Create Ad Hoc Network - Wireless Hotspot In Windows 8

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.