Wi-Host: Freeware to Turn Your Windows PC or Laptop into Wi-Fi Hot Spot to Share Internet Connection
Imagine a situation when you have a mobile phone or a tablet and you want to download some apps or games in it or you want to update existing apps. But you don’t have an Internet connection in the device or you don’t want to use the Internet connection provided by your mobile operator. What will you do in such condition? In such situation, you can share Internet connection of your PC or laptop and use it in your mobile phone or tablet.
Same thing can be applied with more than one PC or laptop. If you have more than one computer, you can share a single Internet connection between them with the help of an Ad Hoc connection.
Actually if you have a wireless adapter in your PC or laptop, you can turn your computer into a Wi-Fi hot spot and then you’ll be able to share your computer Internet connection with other devices which also have Wi-Fi facility.
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Now the question comes how to turn your computer into Wi-Fi hot spot and how to create an ad hoc wireless connection to share Internet between devices? Here is the solution!
“Wi-Host” is a free and portable software for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 created by our reader “Cedric Poottaren” which turns your laptop or PC equipped with Wi-Fi into a hot spot allowing you to share you Internet connection with other Wi-Fi enabled devices such as mobile phones, tablets or other computers.
Its a portable app so you don’t need to install it. Simply run the app as Administrator by right-click on the app file and select “Run as Administrator” option.
Once you launch the app, first check whether your Wi-Fi adapter supports hosted network feature or not? You can check it by clicking on “Hosted Network Supported?” button. If it shows “Your Wi-Fi adapter supports Hosted Network” message, then you can turn your computer into Wi-Fi hot spot.
After that click on “Setup Hosted Network” button and it’ll navigate to a new tab to setup ad hoc connection.
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Now enter any desired name for new connection in “New Network Name (SSID)” field. Set a password for the connection in “Hosted Network Key” field. The password must be a minimum of 8 characters. At last click on “Setup Network” button and it’ll show a message about successful creation of hosted network. Click on OK button and the app will ask your permission to start the network connection. Click on Yes button and you have successfully turned your computer into a Wi-Fi hot spot.
Now the final step! By default Windows doesn’t allow sharing of Internet connection, so you’ll need to manually enable Internet connection sharing feature for your wireless adapter. To do this you’ll need to open Network and Sharing Center and then change the settings. For your convenience, the app provides a button to direct launch Network and Sharing Center. This button is present in the final message box which asks you to start the hosted network connection.
Just click on “Open Network Connections” button and right-click on your wireless adapter’s icon and select Properties. Now go to “Sharing” tab and enable “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” option.
Its a one time process. Once you enable ICS feature for your Wi-Fi adapter, you’ll never need to do it again.
That’s it. Now you are ready to use your computer Internet connection in any other Wi-Fi enabled device.
You can download Wi-Host app using following link:
Man, you’re great at sharing stuff… =)
Wohoo, thanks man… And by the way, how are you right now? Feeling any better?
Another Interesting Article have You Shared, Thanks VG!, is this can do with a command line tool which comes with Windows called ” Netsh ” ?
Nice article but I have Windows XP. This software does not work for my OS so is there a free XP alternative?
I would like to do the same thing.
You’ve been so helpful man I appreciate the great work
Thanks for sharing this light weight wifi sharing software. I was using connectify pro but it causes network problems some time.
The app is working well.
For those of you that downloaded it in a Zip folder, don’t try opening it from the zip folder…that may be a possible source of error…find a way to extract it to where you can open it as a normal Windows folder/file.
Also right-clicking on the EXE in the Zipped folder wouldn’t avail you of the “Run as Administrator” option…so you got to extract it……(right click).
Dont try opening it directly afterwards…you have to right-click on EXE file and select”Run as Administrator” option. Else it will still keep bugging you with the “Wi-Host requires administrative rights to operate properly. Please restart this App as admin” prompt
If anyone is having problems, make sure that the microsoft virtual wifi adapter is working properly. To check this turn on ur wifi button,go to my computer>right click and go to properties>chose device manger from the options on the left,in it find the entry network adapters and under it see if there is ny problem or exclamation mark on the microsft virtual wifi adapter option. If this is the case then select the option of ms virtual wifi adapter>right click it, chose uninstall, then in the options just below the menu bar chose scan for hardware changes, it should be fixed now, restart ur computer and see if it works.Plz tell whether this works out 4 u or no.
Once I’ve set up the wi-host, if I turn off the PC and turn it back on, how do I get the hotspot back? Do I have to configure again and repeat the whole procedure each time?
Program seems to start new network and smartphone sees it, but then it gets stuck at “obtaining IP address” and no actual connection from smartphone to internet is possible.
The last setting is least to say very confusing – in no way it is clear whether “enable ICS” should refer to Wi-Fi adapter which is used to transfer internet to secondary devices or it refers to connection (say LAN) which is used to obtain internet for the very host computer.
Anyway neither of these options works.
Program still asks for admin rights even though it already has it. Can’t get it to work…