Connecting Your Phone to Internet through Laptop’s Wifi at 2:03 PM

Most smart phones users will like to use wifi to connect to internet from their phones rather than using GPRS/3G/3.5G connections, especially when you're not in an unlimited data package. But what if you dont have a wifi router?

Facing a similar situation, I too googled to find a solution. So one easy solution is to use a wifi adapter in a PC (most Laptops/Netbooks these days includes a wifi card). But when I googled about implementing this, I found that most users face numerous problems and I too had to fiddle with settings for couple of hours. Most of the time phone will display an error saying ‘No Gateway Reply’.

So I thought to write this step by step guide to get connected right away. For that I have found these manually settings to be work without problems.

My setup:
I have a Notebook, connected to an wired ADSL router. I'm using a Nokia 5800 phone. I'll be setting this up using 'Windows 7', but Windows XP & Vista should also be similar with only minor differences.

1. First you have to install all the drivers for the network cards/interfaces like the LAN and wifi adapters in your PC. (If you have firewalls you can pause them until you try out these settings, especially if you’re facing connection problems.)

2. Then you have to configure your PC’s internet connection. Using a browser to surf internet verify your PC’s internet connection is working. My LAN connection to router is configured as a ‘Home Network’ in windows7 Network and Sharing Center.

My Router’s IP is 192.168.1.1

My Notebook LAN card’s IPv4 Settings:

[To change settings manually go to:
Network sharing center -> Local Area connections -> Properties -> select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) -> click Properties -> select Use following IP address ]

IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 (Wired Router’s address)

For the DNS you can configure to use Google DNS :
Preferred DNS: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS: 8.8.4.4

In Adapter Properties -> Sharing tab:
Enable Internet Connection Sharing by checking Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet Connection.
Select ‘Wireless Network Connection’ in Home Networking connection.

3. Then setup Notebook wireless card’s adapter settings.
Turn on and enable your Wifi card if its disabled

Go to Network Sharing Center -> Manage Wireless Networks -> Adapter Properties -> Networking tab -> select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) -> click Properties -> select Use the following IP address
Set some IPs there. Here are mine:
IP: 192.168.2.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 (Wired Router’s address)

For the DNS you can configure to use Google DNS :
Preferred DNS: 8.8.8.8
Alternate DNS: 8.8.4.4

4. After that Add a new Wireless Network:

Go to Network Sharing Center -> Manage Wireless Networks -> Add -> Create AdHoc network – click next

Then give relevant settings. Mine are :
Network Name : Adhoc1
Security type: WEP
Security Key: some 5 or 10 characters (ex: 1234567890)
Click Save this Network

5. In your PHONE set a new access point

Go to: Settings -> Connectivity -> Destination -> Access Points -> Automatically check -> Wireless LAN -> Adhoc1(or name you put above) ->Select -> enter WEP key given above (ex: 1234567890) -> select Internet.

6. Configure the access point in phone :
Goto :
Settings -> Connectivity -> Destination -> Internet -> Adhoc1 (or name given above)
Set the following :

Network status : Public
WLAN security mode: WEP
WLAN security settings : set WEP key settings :
WEP encryption : 64bits
WEP key format: Hexadecimal
WEP key: type the key given above (ex: 1234567890)

Go to (in Adhoc1): Options -> Advanced settings
IPv4 settings : Phone IP address : 192.168.2.20
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: (IP of Laptop’s Wireless card ex: 192.168.2.1)
(DNS can also be changed to google one as above- Optional)

7. Configuring is done. Now try to connect and start web browsing in phone.
Go to Connectivity -> Wireless LAN -> Options -> Refresh -> select Adhoc1 -> Start Web Browsing.

If everything went right your phone’s browser should be now able to connect to internet.

All other applications in your phone can use this connection as well.

Hope you found this blog post useful, let me know if there’s anything I should add/change here.

Enjoy!

-Buddhika M H