No internet connection after I turned my laptop into wifi hotspot

Good day,

Due to my coming posting to a place without a wifi connection for my tablet, I decided to turn my laptop into a wifi hotspot.

I googled and found this post:

How to turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot | News | TechRadar

I thought, "Hey, that's cool". So I did everything mentioned there to the letter. It worked, my laptop was able to create its own hotspot, which was well cool. I connected my tablet to the new wifi connection. It did work, but I had no internet connection. So I assume that whatever I did, it disconnected my wireless adapter to created the hotspot. So I thought, that's fine, I'll just use a network cable.

Now here's the real problem.
1) I disconnected the connection, but my wireless network on my laptop told me that I had no internet connection.
2) I checked my tablet and reconnected the tablet to my home wireless network. It worked fine. I'm posting this using my tablet on home wireless.
3) No issue with my laptop nor the hardware, because prior to following the tutorial, my wireless network works just fine.
4) I tried disabling the device in Network & Sharing. No difference.
5) I stopped hostednetwork. No difference.
6) I disallowed hostednetwork. No difference.
7) As a last ditched effort, I turned on the system restore and reverted back to an earlier point. That finally work. My laptop finally has an internet connection again.

So my question is, what actually happened here and if I encounter this again, what should I do apart from turning back to a restore point. Perhaps someone more experienced than me can shed me some light?

Thanks in advance.

To my knowledge the WiFi adapter work as either a connection point to a WiFi router/Wireless access point or AS a wireless Access Point, WiFi Hot Spot, but not both. So you would need to connect the notebook to a router (internet connection) with a Ethernet cable. Then the computer will take the internet from the Cable and send it out to connected devices.

Yes you can create the hosted wireless network and be online at the same time.

The Microsoft Virtual WiFi Adaptor is used to create the hosted network so you need to use a Windows 7 certified driver in order for the hosted wireless network to work as it should. The certified driver automatically installs the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Adaptor which is required to create the hosted wireless network. The Microsoft Virtual WiFi Adaptor should show up in Device Manager when it's installed correctly.

The link below shows both methods for creating a hosted wireless network.
Windows 7 Tip of the Week: Use Wireless Hosted Networking to Share An Internet Connection Wirelessly

You should be able to share your internet connection via the hotspot using either the wired or wireless connection. If I were you I would do a system restore back to a point prior to when you did the hotspot setup and see if you can get your wifi connection working again. Once you get that working, I recommend using the Virtual Router (from the OP's link) or Connectify (from Chev65's link) utilities to simplify the process with a nice gui that allows you to configure the hotspot very easily.

strollin said:

You should be able to share your internet connection via the hotspot using either the wired or wireless connection. If I were you I would do a system restore back to a point prior to when you did the hotspot setup and see if you can get your wifi connection working again. Once you get that working, I recommend using the Virtual Router (from the OP's link) or Connectify (from Chev65's link) utilities to simplify the process with a nice gui that allows you to configure the hotspot very easily.

Click to expand...

Quote from Op: 7) As a last ditched effort, I turned on the system restore and reverted back to an earlier point. That finally work. My laptop finally has an internet connection again.

Yep it worked.

All of this is very good but in the OPs original post he says nothing of having a Wifi network to connect the notebook to.

My point is if the notebook, with WiFi card, can get a connection to a Local WiFi signal, whether at home or in a public area (coffee house or whatever), then they should easily be able to connect his Tablet to that same WiFi signal.

Just why would you need to HotSpot a Notebook and have the WiFi card do double duty when there is already a WiFi network available?

Seems kind of Redundant to me. Just sayin.

I can't answer that for the op, but in my case, I would use this ability to share my laptop's connection while tethered to my phone. With apps like FoxFi now available, I no longer need this capability.

In the case where someone has a cellular broadband connection on their laptop then this could be used to share that connection as well. Another example would be that there is no WiFi hotspot but the laptop is connected via Ethernet. That connection can now be shared with devices that only have WiFi capability.

The case I can think of where you might want to do this where WiFi is available is when using paid wifi hotspots. In this case only one cinnection needs to be paid for but can be shared with multiple devices.

edwar said:

All of this is very good but in the OPs original post he says nothing of having a Wifi network to connect the notebook to.

My point is if the notebook, with WiFi card, can get a connection to a Local WiFi signal, whether at home or in a public area (coffee house or whatever), then they should easily be able to connect his Tablet to that same WiFi signal.

Just why would you need to HotSpot a Notebook and have the WiFi card do double duty when there is already a WiFi network available?

Seems kind of Redundant to me. Just sayin.

Click to expand...

I know just what you mean, it seemed silly to me as well because if there is already a WiFi connection why would you need the hot spot?

