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Non-standard Internet connections
07/04/15
Non-standard Internet connections
- Say you find yourself in a cheap motel on the wrong side of the tracks. There's no ethernet signal available but you can pick up a mobile phone signal. You can use your smart phone to make the internet available to other devices - tethering - can be done using Wi-Fi, USB or Bluetooth depending on what cables and sockets are available. If your phone came from your network provider they may disable this but it should work on all sim only phones. Also note that data transceived this way is usually expensive, so you may want to temporarily turn off program and anti-virus updates, disable Flash, block images, and browse using Opera in Turbo mode. Also consider running your phone off mains electricity as this will drain a battery faster than a broken sieve. Now enable Personal Hotspot on your phone (in the Settings menus). Note that tethering via USB will be faster than Wi-Fi and much faster than Bluetooth and limited power will be available to the phone.
Set up your laptop as a Wi-Fi hotspot by joining it to the Ethernet socket with a Cat5 cable you have handily placed in the bag while packing. Now you just need to create an Ad-Hoc network (NOT infrastructure).
- In Windows 7 go to Manager Wireless Networks > Add > Create an ad hoc Nnetwork. Now on the hosts wireless adapter go to Properties > Sharing and allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection.
- In Windows 8.x the option is hidden so you need to go via the command prompt. First Win+R > ncpa.cpl now right click the wireless adapter and choose Properties > Sharing. Next from an admin CMD window
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=?MyNetwork" key="Pa$$w0rd" netsh wlan start hostednetwork netsh wlan show hostednetwork - On a Macintosh you need to click the Apple menu > System Preferences > Sharing and have it share the connection from the internet. Now enable Wi-Fi sharing and in the Options window enter the SSID and encryption key. Now just 'on' the service.
- On Linux you need to find the NetworkManager tool and follow your nose.
- Possibly easier than the above for Windows users would be to download a free virtual router that can wirelessly share any internet connection (Wifi, LAN, Cable Modem, Dial-up, Cellular, etc.) with any Wifi device (Laptop, Smart Phone, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android Phone, Zune, Netbook, wireless printer, etc.) Get this from
https://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/ - Carry a portable mini-router in your travel bag. This can be used to broadcast a Wi-Fi signal or multiplex to several Ethernet enabled devices. Make sure the router has a WAN input socket as you will not be using a DSL signal from the phone line but an Ethernet signal from a static hotel provided socket. Other routers are available - Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi for example - this needs to be able to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot and create its own Wi-Fi network at the same time. This would circumvent artificial limitations on single MAC address connections.
- A portable satellite connection is possible but an expensive option. On the assumption that few readers will be that far from civilisation I'll say no more.
- A Bluetooth Personal Area Network is another option but the signal distances are very limited and both devices would need a Bluetooth adapter.
- Multiple wireless network adapters (one could be a UDB dongle for example) would enable one to be used for regular connection to a service while the other was used to create a hotspot as described above.
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