Did you know it’s very easy to make your USB dongle a wireless hotspot and have the most efficient internet connection for all your home gadgets? This is the kind of network you need as you try adapting to the new norms of working at home.
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What is a wireless dongle?
For those seeing this for the very first time, a USB dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that can be plugged into a computer. This can be a USB stick turned into Wi-Fi supported device which enables sharing of the internet to other Laptops, smartphones, or wireless-enabled devices.
In other words, it’s a simple adapter that plugs into an open computer port. The latest technology had provided Smartphones with their own dongle technology peripherals, which includes Android phones, and also special dongles for iPhones are available on the market.
Why it is called a dongle?
There is a class of dongles used elsewhere as security keys whereas others can only serve as adapters. Originally, dongles used to connect to parallel ports on PCs and ADB ports on Macs. However, modern dongles currently can connect to a USB port. Mi-FI is the latest class of internet dongle devices.
“Dongle” was a slang used to refer to any plug-in module. However, these days Dongle is used widely to related to any small module, or peripheral devices that can plug in and out of a socket of any gadget. An example is a USB drive and air card. So yes, you got that right. “USB dongle”
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Steps to turn your USB dongle into a wireless hotspot
Turning your USB dongle into a wireless hotspot is the latest update in windows that allows you to share your computer’s internet via Ethernet. Below are steps that will help you to step up such a connection via your USB dongle.
#1: Launch the CMD (Run as Administrator)
- Launch the CMD (DOS terminal)
- In order to do this, Click the Start button at the bottom left corner of your screen (you can as well press the windows button on the keyboard.
- Type CMD for it to appear in the options
- Right-click the Cmd.exe link and select “Run as Administrator”.
- The DOS terminal is now launched successfully. Proceed to the next step.
#2: Check host network support
You need to first check whether your computer supports the hosted network mode before attempting to create a Wi-Fi hotspot. To do this, you need to put the command below into the CMD. If it’s supported, then go on and create a WIFI hotspot.
- netsh wlan show drivers
If the network supports setting up the hotspot, you can proceed to creating the Wi-Fi hotspot.
#3: Create WiFi hotspot
Use the commands below to setup a WIFI connection on your computer
- 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.
- netsh wlan start hostednetwork (command starts your WiFi connection)
#4: Trouble shoot “No internet access”
You will need to trouble shoot one extra issue.
When you get a “No internet access” warning, then below are steps to trouble shoot this final step.
After proceeding with this, other devices will be able to access internet from your device with the help of the dongle.
- Launch the Control Panel
- Go to Network and Internet.
- Proceed to Network and Sharing Center
- Click on Internet Connection you want to share (in this case Broadband Connection)
- Go to Properties and click Sharing Tab
- Check Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection.
- In the drop-down list that will be displayed, select your virtual adapter’s (Wi-Fi Hotspot’s) connection. This is the last thing you will do and your Wi-Fi hotspot will be available via your USB dongle.
Your all set, enjoy your wireless connection from yous USB Dongle.