Wi-Fi limits of Ad Hoc method (most relates on Windows XP/2003/Vista)Wi-Fi Hotspot for Windows

Оn such operating systems Wi-Fi is available only by Ad-Hoc method.

Support by operating system#

Features are related to the different work of the ‘Internet Connection Sharing’ (ICS) service on different versions of the OSs that allocates IP addresses and manages routing:

  • Windows® XP® and Vista®
    • Addresses to devices are always allocated in the range 192.168.0.*. This may conflict with network adapters that are assigned the same addresses. In this case, you need to either disable them or change their address.
    • On Windows® XP®, sometimes addresses may not be allocated at all. This is a problem of the OS itself. In our laboratory, we have faced with such case.
  • Windows 7®
    • All should work. Addresses to devices are always allocated in the range of 192.168.37.*. This ensures that there is no conflict in most cases.
  • Windows 8® and higher
    • Addresses are not allocated to devices. But this is not critical, because other access point methods are available on these OS versions.

If the standard way of sharing the Internet does not work, then you can try to make a “bridge”. To do this, you need:

  1. Set ‘not standard sharing’ in the product settings.
  2. Connect the two needed adapters to the “bridge” by selecting them together in the system network adapters manager and using the context menu on the right mouse button, select the appropriate item. Also, if subsequently this does not work, you can try to adjust its parameters.
  3. Reconnect to Wi-Fi hotspot on the device.

Note: If all of the above does not help, then you need to use third-party software.

Support by devices#

Apple® devices support this type but some of others (e.g. Android) don’t at all. By the way there are some solutions to enable Ad Hoc on devices but it’s risky.

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