How to Communicate your Displeasure with Neighbours using Wi-Fi

You want to maintain amicable relations with your neighbors but their loud music has become too annoying and distracting. What can a good way to communicate your displeasure and get them to turn down the volume?

Your wireless network has a name (or SSID) that will show up on your neighbour’s computer and mobile phone. You can put the complaint message in your Wi-Fi name and your neighbours may see it when their device is scanning for available wireless names to connect to the Internet.

And unless you are the only house in that area with a router, your neighbours are less likely to figure out who is showing them that message. This is much like leaving a sticky note on your neighbour’s door anonymously.

Wireless names can also be used to share your contact information with neighbours.

How to Make Your Wired Printer Wireless

Your laptop and desktop computers are connected over a Wi-Fi network but you still need a physical USB cable to connect your wired printer to one of these computers.

If you find your existing setup a bit inconvenient and are looking for ways that will help you print documents from the same printer but wirelessly, here are some choices.

Turn any Wired Printer into a Wireless Network Printer

More new printers these days are network enabled so you can just attach them to your home network using the Ethernet port (or over Wi-Fi) and print from any other computer in the home network. However, if you are using an old USB based printer, you can use a wireless print server to turn that wired printer into a wireless one.

Wireless print servers are small devices (they look like mini routers) that have a USB port. You just have to connect the printer to this wireless print server using a regular USB cable and the printer will then become available to all other computers in your wireless network.

Here’s an overview of some of the most popular wireless print servers:

Netgear WGPS606 – This is both a wireless print server and a wired router.   It has two USB ports so you may use the device for sharing up to two printers over the wireless network. The same print server can also help you connect four different computers to the network even if they are not fitted with wireless network adapters. Costs around $60.

Linksys Print Server – This wireless print server from Cisco makes it easy to access all the functions of your all-in-one printer over the wireless network.   The Print Server can connect most USB based multifunction printers to your network using an Ethernet cable or Wireless-G. The print function works like any other print server but for scanning or copying, a user can request exclusive use of that function until his task is complete. Costs around $80.

HP Wireless Kit – If you like to turn your wired HP printer into a wireless one, the HP Wireless Printing Kit could be a good choice as it integrates fully with all features of your printer, including print, scan, and fax. It comes with a USB transmitter that you need to insert into the computer for wireless printing. The advantage is that you can print wirelessly even if you don’t have a wireless network. Requires Windows and costs around $75.

If you don’t have a wireless network at your place, you can consider getting a Bluetooth adapter for your printer. You need to attach the Bluetooth dongle to your computer and print wirelessly though the range will obviously be limited. Check your printer manufacturer’s site if they provide a Bluetooth adapter for your printer model.

Should You Buy a Wireless Print Server?

Before you invest in a wireless print server for your printer, consider this.

Today, most multifunction printers include wireless capabilities and can therefore connect directly to your wireless network without any additional hardware. Some of these printers are available in the $100 range. With this in mind, does it make more sense to purchase a new printer instead of buying a wireless print server for your existing printer?

Here are some possible scenarios:

• If your current printer is relatively new and you paid more than $100 for it, then it may be more economical for you to simply purchase a wireless print server instead of purchasing an entirely new printer with the same features.
• If a wireless printer in not available in your area, you can buy a regular USB based wired printer and get someone to ship you a wireless print server. This would incur less shipping costs than ordering a wireless printer.
• Some wireless print servers can be used as wireless routers. If you do not have a wireless router at your place, you can opt for a wireless print server as it will not only turn your printer wireless but you also get to setup a wireless home network.

Also see: Secure Your WiFi Home Network

Build a Wireless Home Network without a Router

Let’s say you have one internet connection at home that you want to share across all your desktop and laptop computers, your Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, tablets, video game consoles (like the Xbox), digital photo frames and any other wireless devices that you may have at home.

How do you do this?

The easiest way to setup a wireless network, as we all know, is with the help of a router – just attach a wireless router to your modem and any Wi-Fi enabled gear, that’s located inside the signal range of your router, will be able to connect to the web using that lone Internet connection.

Setup Wireless Network without a Wireless Router

Now consider a slightly different scenario – you have all these Wi-Fi enabled devices at home but there’s no router. Well, there’s no reason to buy one because you can still easily setup a wireless network as long as your computers have a wireless network adapter*.

[*] Most new desktops and laptop computers are already equipped with internal network adapters so you are ready to go without a router.

If your computer doesn’t have built-in wireless capabilities, you can either buy a USB network adapter that plugs into the USB port of your desktop or go for a wireless adapterthat directly plugs into your notebook’s PC Card slot. Desktop users can also opt for an internal wireless PCI card but you’ll have to open the computer case in order to install this network adapter.

Create a Wi-Fi Network without a Router

Now that you have everything in place to create a Wi-Fi network, let’s actually build one.

For Windows XP and Vista users

If your main computer, that is already connected to the internet, is running Windows XP, Vista or even Mac OS X, you can set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and the other wireless devices can then connect to the web via this ad-hoc network (also called a computer-to-computer network).

