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My desktop has a fast wired connection and I would like to set up a sort of "wifi hotspot" that allows mobile devices to connect to my pc and share this fast connection. How would I go about doing this?

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4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

The easiest way is creating an Ad-Hoc network. It's really simple (if your hardware drivers support it).

  1. Click the Network Manager applet
  2. Click Create New Wireless Network...
  3. Give it a name. Set the security.
  4. Connect to it from your other devices!
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This is the first thing I tried :P It didn't work as I can't see my new network from my phone: – Callum Rogers Oct 30 '10 at 23:56
I don't think my hardware supports this (04:05.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2760 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R Cardbus). Is there anywhere to find out if it does (note: I can do this on windows, so it is possible) – Callum Rogers Oct 31 '10 at 0:02
@Callum It might be a good idea to start a question asking how to fix wireless and then revisit this question. – Jorge Castro Oct 31 '10 at 14:50
It could also be that your phone doesn't support Ad-Hoc with the encryption you've selected. Try starting off without encryption first. – Oli♦ Oct 31 '10 at 16:55
This does not work for me either, on Thinkpad T510 attempting to broadcast wired LAN connection via Wifi out to iPad, no luck. – ioSamurai Nov 1 '10 at 18:14
up vote 4 down vote

There is a difference between an ad-hoc and a hotspot. Android phones usually don't support ad-hoc connections and some other phones also don't support ad-hoc well. So the best option is to create a hotspot, which is just like turning your computer in to a virtual router, and in ubuntu 11.10 you can create hotspot with a click, provided your driver supports master mode. If it does, then go to "system settings" -> "network" -> "wireless" you will find there an option for creating hotspots -> "use as hotspot", click on it and you are done.

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up vote 3 down vote

some phones wont connect to ad-hoc networks, get an old router such as an old unused dsl modem with wifi, then configure it so DHCP is turned off. plug it into an extra ethernet port on your computer and edit the connection settings to be "Shared to other computers" instead of "Automatic DHCP" in the IPv4 settings, set IPv6 to off.

you might also be able to have your computer connect over wifi instead of an ethernet cable using the same configuration for the connection.

Now your pc is a wifi hot spot

p.s. to edit your router settings you almost always need to edit your connection settings to be a manual IP address of 192.168.0.9 and then after connecting open a web browser and open web page http://192.168.0.1 on some routers you may need change the 0's to 1's or use completely dif numbers

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up vote 0 down vote

You can create a wifi hotspot using this method http://www.gotechtips.net/2012/07/turn-your-ubuntu-laptop-into-wi-fi.html

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While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. – gertvdijk Dec 28 '12 at 13:21

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