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 connect...

Gain unlimited access to Premium articles.

With technology shaping our everyday lives, how could we not dig deeper?

Thurrott Premium delivers an honest and thorough perspective about the technologies we use and rely on everyday. Discover deeper content as a Premium member.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC