How to Share Your Smartphone’s Internet Connection: Hotspots and Tethering Explained

The vast majority of smartphones can be tethered so that you can share your 3G or 4G LTE mobile broadband connection with your laptop on-the-go. If you’re already paying a monthly fee to unlock this feature on your smartphone, why not get the most out of your tethering capability with Connectify Hotspot. With Hotspot running on your PC, you can share your USB-tethered 3G or 4G LTE connection with iPads, e-readers, and all of your other Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Step 1: Tether your smartphone. Refer to your carrier or smartphone’s instructions to tether your phone’s mobile Internet to your computer. Here is a handy guide for tethering on most of the popular mobile broadband networks in the US.

Step 2: Click here to download and install the latest version of Connectify Hotspot. Once installed, click the purple ‘Try It Out’ button to start using Connectify Hotspot.

Step 3: Run Connectify Hotspot and make sure the Wi-Fi Hotspot tab is selected.

Step 4: From the ‘Internet to Share’ dropdown, set the tethered smartphone adapter you want to broadcast using Connectify Hotspot.

Step 5: Give your Hotspot a Name (up to 32 characters). Your Hotspot Name or SSID is the network name that other devices will see and connect to. Feel free to use emojis or unicode characters.

Step 6: Protect your Connectify Hotspot by giving it a unique password. Your Hotspot is kept safe-and-secure by the same WPA2 Wi-Fi security standard used by most home routers

Step 7: You’re ready to go, just click ‘Start Hotspot’ to begin sharing your Internet connection. Now, friends and family can connect to your Connectify Hotspot just as they would with any other Wi-Fi Hotspot.

Click here to see a video tutorial on how to turn your PC into a Wi-Fi hotspot.