Let’s say you have a laptop that is equipped with both ethernet(wired) and wireless network adapter and it is connected directly to the Internet using an ADSL modem. Now your younger brother also bought a new laptop and wants to use the Internet. Instead of spending money in buying a wireless broadband router, you can save up the money and share the Internet from your laptop using the built-in wireless network adapter.

Share wireless internet from notebook

If you have a desktop computer that don’t have built-in wireless adapter, you can buy a USB wireless adapter for less than US$10 and it is so much cheaper compared to a router. Here’s how to share Internet connection from your laptop or desktop that is equipped with wireless adapter.

First we’ll need to setup the HOST computer. HOST means the computer that is directly connected to the Internet via ADSL modem and it will be the one that is sharing the Internet connection. Go to Control Panel > Network Connections, you should see a Local Area Connection, Wireless Network Connection and a connection dailer (I use Streamyx). In detailed view mode, it shows a lot of useful information regarding your connections.

Share network connections

Below are the steps to configure the HOST computer:

1. Right click the connection which you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties. Go to Advanced tab and check “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection”

2. Click the drop down menu and select “Wireless Network Connection“. Click OK.

Share Wireless ICS

3. Go back to Network Connections, right click Wireless Network Connection and select Properties.

4. Go to Wireless Networks tab.

5. Click Advanced button, select Computer-to-computer (ad hoc) networks only, and make sure that Automatically connect to non-preferred networks is UNCHECK. Close it.
wireless advanced configuration

6. Click Add button and Wireless network properties Window will appear. Enter any Network name (SSID), and change Data encryption to Disabled. You can change it to WEP when everything is working fine.
Configure SSID Network name

7. Right click at the wireless adapter icon from system tray and select “View Available Wireless Networks“. Select the Network name (SSID) that you entered at step 6 and click Connect.
View Available Wireless Networks

The HOST configuration is done. From what I read on most guide, step 7 above is not necessary but don’t know why if I don’t do that, the CLIENT won’t see the HOST in the wireless network list.

Next, we’ll need to configure the client computer now which is very simple. CLIENT computer means the laptop or desktop that will be connecting to the HOST computer.

1. Right click tray wireless adapter icon from system tray, and select “View Available Wireless Networks”. Select the HOST computer and click Connect.

Connect to Ad Hoc Computer

The client computer will automatically acquire IP address from HOST computer because Internet Connection Sharing is enabled. It might take a while, so be patient. Now both the HOST and CLIENT computer can connect to Internet and also share files with each other. See, sharing Internet without wireless router wasn’t so hard now, was it?

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