How To Turn Your Ubuntu Laptop Into Wireless Hotspot

There are many occasions when we are in dire need of a Wi-Fi hotspot, but fail to get one. What many people don’t know is we can easily create an ad-hoc Wi-Fi hotspot from our Ubuntu Laptop and share the internet connection with multiple devices. The only thing required for this is a wired internet connection.

This may sound good, but there are a few limitations attached to it.

• Some devices don’t support ad-hoc wireless networks.
• The wireless hotspot created by Ubuntu has weak WEP encryption and lack strong WPA encryption.

But these limitations matter less when there is a need for Wireless Hotspot connection. So, let’s see how to turn your Ubuntu Laptop into a Wireless Hotspot.

Turn Ubuntu Laptop into Wireless Hotspot

• Click on the settings icon from the panel present on the top of the Home screen.

  

• Choose system settings.
• In the system settings, choose Networks.

  

• Select the wireless option and tap “Use as Hotspot” button present at the bottom of the screen.

  

Note: Before sharing an internet connection, you first have to connect to the internet via a wired line. Remember you can’t share a Wi-Fi network. So when you will create a Wi-Fi Hotspot you will automatically be disconnected from current Wi-Fi connection (if you are using one at present).

• Now, a Wireless Hotspot will be created and your Wi-Fi connection will be disabled. You can later disable Wireless Hotspot easily by clicking on “Stop Hotspot” button.
• After the Wireless Hotspot is created, you will see a notification which will indicate that your laptop is being used as Wireless Hotspot.
• The SSID of your Wireless Hotspot will be “Ubuntu” and the password will be displayed in “Networks” option in “Security Key”.
• Click on “options” tab to set a custom SSID and can also set a custom password decided by you.
• You can also share your internet connection with other computers by choosing “shared to other computers” option in the IPv4 settings.

You can even use this method to share files between 2 computers if you don’t have a wired connection to share. For any queries, drop down a comment below.