Set Windows 7 as WiFi Hotspot to Share Internet Connection

Posted: Thursday, May 16, 2013 by Farhan in Labels: , ,
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I bet most of us out there right now are using Windows 7 whether it's a genuine copy or 'illegal' copy of it.

 Windows 7 comes with a new feature for sharing your computers internet connection. Now, you can do it wirelessly. Well, As long as your system’s wireless network adapter supports Windows 7 Virtual Wi-Fi feature, you can do it. Not all user know such feature exist, even I only know about it recently :P

 Next, you need to check if your network card has the latest driver to support the feature. Intel, Broadcom, Realtek and some other NIC makers provide such drivers.

 If the above conditions are met, you are good to read on …

Step 1 - The Commands

 Feel free to put the following commands into a .bat-file for simpler and faster usage.
  • Open an elevated command prompt (Type “CMD.EXE” in the start menu search bar, then right click the cmd.exe link and select “Run as Administrator”).
  • In the command window, type:
    netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid="MY WIFI NAME" key="MY WIFI PASSWORD" keyUsage=persistent
  • Replace “MY WIFI NAME” with the name you want to use for the wireless network and replace “MY WIFI PASSWORD” with your chosen password for accessing it.
  • Press Enter.
  • Now type the following to start the virtual Wi-Fi:
    netsh wlan start hostednetwork
  • Press Enter.



  • To stop the virtual Wi-Fi, type the following:
    netsh wlan stop hostednetwork
Step 2 – You need only do this once (usually):
  • Open Control Panel and go to Network and Sharing Center.
  • Click Change Adapter Settings.
  • Right click your Internet connection and select Properties.
  • Click the Sharing tab.
  • Check the box that says “Allow other network users to connect.”
  • Choose your virtual Wi-Fi adapter and click OK.
For those who would like to avoid the hassle of typing all the code above everytime you want to create a virtual Wi-Fi, you can just create a simple batch file to do so.

Now Wi-Fi enabled computers or mobile phone within range should see your new wireless network and others can connect to it if they know the password.

From now on, whenever you create the virtual access point, the internet will be shared by default. If anytime in the future you want to revoke the sharing on the internet, you can do that by changing the properties of the virtual Wi-Fi adapter.

That's it. No stupid, heavy, bloated software sitting in the memory. I mean, it literally takes zero resources to start or stop a virtual Wi-Fi connection. Now you can share you computer internet connection with other wireless capable device.

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