Setting up a wifi network using your laptop/desktop

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Most of us have a broadband connection through which we connect to the internet. I use a lan cable to connect my laptop to the modem simply because it gives me the best connectivity. I don't use a wireless router at home. However, I recently bought an Android phone and wanted to download some applications. I did not want to invest in a data plan because I already had internet connectivity at home and office. However, I did want to download some games and tools for the Android. So, I set about setting a wireless network using my laptop. I have Windows 7 on my laptop and setting up a WLAN using my laptop was a breeze. Here are the steps you need to carry out to set up a wireless network at home so that you can connect your tablet or phone to the internet using an existing internet connection. First, open a command prompt - make sure that you run it with "administrator rights". To do this, go to Start --> All programs --> Accessories. Right click on the "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator". This should open up a command prompt like:

C:\windows\system32>

Next, type in the following (after changing 'VipulNetwork' and 'password' to your own values):

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid='VipulNetwork' key='password'

You should see this:

The hosted network mode has been set to allow. The SSID of the hosted network has been successfully changed. The user key passphrase of the hosted network has been successfully changed.

Note, the password can be a string with 8 to 63 ASCII characters, eg. a passphrase, or 64 hexadecimal digits which represent 32 binary bytes.

Next, type in the following:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

And this time you should see:

The hosted network started.

Just one more step before you can get your smartphone or tablet on to the internet... Finally, go to Start --> Control Panel --> Network and Sharing Center and click on 'Change adapter settings'. You should see all the network adapters installed on your machine. In my case, there are two network adapters:

1. The LAN adapter (called Local Area Connection) and
2. A 'Wireless Network Connection'.
3. You should also see the 'pseudo' adapter called 'VipulNetwork' (or whatever name you gave it on the first 'netsh' command.

Since I connect to the internet using the LAN adapter, I right clicked on the adapter and went to 'Properties'. In the dialog box that pops up, select the 'Sharing' tab and make sure that the checkbox 'Allow other users to connect through this Internet connection'. Make sure that 'Home network connection' points to the network you just created. Finally, and I spent some time debugging this, make sure that in the 'Settings' dialog, at least the 'HTTPS' and the 'HTTP' services are checked. That's it! You should see the wireless lan that you just set up in your phone or tablet exactly as you would connect to another wireless lan. For Android phones, you can do the following to set up a persistent connection like this:

1. Go to settings --> Wi-Fi settings -> Add Wi-Fi network.
2. In the 'Add Wi-Fi network' dialog, enter the network name in the 'Network SSID' field, select Select the appropriate security mode (generally WAP/WAP2 PSK) and type in the password.

Now, your phone should be able to automatically discover and connect to the Wi-Fi hot-spot that you have created.

To turn off the hot-spot, simply turn off the wireless on the laptop.

Tech note: Windows 7 can share a physical wireless adapter and set up a 'virtual' adapter. This means that you should be able to use the same physical adapter to connect to the internet as well as create a wi-fi hot-spot - though I have not tried this (I don't have a wireless router - remember!)

Happy surfing from your tablet/smart-phone!!