Wired Connection In, Wireless Connection Out

It’s an easy process. To set up an ad-hoc network in Windows Vista, go to Network and Sharing Center from the control panel, select “Set up a connection or network” and choose “Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network”.

Make sure you select “Save this network” option else the ad hoc network will be removed if no other computers / devices are connecting to the network.

Turn on Internet Sharing in the next screen and now your other home computers can connect to the ad hoc network just like they would connect to any regular wireless network. Setting up an ad hoc network in XP takes a couple of extra steps but also make sure the host computer is running at least XP SP2 or SP3.

For Windows 7 users

If you are on Windows 7, you can instantly turn your  computer into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot without having to configure anything. All you need is a free software called Virtual Router and the computer connected to the internet must be running Windows 7.

[*] Virtual Router works will all editions of Windows 7 except the Starter edition because Microsoft has disabled the Virtual Wifi feature in that particular edition.

Using the virtual router is simple – just run the program on any Windows 7 computer, assign a password and that’s it. In the above example, I used the Virtual Router to connect an iPod, an Ubuntu Linux laptop and a Windows desktop to the Internet via a Windows 7 notebook where that virtual router software was running.

As new devices join the Wireless network, their assigned IP and MAC addresses instantly appear in the Virtual Router window. And you can click the “Stop Router” button anytime to deactivate the hotspot and disable Internet sharing.

Virtual Wi-Fi vs Ad Hoc Wireless Networking

To set up Ad Hoc networking, your main computer needs to have an Ethernet based Internet connection as well as a Wireless (WLAN) network adapter. In the case of Virtual Wi-Fi, the Ethernet card is optional so you can turn a laptop into a hotspot even if your laptop itself is connected to a Wireless network and not to an Ethernet cable.

Computers and other wireless devices in ad hoc networks must be within 30 feet of each other but there’s no such restriction in the case of Virtual Wireless networks.

Ad-Hoc wireless networking is available on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 while Virtual WiFi, which is much easier to setup, is available on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008.

Related: How to Secure your Wireless Network

[*] Intel’s Centrino 2 processors include a technology called My Wifi that can also turn your wirelessly connected laptop into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot but the interesting part is that this supports Windows Vista as well in addition to Windows 7.

Set Up Ad-Hoc Wireless Network in Windows XP

This document from Microsoft Technet describes how you can share a wired Internet Connection with your other computers by setting up an ad-hoc wireless network.

Step 1: Enabling Internet Sharing on the Host Computer

To enable Internet sharing on the host computer, do the following:

1.From the Windows XP desktop, click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections.

2.Right-click the Ethernet network connection that is used to access the Internet, and then click Properties.

3.On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection check box and clear the Allow other network users to control or disable this shared Internet connection check box.

4.Click OK to save changes to your connection.

5.You might be prompted with a Local Network message box that explains how your computer’s configuration is being changed. Click Yes to enable Internet sharing.

Step 2: Creating an Ad Hoc Wireless Network on the Host Computer

To create an ad hoc wireless network to share Internet access with the other WLAN computers on a computer running Windows XP, do the following:

1. From the Windows XP desktop, click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections.

2. Right-click the wireless network connection, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Wireless Networks tab.

4. In the wireless network adapter properties dialog box, click Add under Preferred networks.

5. On the Association tab, type the name of your ad hoc wireless network in Network name (SSID). For example, you could name your wireless network AdHocInternet.

6. Select the This is a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network check box and clear the The key is provided for me automatically check box.

7. In Network Authentication, select Open.

8. In Data encryption, select WEP.

9. In Network key, type the WEP key. The WEP key should be a random sequence of hexadecimal digits or numbers, letters, and punctuation.

10.In Confirm network key, retype the WEP key.

11.Click OK to save changes to the wireless network.

12.Click OK to save changes to the wireless network adapter.

These instructions configure an encryption key for wireless communications on the ad hoc wireless network. You must tell the other users who want to access the Internet the WEP key. You can create an ad hoc wireless network without requiring encryption and an encryption key, but it is not recommended.

Step 3. Connect other Computers to your new Ad Hoc Wireless Network

To connect each other laptop computer to the newly created ad hoc mode wireless network, do the following:

1. Once the new ad hoc wireless network is created, Windows XP on other laptop computers should detect it and prompt you with a One or more wireless networks are available or Wireless networks detected message in the notification area of your taskbar.

2. Click the notification message.

If you are not notified, right-click the wireless network adapter in Network Connections and click View Available Wireless Networks.

You should see the Wireless Network Connection dialog box (for Windows XP with SP2), a dialog box with the name of the wireless connection (for Windows XP with SP1), or the Connect to Wireless Network dialog box (for Windows XP with no service packs installed). An example of the Wireless Network Connection dialog box for Windows XP with SP2 is shown in the following figure.

