TOPIC: WI-FI
Piggybacking an Android Wi-Fi device off your Windows PC's internet connection
16th March 2013One of the disadvantages of my Google/Asus Nexus 7 is that it needs a Wi-Fi connection to use. Most of the time, this is not a problem since I also have a Huawei mobile Wi-Fi hub from T-Mobile and this seems to work just about anywhere in the U.K. Away from the U.K. though, it won't work because roaming is not switched on for it and that may be no bad thing with the fees that could introduce. While my HTC Desire S could deputise, I need to watch costs with that too.
There's also the factor of download caps, and those apply both to the Huawei and to the HTC. Recently, I added Anquet's Outdoor Map Navigator (OMN) to my Nexus 7 through the Google Play Store for a fee of £7 and that allows access to any walking maps that I have bought from Anquet. However, those are large downloads, so the caps start to come into play. Frugality would help, but I began to look at other possibilities that make use of a laptop's Wi-Fi functionality.
Looking on the web, I found two options for this that work on Windows 7 (8 should be OK too): Connectify Hotspot and Virtual Router Manager. The first of these is commercial software, yet there is a Lite edition for those wanting to try it out; that it is not a time limited demo is not something that I can confirm though that did not seem to be the case since it looked as if only features were missing from it that you'd get if you paid for the Pro variant. The second option is an open source one that is free of charge apart from an invitation to donate to the project.
Though online tutorials show the usage of either of these to be straightforward, my experiences were not all that positive at the outset. In fact, there was something that I needed to do, which is how this post has come to exist at all. That happened even after the restart that Connectify Hotspot needed as part of its installation; it runs as a system service, which is why the restart was needed. In fact, it was Virtual Router Manager that told me what the issue was, and it needed no reboot. Neither did it cause network disconnection of a laptop like the Connectify offering did on me and that was the cause of its ejection from that system; limitations in favour of its paid addition aside, it may have the snazzier interface, but I'll take effective simplicity any day.
Using Virtual Router Manager turns out to be simple enough. It needs a network name (also known as an SSID), a password to restrict who accesses the network and the internet connection to be shared. In my case, the was Local Area Connection on the dropdown list. With all the required information entered, I was ready to start the router using the Start Network Router button. The text on this button changes to Stop Network Router when the hub is operational, or at least it should have done for me on the first time that I ran it. What I got instead was the following message:
The group or resource is not in the correct state to perform the requested operation.
While the above may not say all that much, it becomes more than ample information if you enter it into the likes of Google. Behind the scenes, Virtual Router Manager uses native Windows functionality to create a Wi-Fi hub from a PC, and it appears to be the Microsoft Virtual Wi-Fi Miniport Adapter from what I have seen. When I tried setting up an ad hoc Wi-Fi network from a laptop to the Nexus 7 using Windows' own network set up capability via its Control Panel, it didn't do what I needed, so there might be something that third party software can do. So, the interesting thing about the solution to my Virtual Router Manager problem was that it needed me to delve into the innards of Windows a little.
Firstly, there's running Command Prompt (All Programs > Accessories) from the Start Menu with Administrator privileges. It helps here if the account with which you log into Windows is in the Administrator group, since all you have to do then is right-click on the Start Menu entry and choose Run as administrator entry in the pop-up context menu. With a command line window now open, you then need to issue the following command:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=[network name] key=[password] keyUsage=persistent
When that had done its thing, Virtual Router Manager worked without a hitch though it did turn itself after a while and that may be no bad thing from the security standpoint. On the Android side, it was a matter of going in Settings > Wi-Fi and choosing the new network that was created on the laptop. This sort of thing may apply to other types of tablet (Dare I mention iPads?) so you could connect anything to the hub without needing to do any more on the Windows side.
For those wanting to know what's going on behind the scenes on Windows, there's a useful tutorial on Instructables that shows what third party software is saving you from having to do. Even if I never go down the more DIY route, I probably have saved myself having to buy a mobile Wi-Fi hub for any trips to Éire. For now, the Irish 3G dongle that I already have should be enough.
Do we need dongles anymore?
