Raymond.CC Blog

Do you know what is an Internet hotspot? Internet Hotspot is a wireless broadband Internet access service available at public places such as shopping malls, coffee shops, eating outlets, convention centers, hotels and many more. Some places offers free hotspot access but some will require you to pay for it. Like Streamyx Hotspot, we can either be a monthly subscriber (postpaid) or purchase the prepaid card whenever we need to use the internet access.

The good thing about hotspot is there is no need to use WEP or WPA which prevents everyone from knowing what is the common password. Everyone will be able to connect to the wireless network but when you try to browse the web, you’ll be presented a page that requires you to login before you can use its service. Have you ever wondered how to create the login page? Wireless home routers usually is incapable of doing that. A more expensive enterprise wireless router has that feature.

Today I am going to show you how to share your own wireless internet hotspot at home for free without using any expensive routers.


2hotspot is a powerful software that enables the instant creation wireless hotspots using your wireless router or WIFI card. With this free software you can, run your own free or commercial wireless hotspot network; Create local wireless communities where bulletin board, chat, and forums available locally with or without Internet service; Share your broadband service, split your ISP bill, control shared bandwidth; Can be used by individuals & corporations.

If you’ve already got a Wireless LAN in place that you want to use with 2hotspot, it’s not quite as simple as just installing the software. You’ll need to get Windows Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) working first in order to run 2hotspot. Previously I’ve already written a guide on how to share wireless Internet connection without using a wireless router. The steps are pretty similar but there are some small changes. Here is an example scenario to help you understand better.

I have a desktop computer with a built-in LAN port, and also an external USB wireless adapter. An ADSL modem is connected to the built-in LAN port. My intention is to create a hotspot and share wireless Internet using the USB wireless adapter.

On the desktop computer that will act as a hotspot or I call it server.
1. Go to Network Connections from Control Panel, right click Wireless Network Connection and select Properties.
2. Click Wireless Networks tab
3. Check “Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings“.
4. Click Add button.
5. Enter 2HOTSPOT in Network name (SSID).
6. Select “Disabled” for Data encryption.
7. Check “This is a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network; wireless access points are not used“.

8. Click OK to close the window.
9. Right click Wireless Network Connection and select “View Available Wireless Networks.
10. You should see 2HOTSPOT in the list. Select 2HOTSPOT and click the Connect button.

11. Go to Network Connections from Control Panel, right click on the broadband/internet connection and select Properties.
12. Go to Advanced tab, check “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” and select “Wireless Network Connection” from the dropdown box. Click OK.

13. Now go to a CLIENT computer that will be connecting to the hotspot. Right click at the wireless connections and select “View Available Wireless Network“. You should see 2HOTSPOT in the list. Select 2HOTSPOT and click Connect.

Note: If the server is connected to the Internet, the client computer should be able to access the Internet as well without limitations. Try browsing the web from the client computer. If it works, continue with the next step. If not, recheck all the steps above.

14. On the server computer, go to 2hotspot.com website, download the latest 2hotspot software and install.
15. At the end of 2hotspot installation, you’ll be prompted to select your wireless connection. Just select Wireless Network Connection and click OK.

16. Your default browser will open and you’ll be redirected to a page that requires you to sign up. You’ll need to enter your contact details at the first page. As for the second page, you get to select your wireless hotspot network purpose (free, for profit, cost sharing). The final step is to configure the access options such as maximum number of concurrent connections, maximum download and upload speed and etc…
17. Once you’ve completed the sign up, right click at the 2hotspot tray icon and make sure that you see “Connected to network: hotspotname”

If you’ve successfully gone through all 17 steps above without problems, any computer that is near your desktop should be able to see and connect to your 2HOTSPOT wireless network. When the client got connected and try to access any website such as google.com, a welcome page will be displayed requiring the user to sign in.

The 17 steps does look a bit long and tough but trust me, it will only be tough at the first try. Once you got used to the configuration, it’ll be really easy and you can configure without looking at this article. One warning though, some ISP doesn’t allow you to make profit from their service and they can terminate your account if they know about it. Make sure you’ve read their terms of usage and agreement.

[ Download 2hotspot ]