Mobile Hotspot

A Windows 11 feature called mobile hotspot lets you share your Internet connection with several other PCs and other devices.

A mobile hotspot can share your PC’s Wi-Fi, Ethernet (wired), or cellular data connection.

You can do so two different ways:

Via Wi-Fi. The shared connection works like any other Wi-Fi network, so it will be available to device that has Wi-Fi capabilities, including your smartphones, tablets, other PCs, and more. You can share your connection with up to 8 other devices via Wi-Fi.

Via Bluetooth. This type of hotspot requires you to first pair your PC with any Bluetooth devices that will share your PC’s connection. It works with up to 7 other devices.

Mobile hotspot is configured in the Settings app (WINKEY + I). You can find this interface in Networking & internet > Mobile hotspot.

Determine which connection to share

Before you get started, you may need to determine which of your connections to share. The option “Share my internet connection from” will let you choose from Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or cellular data, depending on which are available on your PC includes.

You should choose the fastest connection if possible. Ethernet will generally provide the best results, followed by Wi-Fi and then cellular data.

Share your Internet connection over Wi-Fi

Most people will want to share their Internet connection over Wi-Fi because it offers better performance, better reliability, and more device connections than Bluetooth. To do so, open the Settings app (WINKEY + I) and navigate to Network & internet > Mobile hotspot. If the “Share over” option isn’t set to “Wi-Fi” for some reason, make that change now.

Next, examine the options displayed in the “Properties” section.

By default, Windows provides terrible default Name and Password options. To edit these, select the “Edit” button to display the Edit network info window.

Here, you can enter your own network name and password. We recommend keeping them as short and easily remembered as possible. You are also given the choice to choose a network band. “All available,” the default, is generally the best choice from a compatibility perspective, but if you want to limit the Wi-Fi network to the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band for some reason, you can do so.

Now, enable the mobile hotspot by changing the “Mobile hotspot” option to “On.” The shared connection is enabled and a new “Power saving” option appears.

Your shared Internet connection will now appear as a Wi-Fi network alongside other nearby Wi-Fi networks when you check for a connection on your other devices. You can connect to it using the password you configured.

Though there are no management capabilities, devices that are connected to your mobile hotspot will appear in the Properties section of Mobile hotspot settings.

You can turn the mobile hotspot off when you’re done using it. But it will turn off automatically by default if no other PCs or devices are connected.

If you don’t want your mobile hotspot to automatically turn off when there are no connected devices, change the “Power saving” option to “Off.”

Share your Internet connection over Bluetooth

Though you will generally have a much better experience using Wi-Fi, Mobile hotspot also lets you share your PC’s Internet connection using Bluetooth. This configuration requires a bit more work and doesn’t offer the same performance or reliability as Wi-Fi.

To get started, you must first pair your PC with the Bluetooth-compatible device with which you wish to share your Internet connection.

You can learn how to pair your Windows PC to another Bluetooth-compatible device in the Bluetooth chapter.

Then, you can configure Mobile hotspot to use Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi. To do so, open the Settings app (WINKEY + I) and navigate to Network & internet > Mobile hotspot. Then, change the option “Share over” to “Bluetooth.” And then enable the mobile hotspot by changing the option “Mobile hotspot” to “On.” When you do, a new “Power saving” option appears and the “Properties” section expands to show whichever paired devices are now receiving your shared Internet connection over Bluetooth.

How your shared Internet connection appears on your connected devices will vary by platform.

You can turn the mobile hotspot off when you’re done using it. But it will turn off automatically by default if no other PCs or devices are connected.

If you don’t want your mobile hotspot to automatically turn off when there are no connected devices, change the “Power saving” option to “Off.”

Enable the Mobile hotspot quick setting button in Quick Settings

If you use Mobile hotspot a lot, you should consider enabling the Mobile hotspot quick setting button in Quick settings so that you can toggle this feature on and off more conveniently.

You can learn more about Quick settings in the Quick Settings chapter.

To do so, open Quick settings (WINKEY + A) and click the “Edit quick settings” button (it resembles a pencil) to put this interface in its edit mode. Then, select the “Add” button and choose “Mobile hotspot” from the list of available choices. A new Mobile hotspot button appears in Quick settings. (You can optionally reposition this button.) Click “Done” when you’re done.

Now, you can use the Mobile hotspot button in Quick settings to quickly toggle your mobile hotspot on and off. When you do, the Mobile hotspot button in Quick settings will display the number of devices, and the names of those devices, that are using your shared connection.