,
Wireless Handheld Devices (TCP - Outbound) Private, Public,
Wireless portable devices (TCP - outgoing) domain,
Wireless portable devices (UPnP - upstream) all,
Internet Connection Sharing (SharedAccess outgoing traffic) all,
Internet Connection Sharing (SSDP outgoing traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (UPnP outgoing traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (UPnPHost outgoing traffic) all,

rules for incoming connections: the same as for outgoing ones, as well as

Wireless portable devices (SSDP - inbound) domain,
Wireless Handheld Devices (SSDP - Inbound) Private, Public,
Wireless portable devices (UPnP - incoming) private, public,
Wireless portable devices (UPnP - incoming) domain,
Internet connection sharing (incoming DHCPv4 traffic) all,
Internet Connection Sharing (DHCPv6 incoming traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (DHCP server incoming traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (incoming DNS server traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (incoming SSDP traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (UPnP incoming traffic) all,
Internet connection sharing (incoming routers request traffic) everything.

Of course, I don’t know what all these Latin abbreviations mean, but the words “Wireless...”, “Sharing...” prompted me to switch these rules to permissive ones. Perhaps this is the rub. But, nevertheless, it was not possible to start distribution with the firewall turned on. Maybe there are more rules that need to be made permissive?, now almost all of them are prohibitive, except for a few created specifically for three browsers, two players, two converters, VPN, and several more programs. When you disable a rule in the list of outgoing connections, the corresponding program loses access to the Internet, checked now! Disabling rules in the list of incoming connections does not affect the access of the corresponding programs to the Internet.

Regarding the reaction of the smartphone. It has been noticed that if you disable the firewall on your laptop, then start listening to an Internet radio station on your smartphone (with a player, via an m3u file, or in a browser by going to the radio station’s website), then turn on the firewall, then listening will continue until it is stopped ( not pause) or the page will not be refreshed. An update or access to another site will fail with the wording “DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET”; if you contact via IP, the wording will be “ERR_ADDRESS_UNREACHABLE”. I am writing in detail because for me this information is practically “empty”, but you will most likely be able to glean something useful from it.

Regarding the operating system. Its name was taken not from anywhere, but from System Properties, in the same place - Windows Experience Index. Assuming that I had the wrong version of Windows 7, I looked at the corresponding Wikipedia article. It turned out that there are 6 versions of Windows 7, and among them there is “Home Basic”. But your mistake was not in vain, because after reading the article almost to the end, I came across KB3080149 and Diagtrack, after “googling” it, I put my fingers to my open mouth in horror. I hope Android smartphones don’t have their own Diagtrack. Habrahabr writes that it has renamed itself to “Connected User Experiences and Telemetry”.

Regarding the command line. Searching on the Internet for a way to add a device name or its physical (MAC) address to a firewall rule did not lead to the desired result, but it did lead to something - a command was found that displays a list of connected devices: “netsh wlan show hostednetwork”. The result of the command is shown in one of the images. You can add this command to this article.

Regarding the picture in my previous comment. It's my mistake, I didn't notice that white background and didn't crop it, causing the image to be 2752x1504 pixels even though the color portion of the image is 1600x900, the same size as my computer display. The detailed image opens if you open it in a new window, a new tab, or by clicking on it, after temporarily disabling the execution of Jawa scripts for this site. Please correct the image if possible.

Regarding the VPN program. It turned out that it only works with traffic from laptop programs, but does not affect traffic from smartphones. How to fix it?

I came up with an idea on how to transfer all the firewall parameters to you at once. They are collected into one image 3496x1592 pixels, which should open normally in a new window. Thank you.

There is often a situation when the Internet is connected to one computer or laptop, and there is a need to distribute this Internet to other devices. Smartphone, tablet, or other computer. If you came to this page, then most likely you know that you can distribute Wi-Fi from a computer and without a router. It’s better, of course, to buy an inexpensive router, connect the Internet to it, and it will distribute it to all devices. But this is not always possible. It is in such cases that you can use a laptop or computer with a Wi-Fi adapter as a router.