12th March 2012Recent exposure to both the HTC Wildfire S and the HTC Desire S has me wondering if we need mobile broadband dongles any more. The reason for my asking this is that both Android devices can act as mobile Wi-Fi hubs, and they work very well as these too. Even the dedicated T-Mobile mobile Wi-Fi hub that I picked up in the closing months of 2011 now looks a little obsolete, though it retains a cost advantage in its favour.
In the case of both HTC phones, it thankfully is possible to use high security encryption and a pass key too. However, it is best to change the default key before any activation of Wi-Fi signal, if only to ensure that you don't end up with a very nasty bill. The Wi-Fi Hotspot App has all the settings that you need and up to five connections can be supported at a time, just like that T-Mobile hub that I mentioned earlier.
That replaced a defunct dongle from the same company; the USB connection appeared to have failed and was ailing for a while. Now, it might be that the more transparent use of an actual mobile phone might be usurping that as well, especially when I have been wondering why it has been doing so well with internet connectivity while using it on the move. This voyage into the world of what smartphones and similar devices can do is throwing up its share of surprises as I go along.
A useful little device
1st October 2011Last weekend, I ran into quite a lot of bother with my wired broadband service. Eventually, after a few phone calls to my provider, it was traced to my local telephone exchange and took another few days before it finally got sorted. Before that, a new ADSL filter (from a nearby branch of Maplin as it happened) was needed because the old one didn't work with my phone. Without that, it wouldn't have been possible to debug what was happening with the broadband clashing with my phone with the way that I set up things. Resetting the router was next, and then there was a password change before the exchange was blamed. After all that, connectivity returned to allow me to upgrade in the middle of it all. Downloads are faster, and television viewing is a lot, lot smoother as well. Having seen fairly decent customer service throughout all this, I am planning to stick with my provider for a while longer, too.
Of course, this outage could have left me disconnected from the Internet but for the rise of mobile broadband. Working off dongles is all very fine until coverage lets you down, and that seems to be my experience with Vodafone at the moment. Another fly in the ointment was my having a locked down work laptop that didn't entertain such the software installation that is required for running these things, a not unexpected state of affairs, though it is possible to connect over wired and wireless networks using VPN. With my needing to work from home on Monday, I really had to get that computer online. Saturday evening saw me getting my Toshiba laptop online using mobile broadband and then setting up an ad hoc network using Windows 7 to hook up the work laptop. To my relief, that did the trick, but the next day saw me come across another option in Argos (the range of computing kit in there still continues to surprise me) that made life even easier.
While seeing if it was possible to connect a wired or wireless router to mobile broadband, I came across devices that both connected via the 3G network and acted as wireless routers too. Vodafone has an interesting option into which you can plug a standard mobile broadband dongle for the required functionality. For a while now, 3 has had its Mifi with the ability to connect to the mobile network and relay Wi-Fi signals too. Though it pioneered this as far as I know, others are following their lead, with T-Mobile offering something similar: its Wireless Pointer. Unsurprisingly, Vodafone has its own too, though I didn't find any mention of mobile Wi-Fi on the O2 website.
That trip into Argos resulted in a return home to find out more about the latter device before making a purchase. Having had a broadly positive experience of T-Mobile's network coverage, I was willing to go with it as long as it didn't need a dongle. The T-Mobile one that I have seems not to be working properly, so I needed to make sure that wasn't going to be a problem before I spent any money. When I brought home the Wireless Pointer, I swapped the SIM card from the dongle to get going without too much to do. Thankfully, the Wi-Fi is secured using WPA2 and the documentation tells you where to get the entry key. Having things secured like this means that someone cannot fritter away your monthly allowance as well, and that's as important for PAYG customers (like me) as much as those with a contract. Of course, eavesdropping is another possibility that also is made more difficult. So far, I have stuck with using it while plugged in to an electrical socket (USB computer connections are possible as well) but I need to check on the battery life too. Up to five devices can be connected by Wi-Fi, and I can vouch that working with two connected devices is more than a possibility. My main PC has acquired a Belkin Wi-Fi dongle to use the Wireless Pointer too, and that has worked very well too. In fact, I found that connectivity was independent of what operating system I used: Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Windows XP and Windows 7 all connected without any bother. The gadget fits in the palm of my hand too, so it hardly can be called large, yet it does what it sets out to do, and I have been glad to have it so far.