If your laptop has an LTE or 5G adapter and thus a fast Internet connection, you can use it as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to connect other nearby devices to the Internet, such as your smartphone, other people’s computers.

This works with any internet connection; your Windows laptop can also use an Ethernet connection or another Wi-Fi connection as the basis for its access point.

To set up an access point, open “Settings” in the Windows Start menu, then “Network and Internet”. Click on the arrow pointing right for “Mobile Hotspot”. In the next window, set the switch to “On” and scroll down to “Properties”. Click “Edit” if you want to change the default network name and password. Note that the password must be at least eight characters long.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Troubleshoot laptop hotspot issues

Please note: As soon as the hotspot is active, the “Share your internet connection with” option is grayed out and no longer available. If, for example, “WiFi” is set at this moment and you connect an Ethernet cable, the message “Internet connection is not available, but the mobile hotspot is still on” appears. You can then access the Internet from the laptop with the hosting access point and load web pages, while broadcasting from the laptop with the access point still provides access to your local network. However, there is no internet connection through the access point. To get it working again, you must first deactivate the access point, change the setting to “Enable your own internet connection from” and then reactivate the access point.

There are also a number of other error possibilities that can prevent the hotspot from working. For example, the Wi-Fi adapter must support hosted networks in order for you to set up an access point.

You can check this in the command line. Type cmd in the search box on the taskbar, make sure “Command Prompt” is checked, and click “Run as administrator.” Type the command netsh wlan show drivers followed by Enter. Then look for the line “Supported Hosted Networks”. It should be followed by “Yes”. If this is not the case, the hotspot cannot be set up with this adapter.

Another possible source of the error is the Wi-Fi adapter driver. Open Control Panel, then “Device Manager”. Now click on “Show hidden devices” under “View”. In the main window, click on the small arrow in front of “Network Adapter” and right-click on “Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter”.

The adapter may not be active, in that case click on “Activate device”. You should also check the drivers: To do this, click on “Update driver” in the same context menu. Select the following windows “Search for drivers on my computer” and then “Select from the list of available drivers on my computer”. Select “Virtual Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Adapter” and click “Next”.

After a few seconds, a window will appear with the message “Windows has successfully updated your drivers”.

This article has been translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.