A few easy steps (no software installation is required) can turn your Ubuntu Laptop in to a Wireless Router and you can share your Internet connection with other users using other devices may be Netbook, Tablet or Laptop etc. You can do this thing visually right from the Ubuntu GUI (Graphical User Interface) but there are some limitations like for some devices. There are some devices that may not support ad-hoc wireless networks and Ubuntu can only create wireless hotspots using weak WEP encryption instead of strong WPA encryption.
How To Turn Ubuntu Laptop Into WiFi Router?
Click the small settings icon present in the top right corner of Ubuntu screen (top default unity panel) and click ‘System Settings…’. Then Scroll down to ‘Hardware’ subsection and select ‘Network’ icon:
Now select ‘Wireless’ and click ‘Use as Hotspot’ button. You can disable Hotspot anytime by clicking ‘Stop’ button there itself:
Also you can click ‘Options’ button and from wireless tab you can set any custom name for your wireless network (the SSID field). You can set other wireless options from there:
Wireless Security tab lets you change your security key and method. As already said, WPA encryption it not for here so better stick to weaker WEP encryption:
IPv4 Settings tab, Option “Shared to other computers” here tells your Ubuntu Laptop to share your Internet connection with other computers connected to your laptop’s hotspot:
Another interesting and useful face you might not know about this is even when don’t have any Internet connection available to share, you can network computers together for communicating and sharing files between them.