How can I turn my Windows PC Into a Wi-Fi Hotspot?

With Connectify Hotspot you can easily turn your Windows computer into a Wi-Fi hotspot and share any internet connection with computers, mobile devices, and friends. Whether you're at home or traveling in airports or hotels, the Connectify Hotspot virtual router is the easiest way to make sure you're always connected across iPads, smartphones, e-readers, and all the other Wi-Fi-enabled devices that you use on a daily basis. Check out the easy tutorial below to learn how to turn your Windows PC into a Wi-Fi hotspot at the click of a button.

Connectify Hotspot uses your Wi-Fi adapter's Wi-Fi Direct support (or Microsoft Hosted Network, on adapters without it) to create the hotspot, but what it creates is a regular Wi-Fi hotspot. Your devices join it like any other Wi-Fi network. They do not need to support Wi-Fi Direct.

Step 1: Click here to download and install the latest version of Connectify Hotspot. It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 (version 1703 or later) or Windows 11. The first time you open it, a short tour shows you around. You can watch it again from Help and account.

Step 2: On the Hotspot screen, under Create a, choose Wi-Fi hotspot.

Step 3: From Internet to share, choose the wireless or wired connection that you want to share with Connectify Hotspot. Learn more about what to choose for Internet to share.

Step 4: Give your hotspot a name in Hotspot name. This is the network name (SSID) that other devices will see and connect to. It can be up to 32 bytes long: letters and numbers take one byte each, accented letters and other Unicode characters take two or three, and emoji take four or more. Feel free to use emoji: press the Windows logo key + . (period) to open Windows' emoji panel. On Hotspot Lite (free), the name starts with "Connectify-". Learn more about setting a custom name.

Step 5: Protect your hotspot with a Password of 8 to 63 characters, or click the Generate a new password button to have one made up for you. Your hotspot is kept safe-and-secure by the same WPA2 Wi-Fi security standard used by most home routers.

The setup form: Create a Wi-Fi hotspot, Internet to share Hotel Guest (Wi-Fi), Hotspot name Connectify-Me, Password, and Network access Routed

Step 6: You're ready to go: click Start hotspot to begin sharing your internet connection. Now, friends and family can connect to your hotspot just as they would with any other Wi-Fi hotspot, using the network name and password, or by scanning the QR code under Scan to join. On Hotspot Lite, the first time you click Start hotspot, Connectify asks you to sign up first.

The running hotspot: Network name, Password and a QR code to scan to join

For the other options on the Hotspot screen, such as Network access and the Protection card, see How to Set up Connectify Hotspot.