Have you ever been stuck in a situation that you needed WiFi but only had an Ethernet connection available? Unless you’re looking to connect your phone to an Ethernet connection, you would be all out of options. I found myself in a similar situation when I needed to setup a live stream using a bunch of laptops and only one Ethernet connection with no WiFi available. This is also useful if you are looking to avoid using mobile data.
Reverse tethering will allow you to turn your computer into a WiFi hotspot. For this tutorial we are going to use Windows, but I am positive that there are ways to accomplish this on Linux. Just know that you will need to have a computer or laptop with an active Ethernet connection along with a WiFi adapter (or built in-WiFi adapter). And sorry, this will not work for Surface Pro 3 or 4 users (driver incompatibility).
What you Will Need:
- Windows Laptop or Desktop
Check Compatibility:
First you need to check if your WiFi driver supports hosted network. Open up command prompt (admin) and type in the following:
Check for the line that reads supports hosted network. If the output is Yes then you are good to proceed. If not, this procedure won’t work with your current Wifi adapter or driver. You can try updating your driver from device manager to see if it will make a difference.
Enabling Host Adapter:
Even though your Wifi driver supports hosted networks, it is probably not enabled. To enable _Microsoft Network Hosted Virtual Adapter, _go into device manager and select the tab that reads network adapters. You should see something that reads Microsoft Network Hosted Virtual Adapter__. Right-click it, and select enable (if it isn’t already). If you don’t see it, go to view and select show hidden devices. It should now appear on the list.
Setup Network:
Type in the following to create the hosted network:
Type in the following to start the network:
You might receive an error about the network not able to be started. If that is the case, go into your network connections and disable and then enable your Wifi connection and try the previous command again.
Sharing Connection:
Finally, go to _network connections _and share your Ethernet connection
Connecting from Android:
To connect to the network from your Android (or iOS) device, you will need to use a static IP address that’s within the hosted network’s domain. It most likely will be 192.168.137.xxx. Likewise, the gateway for the hosted network will most likely be _192.168.137.1. _You can always check this by going into network connections, and checking the properties of the IPv4 address of the hosted network. Lastly, use Google’s DNS as your dns server (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
Connecting from Windows:
To connect from another Windows device, go into network connections and specify Google’s DNS as your DNS server. You can leave the option to obtain an IP address atomically or use a static one like above; either option should work.
You might also need to perform an IP flush. To do so, enter the following from command prompt (admin):
That’s it. From this point you should be connected to the hosted network and have internet access. Theoretically, you can connect well over 50 devices to this hosted network.