3. For Windows XP with SP2, click the name of the new ad hoc wireless network in the list, and then click Connect. When prompted by the Wireless Network Connectiondialog box, the WEP key in Network key and Confirm network key, and then clickConnect.

For Windows XP with SP1, click the name of the new ad hoc wireless network inAvailable networks, type the WEP key in Network key and Confirm network key, and then click Connect.

For Windows XP with no service packs installed, click the name of the new ad hoc wireless network in Available networks, type the WEP key in Network key, and then click Connect.

Now that the laptop computer is connected to the ad hoc wireless network, you must configure it for either Windows Firewall or ICF and automatic addressing by doing the following:

1. From the Windows XP desktop, click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections.

2. Right-click the network connection that corresponds to the wireless network adapter, and then click Properties.

3. For computers running Windows XP with SP2, click the Advanced tab, and then clickSettings. From the Windows Firewall dialog box, click On, and then click OK.

For computers running Windows XP with SP1 or Windows XP with no service packs installed, click the Advanced tab, and then select the Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet check box.

4. Click the General tab, double-click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the This connection uses the following items list.

5. On the General tab, click Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.

6. Click OK to save the changes to the configuration of Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

7. Click OK to save the changes to your connection’s configuration.

The laptop computer should receive an IP address configuration from the ICS host computer and have Internet connectivity. Test Internet connectivity by using a Web browser to view Web pages.

How To Turn Your Windows 8, 8.1, 10 Device Into A WiFi Access Point

Previous editions of Windows allowed users to create ad hoc wireless connections between computers. You could use those connections to create a wireless network between multiple computers or to share the Internet connection that was available on one of them. This can no longer be done in Windows 8.1, at least not using a visual interface and the mouse. However, with the help of the Command Prompt and a few commands, you too can turn your Windows 8.1 laptop or hybrid device into a WiFi access point. Here's how:

NOTE: Lots of readers have asked us for a way to automate the steps described in this tutorial. That is why we have updated the tutorial and created a small program, which aims to automate the steps involved in this process, as much as possible. You can find more information and the download link at the end of the article. However, we do recommend that you read the whole article before using our program, so that you understand how to use it.

What You Need In Order For This To Work

In order to use your Windows 8.1 laptop or hybrid device as an WiFi access point for other devices, it must have at least 2 network cards installed and one of them must be a wireless network card. One of them must be connected to the Internet.

Setup scenarios we tested that worked great include:

• One laptop using its Ethernet connection for Internet access and its WiFi adapter to broadcast - use a network cable to connect your Windows  8, 8.1, 10  laptop to the Internet and the wireless network card for the access point that's sharing the Internet access with other devices.
• One laptop that is connected to the Internet through a USB mobile modem and broadcasts the wireless network through its WiFi adapter - many users will have a USB mobile modem available with 3G or 4G connectivity. They can use it for Internet access and use the wireless network adapter for creating the access point and sharing the Internet access with others.
• One laptop and two wireless network adapters, one connected to the Internet and the other acting as an access point - you won’t find this situation too often, as laptops and hybrid devices don't come with two wireless network cards installed. However, you can install a USB wireless adapter and use it for creating the access point.

Step 1. Create A Virtual WiFi Network in Windows  8, 8.1, 10 

To begin, we'll need to open the Command Prompt with administrative privileges and use a command to create a virtual wireless network that is broadcasted by your Windows 8, 8.1, 10  device.

To show you how this is done, we will create a wireless network called Hotspot. The password for this network will be "Allsoftlearn".

Inside the Command Prompt window, type the following command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Hotspot key=Allsoftlearn

Notice that the name of the network is set using the SSID parameter and the password is set using the KEY parameter. Obviously, you can set your own values for them.

To create the access point, press Enter. If all goes well, you should see that the hosted network has been set.

Now you have created a virtual adapter that can function as a wireless access point for other computers and devices in your area. However, in order for it to work, you need to take one more step: turn on this virtual adapter.

Do not close the Command Prompt. Keep it open and enter the following command:

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

Then, press Enter.

The virtual wireless adapter is now started and shown in the Network and Sharing Center.

You can connect all your devices to the newly created wireless network. However, it has no Internet access. If you stop at this point, when you connect other devices and computers to the newly created access point, you can create a network between them and use it to share files and resources.

Step 2. Allow Internet Access For The Devices That Are Connected To The Virtual WiFi Network

Open the Network and Sharing Center. Notice that the virtual network adapter you just created is displayed as active, but it has no Internet access at this time.

Click or tap the connection of the physical network adapter that currently has Internet access. In our case, it is an Ethernet connection.

This opens the Status window for the selected network adapter. Click or tap Properties.

In the Properties window, go to the Sharing tab.

In order to give Internet access to the virtual WiFi adapter that was created earlier, check the box near "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection".

Then, select the virtual adapter that was created earlier.

Click or tap OK and Close to save the settings you've made.

Go back to the Network and Sharing Center and you will notice that the virtual network adapter now has Internet access.

The virtual adapter now gives Internet access to all the devices that are connected to it.