Apart from the new features of windows 8, you might have noticed that
the some of the features of previous versions of windows are missing in
windows 8 like setting up of ad hoc network. Previously users could
easily create a ad hoc network share their internet connection with
other people which is very useful if you are using data card to surf
internet. Ad hoc network are also very useful for sharing files and
playing multiplayer LAN games but as this feature is missing in windows
8, it's a big problem for all the people.
In this post i am going to tell you how you can still create a Ad hoc
network. Actually i am going to use the feature named SoftAP using the
netsh utility instead of Ad hoc because Ad hoc feature is removed from
windows 8. SoftAP acts similar to ad hoc with some of the advantages
like you can use your wireless card to create access point as well as
connect to wireless networks simultaneously.
Here are the steps:
+ In windows 8, On the start screen start typing
cmd, right click on it and then click on
run as administrator.
+ Now as we are going to create a virtual wireless hotspot so it is
necessary that you computer supports wireless
hostednetwork/virtualization feature so in cmd type the below command
and press enter.
netsh wlan show drivers
+ Now look for Hosted Network Supported and make sure that yes is
written in front of it. If it says no then update the driver of your
network adapter.
+ Now once you make sure that your computer supports virtualization. Type the following command and press enter.
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=network-name key=password
Replace network-name with the name of the network you want to create and
password with which you want others to connect to this network.
For example type: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=technocratRohit key=rohitagarwal
+ Now you have to start the hostednetwork to create an ad hoc network. So type:
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
+ Now the ad hoc network is created and anyone can connect to it. But if
you want to share internet connection with others you have to enable it
first. So go to:
Control Panel->Network And Internet->Network And Sharing Center->Change adapter settings
+ Here you will find that a new virtual connection has been created. Note down it's name.
+ Right click on the network device connected to internet and click on
properties. Click on sharing tab and select Allow other network users to
connect through this computer's Internet connection and from the drop
down list choose the newly created ad hoc network.
+ Now to stop the ad hoc network in command prompt (cmd) type:
netsh wlan stop hostednetwork
Advantage:
+ You can both create the ad hoc network and connect to the wireless network simultaneously.
If you find any problem then feel free to ask here.
