Monday, March 14, 2016

Setting up WiFi hotspot using USB WiFi dongle in Windows

I obtain the information mostly from this site:
https://turboblaze09.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/wifi-hotspot-with-usb-wifi-adapter/ authored by TurboBlaze.


  1. Plug in the USB dongle, make sure it's running by looking at the notification icon in the taskbar, typically in the bottom right corner of the computer screen.
  2. Invoke command window by Windows|R key or from start menu then type in cmd.
  3. Run command to setup the hotspot username and password: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=your_hotspot_name key=your_password.
  4. Run command to start the hotspot: netsh wlan start hostednetwork.
  5. Got to Control Panel|Network and Internet|Network Connections, both the local area network and the wireless connections can be identified there.
  6. right click the local area connection that has internet access, go through menu RightClick|Properties|Sharing, then select the dongle's network from the dropdown list of Home network connection like this:
  7. Click ok and the WiFi hotspot should work.
  8. To stop the WiFi hotspot, simply run netsh wlan start hostednetwork in command window, or right click the corresponding icon in the notification area of the taskbar (typically in the bottom right corner).