The Op did mention he was using wireless adaptor so it was easy to assume he was trying to share a wireless connection. I believe the problem was that the Op was not using a Windows 7 certified driver which would include the Microsoft Virtual WiFi miniport adaptor which is required to set up a hosted wireless network.

The only reason I can think of is that some people only have a modem with no router involved in which case setting up a hosted wireless connection or even a virtual router could actually be useful.

strollin said:

In the case where someone has a cellular broadband connection on their laptop then this could be used to share that connection as well. Another example would be that there is no WiFi hotspot but the laptop is connected via Ethernet. That connection can now be shared with devices that only have WiFi capability.

The case I can think of where you might want to do this where WiFi is available is when using paid wifi hotspots. In this case only one cinnection needs to be paid for but can be shared with multiple devices.

Click to expand...

With a Cell 3/4G setup it can be done without the virtual adapter.

Yes if paid WiFi then yes.

edwar said:

With a Cell 3/4G setup it can be done without the virtual adapter. ...

Click to expand...

How? When I had a 3G cellular dongle the only other way I knew to share that connection was with a broadband router. Unless you're thinking of one of the MiFi devices which is actually a 3G dongle/router in one unit.

strollin said:

edwar said:

With a Cell 3/4G setup it can be done without the virtual adapter. ...

Click to expand...

How? When I had a 3G cellular dongle the only other way I knew to share that connection was with a broadband router. Unless you're thinking of one of the MiFi devices which is actually a 3G dongle/router in one unit.

Click to expand...

With ICS. It is kind of covered in the link that was posted but if you have 2 independent connections types you ca use ICS from one to the other.

That's right. I used ICS years ago before I had a router and hated it so don't even think of that option now.

Sorry, it seems like I wasn't very clear.

The scenario is actually like this:
1) My laptop is connected to the Ethernet port (network cable)
2) My tablet only has wifi capability (no 3G, no 4G)
3) To allow my tablet to have internet capability, I need a wifi, thus the laptop hotspot.
4) Yes, I can just use another wireless, but there are no wireless signals anywhere nearby. Thus the laptop hotspot.
5) When I tested the tutorial, I had both wireless (let's call this 'amig') and cable internet (let's call this ether) at home. Therefore, both devices can connect to wireless.
6) When I turned the laptop hotspot on (let's call this 'shin'), my laptop lost connection to my internet wifi (no amig).
7) When I switched the connection on my tablet from my home internet wifi (amig) to hotspot (shin), I got a wifi connection, but no internet.
8) I turned off 'shin' on my laptop and looked at 'amig' again. 'Amig' tells me that I have wifi but no internet connection.
9) I turned the tablet back to 'amig' connection. It worked fine.
10) I restarted my laptop and retraced my steps, cancelling everything I did, but still, 'amig' tells me that I have no internet connection.
11) I posted the question using my tablet on 'amig' connection, because my laptop that connects to the same wifi tells me that 'amig' doesn't have internet. But my tablet can use internet just fine.
12) I reverted my laptop to an earlier setting using system restore. Problem solved.

13) Now, let's get rid of 'amig'. Now I'm left with 'ether', since my new workplace doesn't have 'amig', only 'ether'.
14) Sure, I can use 'ether' now, at my home now, but I wasn't testing 'ether'. I was testing whether or not my laptop can create 'shin' for my tablet to use assuming that my laptop is connected to 'ether'.
15) What's the point if I can create one single wifi hotspot when my laptop ends up not being able to catch wifi whenever there is one later?

16) My question wasn't about whether or not it's feasible or redundant. My question is, what happened?
17) Why did 'amig' tells my laptop that it's not connected to internet when it says to my tablet that the internet was top speed?

18) Again, I state that I'm using Windows 7 Home 64bit and prior to following the tutorial, my wifi adaptor worked just fine.

6) When I turned the laptop hotspot on (let's call this 'shin'), my laptop lost connection to my internet wifi (no amig).
7) When I switched the connection on my tablet from my home internet wifi (amig) to hotspot (shin), I got a wifi connection, but no internet.

Click to expand...

This seems to indicate that the wireless card of the laptop isn't using proper drivers.
Find drivers for that card that aren't from microsoft and install them. (microsoft ones are generic and work on tons of devices, but lack advanced features like the ones needed to use the card to connect to a wifi router AND run a wireless hotspot at the same time)

Also, in a more realistic situation, where you have only wired network, you must go into
Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings then rightclick on your Ethernet card, select properties and then go to the Sharing tab, and select "allow other network users to connect using this computer's internet connection". As that is the card connected to Internet.

Again, if your Ethernet network card properties panel does not have that "sharing" tab, download the drivers for that specific device as Microsoft's generic ones cannot do that.

15) What's the point if I can create one single wifi hotspot when my laptop ends up not being able to catch wifi whenever there is one later?

Click to expand...

