Using a laptop as a mobile hotspot

Hey everyone,

We’re getting ready for a summer trip, but we need to stay online. We've got a laptop and two smartphones. The laptop gets its connection through a Cisco USB stick. Can I share that laptop's internet connection with the phones? Basically, I want to use the laptop as a gateway and a wireless hotspot. Is this actually possible?
The laptop is running Windows XP, if that matters. I tried setting up a "small home or small office network" and enabled the option for other devices to access the internet through the connection, but the phones can't even see the wireless network I created.
Bottom line: is what I'm trying to do feasible without buying extra hardware? If so, how?
Thanks in advance. Cheers,

I honestly don't know if this is even doable—maybe someone who actually knows their stuff can weigh in here—but one potential workaround might be to just pop that SIM card straight into a phone and then use the device to run a mobile hotspot instead.

If you're working with a relatively modern laptop that has built-in wireless capabilities, you can easily turn it into a hotspot just by installing my Publicwifi: http://download.cnet.com/MyPublicWiF...-75627953.html or perhaps mHotspot, which you can find at the same link below.

I've used this little software myself quite a bit. It makes it incredibly simple to take an internet connection from a cellular dongle plugged into your laptop and share that signal with smartphones or other gadgets. The setup is straightforward—you just pick a password for your own network, and then enter that same password into your phone once it detects the signal. One thing to keep in mind, though? Watch your data usage. Smartphones can be real bandwidth hogs when they connect to a mobile hotspot via a virtual Wi-Fi connection, especially when background updates start kicking in. If your mobile plan has a strict data cap, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on that so you don't run through your gigabytes faster than expected.

wow, thanks Roger Rogers4 🙂 That’s exactly what I was hoping for.
And yeah, I get it, phones eat up data, but luckily I've got an unlimited plan on this hotspot, so let them run wild. You really made my day—not that Friday isn't already great enough. Thanks 🙂

No worries at all! Honestly, these programs are such a game-changer. Best regards 😁