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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 4

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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: Oct 30, 2010 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) Oct 31, 2010 at 0:02
  • @Callum It might be a good idea to start a question asking how to fix wireless and then revisit this question. Oct 31, 2010 at 14:50
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    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, 2010 at 16:55
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    This never works for me, I’ve tried many times in last one year. Maybe a bug, because I tried from “Use as Hotspot” button on Network Settings, but it doesn’t work either. The ap-hotspot app works, see the other answer. Jan 27, 2014 at 13:23
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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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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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If you are using KDE Plasma desktop, it is quite easy:

  1. Go to "Edit connections" (in the network manager widget, select the wrench button and "Edit connections" button will show up)

  2. Click "Add"

  3. Select "Wireless (shared)"
  4. In the appearing dialog, give your connection a name, adjust the name of the network (as it appears to other) by changing the SSID (only if desired) and if you want, select the security and set a password for your access point in the "Wireless Security" tab.
  5. After that, all you have to do is simply connect yourself to the network you have just created in the network manager widget.

After that, your network is visible and other can connect to it. (Do not forget the last step, you have to be connected on the host machine in order to make the access point appear).

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