Turning your Windows 10 PC into a hotspot
SHARE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION AND VPN.
MOST MOBILE PHONES now can be turned into hotspots, which is a pretty convenient way to share your mobile internet connection with your other devices. But did you know that you can turn your PC into a hotspot as well?
There are two main reasons you might do this. The first is to share your PC’s internet connection with wireless devices. For example, if your PC has a USB 4G dongle attached, and you’d like to share that connection with other devices, you can.
More commonly, however, this technique is used to share VPN connections with smart devices that might not have VPN client software. Say you want to watch US Netflix on your smart TV, or want to make sure that your IP camera is using a VPN for added security. Typically, there is no way to connect to a VPN on those devices; but if you route them through your VPN-connected PC, then it’s possible.
You will need a PC with a WiFi card, of course. But other than that, everything you need is built into Windows 10.
CREATING A WIFI HOTSPOT
The first thing to do is turn your PC into a WiFi hotspot. Windows actually has that capacity built in, either through the Mobile hotspot feature or the command line.
OPTION 1: USING WINDOWS 10’S BUILT-INMOBILE HOTSPOT TO SHARE AN INTERNET CONNECTION
If all you want to do is create a hotspot to share an internet or VPN connection, then Windows 10 now makes it easy thanks to the new Mobile hotspot feature. To access it, go to Settings->Network & Internet. On the left you’ll see an option: Mobile hotspot. Click on it. The first thing to do is pick which of your network connections is connected to the internet (either the wired or wireless connection). This is the connection you’ll be sharing with other devices. Then all you have to do is flip the switch to on. Windows will tell you what the SSID (network name) and password is on this page. You can click on Edit to change them if you like.
Pretty simple, eh? Unfortunately, there’s a problem with this system: it doesn’t give an option to share VPNs. It’s unlikely you’ll see the VPN connection listed in the ‘Share my internet connection from’ options.
Don’t stress, though. That’s fixable – just jump down to the section on Sharing the VPN connection.
OPTION 2: USING THE COMMAND LINE
The other option is to use a command line to create a hotspot, which is less convenient to set up, but may be a bit more convenient to use when you want to share a VPN.
The best way to use the command line technique is to create a batch (.bat) file, which is a text file that contains a script of command lines. Just follow these steps: Go to the search bar and type notepad to launch the text editor. Type the following two lines into the text editor, replacing <SSID> with the name you want your hotspot to have (eg. PCVPN) and <Password> with the password you want to use:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<SSID> key=<Password> keyUsage=persistent
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
THIS TECHNIQUE IS USED TO SHARE VPN CONNECTIONS WITH SMART DEVICES THAT MIGHT NOT HAVE VPN CLIENT SOFTWARE. SAY YOU WANT TO WATCH US NETFLIX ON YOUR SMART TV, OR WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOUR IP CAMERA IS USING A VPN FOR ADDED SECURITY.
Click on file->Save As. Now this part is important: you need to change the default .txt extension to .bat. Change the Save as type to “All files”, then type in a filename with a .bat at the end of it. To execute the batch file, right click on it in File Explorer and select Run as administrator. Regular (non-administrator) users cannot create hotspots, so just left clicking on it won’t work.
Note that your WiFi adapter has to be enabled for this to work. Also note that when your PC reboots, this network will disappear, and you’ll have to run the batch file again. After you’ve done that, your Windows PC should create a new wireless hotspot with the SSID and password from the batch file. Other devices can connect to it, but they won’t have internet access – yet.
SHARING A THE VPN CONNECTION
If you wanted to share a VPN connection, there’s one more thing to be done. Now that we’ve turned our Windows PC into a hotspot, it’s time to share the VPN connection. Just follow these steps: Connect to the VPN service using the VPN service provider’s app. Go to Settings->Network & Internet and click on the Change adapter options button. This will show you your available network connections.
Each VPN service you have installed will appear as an individual network item, typically using with the name Ethernet X, <company name> VPN adapter. For example, Nord VPN might appear as Ethernet 2, TAP-VPN NordVPN Windows Adapter.
The shared hotspot you created with the batch file will also appear here. It will have a title like Local Area Connection X, <SSID>, Microsoft hosted network if you used option 2 above, or Local Area Connection X, Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter if you used option 1. Make a note of the title of this network. Now to share a VPN connection, right click on the VPN connection and click on Properties. Click on the Sharing tab. Under Home networking connection: select the network device that corresponds to the WiFi hotspot device you’ve just created. Most likely, it will be Wireless Network Connection 2 or Local Area Connection 2. Check the box to Allow other network users to connect through and click OK. Note that if you used option 1 above, you’ll get an error popup. Don’t worry this is normal – it’s telling you that you’re switching from the default shared network (the one selected in the Mobile hotspot settings) to the VPN.
Now you have just shared that VPN connection with the users of the WiFi hotspot you created. What that means is that any device that connects to that hotspot will have its data routed through the VPN, providing all the anonymisation and geolocation trickery of the VPN service. Nice!