If you need to connect your mobile devices to WiFi, here’s how to use your Mac as a WiFi hotspot.
There may come a time when there’s only a wired connection, like in a hotel room where you might have to pay for WiFi, but you can connect to ethernet for free if you want. Or if the WiFi connection is particularly weak, but ethernet offers a better connection, turning your Mac into a WiFi hotspot is a great trick.
Turning your Mac into a WiFi hotspot makes it act as a kind of router or even a WiFi repeater. It will take the connection from the ethernet cable and convert it to a wireless signal using the Mac’s built-in WiFi radio.
If you’re getting a pretty bad WiFi connection, turning your Mac into a hotspot can increase the signal on your mobile devices giving you a better connection. You can also connect a laptop to your makeshift access point and connect multiple devices at the same time if you want.
Here’s how to use your Mac as a WiFi hotspot.
How to Turn Your Mac into a WiFi Hotspot
The great thing about using your Mac as a WiFi hotspot is that unlike Windows, there are no third-party tools or pieces of software that you need to download and install for it. All it takes is a few minutes to mess around with the network settings in OS X.
To use your Mac as a WiFi Hotspot and connect other devices to it, just follow these simple steps:
First, open it and click.
From there, click the dropdown next to it and select your ethernet port (may also be called Thunderbolt Ethernet if you have a newer MacBook).
Select it from the list where it says below.
Then click the icon at the bottom.
In this pop-up screen, you can set the name of the WiFi access point and give a password that users must enter to access the access point. Click when you’re done.
Then put a checkmark next to on the left side of the sidebar. A popup will appear where you will click to officially launch the WiFi hotspot.
The only downside here is that you cannot create a WiFi hotspot while your Mac is connected to WiFi. The only way to do this is if you plug in a USB WiFi adapter on your Mac that will give you a second WiFi chip.
Of course, it’s very rare for you to do this in the first place, but some hotels only allow you to connect one of your devices to their WiFi, so using your Mac as a WiFi hotspot can be a great way to go. bypass this rule, but your Mac will also be connected to WiFi, so you’ll want the second WiFi chip to do this.
An alternative would be to connect another device to your Mac via Bluetooth using a Bluetooth PAN. So, if your Mac is connected to WiFi and you want to share that connection with another device, you can share the connection via Bluetooth. Speeds won’t be as fast as WiFi, but at least something and battery life will be an added bonus.
This is a great feature to know if you’re in a situation where you need WiFi but only ethernet connections are available. Again, it’s not something you’ll come across all the time, especially since WiFi is so common now, but even if the WiFi signal is pretty weak, this little trick can save the day.