There are several ways to launch a virtual Wi-Fi network and force your computer to distribute the Internet. I would highlight three methods: using commands via the command line, via a mobile hotspot, and using third-party programs. Now we will take a closer look at each method. You can choose a more suitable option for yourself and proceed to setup using the instructions that you will find in this article, or using the links that I will leave during the writing process.

How to distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi from a computer:

  • Via the command line. This is the most popular method that works in Windows 7, Windows 8 (8.1) and Windows 10. You need to launch the command line, run a few commands, and open general Internet access. After this, the computer will begin broadcasting a wireless network to which you can connect your devices and use the Internet. I have already prepared two detailed instructions: , and . The instructions are almost the same, they are simply written based on the example of different operating systems.
  • Using the Mobile Hotspot feature. This is a standard feature that appeared in Windows 10. Everything is much simpler there. Just set the Wi-Fi network name, password, select a connection for sharing, and launch the access point. Setup instructions: . If you have ten installed, I advise you to try this method first. It has its own nuances, which I wrote about in the article linked above.
  • Using third party programs. There are many free and paid programs that can be used to launch a virtual Wi-Fi network on your computer. In fact, these programs also start distribution via the command line, just a little more convenient. No need to copy commands, etc., just click on the button. But these programs do not always work stably and correctly. I also wrote about them in a separate article: .

The instructions to which I provided above are quite sufficient to set everything up. But since I decided to make one large and general article on this topic, I will write a detailed guide for each method. Of course with pictures.

Note! If you want to distribute Wi-Fi without a router using a desktop computer (PC), then you must have a Wi-Fi adapter. Internal or external, which is connected via USB. I wrote about such adapters. In laptops this adapter is built-in.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a laptop – Wi-Fi should work. The driver for the wireless adapter must be installed, and the "Wireless network" or "Wireless network connection" adapter must be in the list of connections. To check whether you can start Wi-Fi sharing, launch a command prompt as an administrator and run the command netsh wlan show drivers. Next to the line "Hosted network support" should be "yes".

Let's move on to the settings.

How to distribute Wi-Fi via the command line?

Let me remind you that this method is suitable for Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7.

You need to run the command line as an administrator. In Windows 7, open "Start", then "All Programs" - "Accessories". Right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as Administrator". In Windows 10 and 8, you can simply right-click on the Start menu and select "Command Prompt (Admin)."

Copy and execute (using the Enter key) the following command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="my_wi-fi_network" key="12345678" keyUsage=persistent

This command specifies the name ssid="my_wi-fi_network" and password key="12345678" for a Wi-Fi network that will be distributed by a PC or laptop. You can change your name and password if you wish.

To start the access point itself, you need to run the following command:

This is the result you should get after executing the first and second commands:

Devices can already be connected to the running Wi-Fi network, but the Internet will not work yet. Need to open public Internet access.

To do this, go to "Network Connections" (Network and Sharing Center - Change adapter settings). Right-click on the connection through which you are connected to the Internet and select "Properties".

Next, on the “Access” tab, you need to check the box next to “Allow other network users to use this computer’s Internet connection” and select a new connection from the list. The connection name will contain a number (not necessarily the same as in my screenshot), and below is the name of the network, which is indicated in the first command.

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

And run it again with the command:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

After these steps, you can connect to a Wi-Fi network called "my_wi-fi_network" (if you haven't changed it), and use the Internet. As you can see, without a Wi-Fi router.

If you encounter a problem where devices cannot connect to an access point, or connect but the Internet does not work, then first of all, disable your antivirus and firewall. Also see the articles, links to which I will provide below.

Might be useful:

  • – when there is no access tab, drop-down list, etc.
  • - solutions to various problems. This includes the errors "The hosted network could not start. The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the required operation."

It should be noted that a computer does not always willingly turn into a router. Sometimes you need to dance with a tambourine :)

Set up Mobile Hotspot (Windows 10 only)

In this case, everything is much simpler. Open "Options" (the button with the gear icon in the Start menu) and go to the "Network and Internet" section.

The "Mobile hotspot" tab contains all the settings for this function. The network name and network password will immediately be written there. If you want to change them, click on the "Change" button. Set new ones and save.

If any problems occur, disable your antivirus and firewall.

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