How to make your laptop act as a router

Posted on June 24, 2008 at 5:38 am

Assuming your laptop has built-in wireless inside though. Even if it doesn’t, you can buy a cheap wireless USB.

Lets assume that you have. Why not use your laptop to redirect your ADSL modems internet to perhaps your grandma, who can’t move downstairs, and can only use her laptop?

It would makes sense. A wireless USB is far, far cheaper in comparison to a typical wireless router. A normal wireless USB is about 1/5 of the price of a regular router.

So, instead of wasting all your money, I’ve found out a way to save your money and make your laptop/computer into a router, whilst still being able to use that computer as a normal computer, with all the functions is previously had.

So, here’s how you use a computer or a laptop to act like a router.

First things first, set up the computer that’s connected to the modem to be the HOST. All this means is that this is the computer that will be used to share the internet, not the computer that doesn’t have internet currently. To do this, go:

Start > Control Panel > Network Connections.

This should show all the connections you are or have been connected to.

Now do the following:

Step One: Right-Click the connection you are currently using to access the internet. Click Properties. Go to the Advanced tab and check “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection”.

Step Two: Click the drop down menu and select “Wireless Network Connection“. Click OK.

Step Three: Go back to Network Connections, right click Wireless Network Connection and select Properties. Click on the Wireless Networks tab.

Step Four: Click on the Advanced button, and select Computer-To-Computer (Ad-Hoc) Networks Only. Also, make sure that Automatically Connect To Non-Preferred Networks is unchecked. Close box.

Step Five: Click on the Add button, enter all the information required. Make sure Network Encryption is disabled.

Step 6: Right click the Wireless Connections icon in the bottom-right toolbar, and connect to the Wireless Connection you just created.

You’ve now successfully made your computer/laptop into a HOST computer, and it will now act as a router for other computers/laptops to connect to.

You can now use any computer around the house to connect wirelessly to the internet, without a router!

It’s quite a handy little tip, and not one most people generally find out by themselves. It’s not recommended if you need to connect a lot of people to the internet, as it generally slows down, and provides no security, unlike most routers. However, if it’s simply for another laptop or two, it should be absolutely fine.

Another little point is that you may encounter a few difficulties if you want to set up a static IP, so I also would say steer clear if that is one of your needs (If you want to do things like host Warcraft III games or use Torrents at fast speeds).

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Comments

30 Responses to “How to make your laptop act as a router”

COOL said on : August 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Thanks.

I created a wireless connection as instructed. I can view the connection by another computer, but it can not be connected.

In step 6, do the host need to connect to the connection first?

Frank Guros said on : August 27th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

In Step 2 I dn not know where to clck for the drop down menu. My OS is XP, host, and the receiving computer is Vista. Is the setting procedure different. I’m not sure about the Vista computer. I cannot connect although it receives a strong signal from the host.Any ideas?

Frank Guros

Drix said on : September 6th, 2008 at 1:01 am

Hi man, what about on Vista, I tryed to do on Vista but it’s not the same, can you send me an email with the settings or if you write an article ? please

Justin said on : September 23rd, 2008 at 6:48 pm

Is there a way to do this with Vista? it says it is built in and I can create the network but the other computer cannot connect to the internet. Please e-mail me if you have any suggestions.

Jeff said on : September 29th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

Great advice. Thank you very much for these clear instructions!

M said on : October 5th, 2008 at 1:34 am

Great work….tnx….

ryan said on : October 7th, 2008 at 7:46 am

hey great tip i have it all working fine sept i noticed how u said do not add a encryption such as wep i went ahead and enabled wep anyway and it didnt work then i dissabled it and it worked and i thort wtf why have that option if it wont work anyway since their is no encryption could you recomend any network monitors to see what clients are connected to my computer because i atleast need to be able to see who is on my computer and how much data their transfering through

Ron Burton said on : October 13th, 2008 at 6:55 am

Really good info,

Cheers

Belaprops said on : November 15th, 2008 at 2:04 am

Good tip , I got my pda connected to the web now, BUT funny enough it seems not to work with the MSN IM and SKYPE, any suggestions, the browser works fine with my laptop hosting
Any ideas
Bela

suresh said on : November 19th, 2008 at 1:24 am

what about on Vista, I tryed to do on Vista but it’s not the same.can you explain

RK said on : November 20th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

hey thankx it worked perfectly…………….. ur g8
take care
bye!!
RK

Maverick said on : December 3rd, 2008 at 10:24 am

Hi

I have windows xp lapyop and want to use that as a wireless router, so that my vista laptop can get connected.

