Step by step guide on how to turn your USB dongle into a wireless Wi-Fi hotspot

usb dongle

After reading my previous post on “The Mi-Fi is the new USB Internet dongle”, Jeff, an enthusiastic reader of this blog had a tip for me or rather USB modem users out there. While Mi-Fis as I explained have wireless internet sharing by default, USB dongles don’t. Yet, you might still want to share your USB modem internet with your buddy or a family member at home.

If so Jeff has you covered. With the help of your laptop’s Wi-Fi card, you can turn your USB dongle into a Mi-Fi of sorts. But this isn’t for the fainthearted. This right here is for nerds.

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Update: Windows 10 has officially included a feature to share PC internet over Ethernet, Wi-Fi or mobile data (USB dongle) More in a related post below
How to use your Windows 10 PC as a mobile hotspot after the Anniversary update


Step 1: Open the DOS terminal

Click Start, type CMD, right-click the Cmd.exe link and select “Run as Administrator”.

DEMO3

Step 2: Check availability

If you want to create WiFi Hotspot firstly you have to check whether the hosted network mode is supported by your machine or not…
Enter this command to check availability..

netsh wlan show drivers

If you find Hosted network supported : Yes then only you can create WiFi Hotspot

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Step 3: Creating WiFi Hotspot

copy paste and run
Now type the following command to create WiFi hotspot:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Name key=8CharacterKey

Replace “Name” with the name you’d like to use for your custom network, and “8CharacterKey” with a password that’s a little harder to guess.

Start Wi-Fi hotspot by this cmd:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

Step 4: No Network Access ? or No Internet Access?

turn on sharing1
Now click Control Panel — Network and Internet — Network and Sharing Center

Click on Internet Connection you want to share (Broadband Connection)
Properties — Sharing Tab-
Check Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection..
And in drop down list select your virtual adapter’s (WiFi Hotspot’s) connection..

You are done with your WiFi Hotspot. 🙂

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55 thoughts on “Step by step guide on how to turn your USB dongle into a wireless Wi-Fi hotspot

  1. I use a cool app called mHotspot to change Wimax dongle to Wireless Wi-Fi.. It simple to set up no command needed

  2. Great tutorial! Thanks a ton!

    I used this tutorial to convert my Airtel 4G Dongle to a WiFi hotspot using the TP-Link 150Mbps High Gain Wireless USB Adapter (TL-WN722N). Works really well!

  3. Wifi Hot spot is created. But not able to connect to it through my mobile. Status is always connecting. Please help

    • It can connect but yes it is an erratic connection at times. Microsoft has not developed this function properly yet

  4. I’m also facing same issue as Pragya face, WiFi hotspot created successfully, but not able to connect in mobile.
    I am using Airtel 4G dongle. if any one know solution please be need full.

    • Hi Jitu,

      I too am using an airtel 4G dongle (Bangalore, India), but was able to follow the steps given above without any issues. What steps are you following exactly? Screenshots of each step would be helpful…

  5. This is what i get when i try to use the netsh wlan start hostednetwork command!!! plse help me 🙁

        • >Make sure to start command prompt as Administrator. In search, type command prompt, then right click and select ‘Run as Administrator’

          >>In the command prompt, type/ copy & paste the following commands and press enter after each one:

          netsh winsock reset
          netsh int ip reset
          ipconfig /release
          ipconfig /renew
          ipconfig /flushdns

          >>>Restart your computer

          • I did this but same problem persists. I got the connection once but now I cant

          • Go to Windows “Device manager”, under the “Network adapters”, enable the “Microsoft hosted network”

            I face this problem and fixed by as above
            Gud luck

  6. Upto setp 3 it was well executed and the virtual hotspot was reflected in scanned devices in mobile and i connected with entered 8 character password but there is no internet in my mobile.

      • Thank u very much it is working perfectly…….Can we run this automatically in start up of PC

        • I am afraid not. But you can copy all the steps and save them in sticky notes so you can just paste them when you need to create a hotspot

  7. hello,
    It worked for me but only for one day, after restart on the next day it doesn’t work it won’t create the network I’ve tried all the commands from the below comments and still nothing even updated the wlan drivers to the latest. Any solution?

  8. I could connect it for the first time but the second time, it’s showing ‘no internet access.’ what should i do? ive tried it again many times.

    • You have to restart the entire process and refresh your internet connection. Windows did not invest much into this technology so it’s not the most stable.

  9. after getting connected to mobile net is not working,what can be the exact problem??

  10. i think i made hotspot from my wifi connectivity and not the usb dongle. so please tell me how to delete the created hotspot
    looking forward to answers

  11. Very excellent guide.
    But once when I was lazy enough to skip the ‘reboot pc’ step, it didn’t work. But after rebooting, all was smooth.

    But, but, I would recommend a simple piece of software, mHotspot, which automated everything.

    Thank you (because you told all the background/low level things).

  12. I followed all of the instructions and everything works perfectly except once that I restart the computer the wifi hotspot is off and I have to open the command prompt and rurn on the Wi-Fi hostednetwork. is there a way to make it automatically turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot on reboot?

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