You have to shut down the wireless hotspot, from network and sharing center, you find the hotspot network and click "disconnect". Then the wifi card is back to its usual job.
If you have the right drivers (see above), you can use the card to make the hotspot AND connect to a router. At least I think. Never needed that.

Btw, the tutorial you linked sucks.
Win 7 has already a handy wizard to set up a hotspot without doing wonky things with terminal.
This tells you how to use this handy feature.

bobafetthotmail said:

6) When I turned the laptop hotspot on (let's call this 'shin'), my laptop lost connection to my internet wifi (no amig).
7) When I switched the connection on my tablet from my home internet wifi (amig) to hotspot (shin), I got a wifi connection, but no internet.

Click to expand...

This seems to indicate that the wireless card of the laptop isn't using proper drivers.
Find drivers for that card that aren't from microsoft and install them. (microsoft ones are generic and work on tons of devices, but lack advanced features like the ones needed to use the card to connect to a wifi router AND run a wireless hotspot at the same time)

Also, in a more realistic situation, where you have only wired network, you must go into
Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings then rightclick on your Ethernet card, select properties and then go to the Sharing tab, and select "allow other network users to connect using this computer's internet connection". As that is the card connected to Internet.

Again, if your Ethernet network card properties panel does not have that "sharing" tab, download the drivers for that specific device as Microsoft's generic ones cannot do that.

15) What's the point if I can create one single wifi hotspot when my laptop ends up not being able to catch wifi whenever there is one later?

Click to expand...

You have to shut down the wireless hotspot, from network and sharing center, you find the hotspot network and click "disconnect". Then the wifi card is back to its usual job.
If you have the right drivers (see above), you can use the card to make the hotspot AND connect to a router. At least I think. Never needed that.

Btw, the tutorial you linked sucks.
Win 7 has already a handy wizard to set up a hotspot without doing wonky things with terminal.
This tells you how to use this handy feature.

Click to expand...

You do realize that I have already mentioned the part in bold.

The drivers for the wireless adaptor need to be Microsoft certified WHQL drivers in order to have the Microsoft Virtual WiFi adaptor which is required to support a hosted wireless network. You need that in order to be connected to the internet and support the hosted wireless network.

The problem is that it seems the Op is attempting to create a hosted wireless network from an Ethernet connection and from what I can see none of those tutorials cover that but I do think it's possible with the right settings.

15) What's the point if I can create one single wifi hotspot when my laptop ends up not being able to catch wifi whenever there is one later?

Click to expand...

You have to shut down the wireless hotspot, from network and sharing center, you find the hotspot network and click "disconnect". Then the wifi card is back to its usual job.
If you have the right drivers (see above), you can use the card to make the hotspot AND connect to a router. At least I think. Never needed that.

Btw, the tutorial you linked sucks.
Win 7 has already a handy wizard to set up a hotspot without doing wonky things with terminal.
This tells you how to use this handy feature.

Click to expand...

I have actually disconnected the hotspot network. Did that before I started to panic and stopped and disallowed that wlan hostednetwork thingy. Then I panicked even more and pressed the panic button (system restore).

I do agree that tutorial sucked. Any tutorial that doesn't explain what I'm doing is prone to disaster eventually.


Chev65: I'll see if I can find out more about this Microsoft certified WHQL drivers thingy. Can you tell me where I can probably start?

Quick fix for no internet connection after enabling PC hotspot

shinieris said:

Good day,

Due to my coming posting to a place without a wifi connection for my tablet, I decided to turn my laptop into a wifi hotspot.

I googled and found this post:

How to turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot | News | TechRadar

I thought, "Hey, that's cool". So I did everything mentioned there to the letter. It worked, my laptop was able to create its own hotspot, which was well cool. I connected my tablet to the new wifi connection. It did work, but I had no internet connection. So I assume that whatever I did, it disconnected my wireless adapter to created the hotspot. So I thought, that's fine, I'll just use a network cable.

Now here's the real problem.
1) I disconnected the connection, but my wireless network on my laptop told me that I had no internet connection.
2) I checked my tablet and reconnected the tablet to my home wireless network. It worked fine. I'm posting this using my tablet on home wireless.
3) No issue with my laptop nor the hardware, because prior to following the tutorial, my wireless network works just fine.
4) I tried disabling the device in Network & Sharing. No difference.
5) I stopped hostednetwork. No difference.
6) I disallowed hostednetwork. No difference.
7) As a last ditched effort, I turned on the system restore and reverted back to an earlier point. That finally work. My laptop finally has an internet connection again.

So my question is, what actually happened here and if I encounter this again, what should I do apart from turning back to a restore point. Perhaps someone more experienced than me can shed me some light?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

There is a quick fix, go to control panel>network adapters>right-click the wireless adapter then click DIAGNOSE > follow the steps

It worked for me.