Create a WiFi Hotspot – Share Your Internet Connection in Leopard
In the last few weeks I’ve been in a situation twice where only one person had Internet access (me) and needed to share it with other people or devices. The first time we were at a convention center and only had wired internet access at the booth. We had several iPhones we needed to use to display a website (we were demoing a new mobile website). The second time our wireless router went out in the office and only a handful of computers are running on a hard-wired ethernet connection.
In both cases, we needed to access the Internet and having a Mac saved the day. It was extremely simple and quick to share my internet connection on my MacBook Pro using built-in features in Mac OS X.
To share an internet connection over Airport, you will need to be connected to the internet by either a wired ethernet connection or by a cellular card. I used a Verizon V740 card to share the internet connection at the convention and hard-wired ethernet connection at the office when our router went out.
So how do you share your Internet connection using Mac OS X? See the tutorial below, or take a look at the video.
Open the preferences pane and click “Sharing”:
Click on the name “Internet Sharing” which will bring up the internet sharing information to the right of the preference pane:
Choose the type of internet you want to share (I have “Built-in Ethernet” selected to share):
in the “To computers using:” section check the box labeled “Airport”:
If you want to name the network, set encryption or a password, click “Airport Options…”:
Once you have configured the settings, check the box next to “Internet Sharing” on the left and you will be prompted with a warning: “Are you sure you want to turn on Internet sharing?” Click Start.
Now your internet connection should be shared. In place of your normal WiFi signal strength indicator you should see the icon on the right.
Also check out the video:
Tweet This (2)
Alex Moyler on May 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am
Hah, I do this all the time at my Uni. Very useful and usually very speedy. In a vice versa method, at home I use the wireless access from my Mac to pipe a signal via ethernet to another computer without a wireless card installed.
jc on May 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
This never works for me when I’m at work.
Since my office’s authentication certificates won’t work on my iPhone via Wifi, I try to share my ethernet connection from my MBP.
It seems that regardless of my internet sharing options, my Airport automatically connects to the office Airport network. No sharing ever occurs.
All that I can think of is to tell my Airport settings to ‘forget’ my office network… but I don’t want to do that everytime I want to share my ethernet wirelessly because I use both wired & wifi frequently throughout the day.
Philip Shane on May 23rd, 2008 at 10:03 am
really love your screencasts. :-)
but I have to convert them to get them to play on my iPhone. any chance of publishing an iPhone ready version of ‘em?
HD Boy on June 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
So, will this technique also allow iTunes to see and utilize any external speakers attached to the “Sharing” computer?
I’d love to be able to remotely access the good Bose speakers in my office (connected to a Mac Pro) from iTunes on my PowerBook. This capability would enable the “Sharing” computer to replicate the Airport Express’ AirTunes feature, without having to install another Airport Express in small room…
Now that would be cool.
Paul on July 14th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
This works fine for me as long as I keep my firewall turned off, which is really not a good idea. Has anybody figured out how to make this work, AND use the built-in Mac OS X firewall to protect your computer for attacks? If so, please post the solution here.
Alyce LaGasse on July 14th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Great … I got it… and the other Mac recognizes mine via airport but can’t connect to the internet. How do I get it to be able to be online? I am using 2 MacBookPros and a verizon USB 720 air card.
Thanks so much.
John on July 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
i can connect to the internet using web browsers safari and firefox, but not using other internet applications. any idea why?
MW on January 6th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Anyone know how to do this with a Windows PC?
notchirs on February 25th, 2009 at 8:10 am
I am running osx 10.4.11 and I want to share my built in ethernet connection with my wireless laptop so i can go anywhere at home and share the macs internet through the built in airport
Cable Modem –to–
Built-in Ethernet of iMac 700Mhz G4 PowerPc OS X 10.4.11–to–
built-in airport–to–PC
Dell Lattitude 850Mhz Intel P!!! XP SP2 With Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Apadter
I can connect the computer together with the wifi but I get no internet on the pc
I have enabled personal websharing and I tried turning off the firewalls still no internet.
In some screenshots I noticed a few options not listed in my services pane. like internet sharing any ideas
thank you all in advance for any information you have available on this subject
josé Carlos Rocha on April 5th, 2009 at 6:33 am
notchirs,
Is you Active Directory active? See applications/utilities/directory utility
Tom on April 12th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
@HD Boy: have you tried the Airfoil app? It should do what you are looking for. It is more versatile hzan the built-in iTunes remote speakers function, and is very easy to set up.
rf on April 18th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Thanks for the tip ;)
Caro on June 13th, 2009 at 11:07 am
IT WORKED!! THANK YOU!!!!
advantageinternet on August 28th, 2009 at 5:09 am
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my_mac_moves on August 31st, 2009 at 4:32 am
great I use apple too. this information is useful for me. Thank you
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Car on September 22nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Works awesome thanks guys so much
พระเครื่อง on November 16th, 2009 at 9:19 am
It’s very useful for me. Thank you.
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