I am using a wired LAN internet connection through a router(Netgear) having IP address as 192.168.0.1 and also the ICS also uses the same IP address. Cannot change the IP address range of the router as I dont have access, cannot change the ICS IP address as I am using windows XP.

Is there any other way, thought of NAT but not able configure it properly. Can you please provide me with any solution.

marc said on : January 14th, 2009 at 3:48 am

dude, great job..thanks

Tim said on : January 18th, 2009 at 2:14 am

I tried and it didn’t work. There are two things trying to connect and that is my ipod touch and a Linux laptop. I am using a mac running windows xp. Should it still work or did i do something wrong? I still can see the wireless on my ipod, I just cant connect to the internet.

danzig06 said on : January 23rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm

yo…i believe this only work via computer to computer connection as i tried it before….but does it work on other stuff that can connect to the internet( i.e. PS3, HPs, IPods etc)??

Darwin said on : February 8th, 2009 at 10:22 pm

in step 2 , I cannot find the drop down menu

Ajay0076 said on : March 4th, 2009 at 12:12 am

Could u provide the same for vista OS.

Vj Jonson said on : March 14th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

does this work if i make make my laptop a wireless router and connect it to a ps3?

Cristina said on : March 28th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

I can not find the drop down menu either. And does this work if I want to connect my ipod touch?

Bobby J said on : June 17th, 2009 at 4:19 pm

Love this, but why does it seem to reset after about 20 minutes? and can be a pain to get back…..

HELPPP

Ralph said on : September 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 am

Hi, I have two Dell laptops. And I would like to make one acts as a router. I am using Vista, (Ultimate version). Do you have any suggestions. I have tried for days to do what you wrote above for windows xp but without success!

Thanks in advance.

Chris said on : October 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm

Using vista, got it:

first go to:
Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Network Connections
then right-click “Local Area Connection” (or any Ethernet icon that is in working/in use)
and select properties
then go to sharing tab and check “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection”
and then click settings button > then check all the boxes and press OK (you can leave some unchecked if it makes a difference to you
then press OK to close the properties window.
Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Wireless Networks
then click the “+Add” button
choose “Ad Hoc Network”, then go through the wizard

only this doesn’t work for my phone (nokia 5800) but prob works for computers, etc

Chris said on : October 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Correction – It will work with Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Mobile device if you set the “Ad Hoc Network” up having an “Unsecured” connection type (no password for wifi).

AND TO ALL: NEVER use the windows “diagnose and repair” connection thing with this network, allowing you to convert Ethernet to wifi through your PC!!!

Chris said on : October 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 am

AND lastly if you still can’t connect with vista,
try turning ON file sharing AND network discovery

get to it here:
Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center

Nathan said on : November 4th, 2009 at 10:03 am

I was wondering if I bought a wireless broadband card for my laptop if could connect my playstaion 3 to my laptop and play games online that way?

Jermel said on : November 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

I have Windows XP and on step 3 im not seeing the wireless network tab? whats wrong?

viny said on : November 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

Hey buddy, I tried it and didn’t work. I could successfully configure it on XP, but when I tried to connect from my VISTA machine, it didn’t work.

PLZ ADVISE if u can.

thanx

azhar ali buttar said on : November 17th, 2009 at 3:37 am

Hi, nice article but this can be done with a simple software in few very easy steps. Use connectify to make you laptop a wireless router!

shekhar said on : November 17th, 2009 at 7:35 am

here is the thing….for connecting ur iphone, psp or any other device, make a change in point number 4… Click on the Advanced button, and select “any available network(access point preferred)” and not on “Computer-To-Computer”….

shekhar said on : November 17th, 2009 at 7:51 am

sorry guyzz….psp cannot be connected through ad-hoc…so the above method can only be applied for iphone or ipod touch….