Sharing Your Air Card Internet Connection Without A Router

Chances are that if you live in a rural area, you don’t have DSL internet available. Your only options are Dial-up, Satellite internet, or an air card. I am going to focus on the air card today and mainly laptops but can be used with desktops that have a wireless connection.

An air card is an adapter that you purchase from a cellular company (Verizon, AT&T, etc). This guide should work regardless which cellular company you use. This guide also uses Windows 7 but can be adapted easily with Vista or XP.

Start by hitting the start button (the windows orb in the bottom left of your screen) and typing “network connections” without the quotes. Click the option at the top that says “View network connections’.

You should get a window that pops up similar to this one:

Yours will vary depending on how many and what connections your laptop is equipped with.

Next you are going to right-click the connection that you want to share, and then click Properties. . If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Now you are going to click the Sharing tab, and then select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection check box. Please note that the sharing tab will not be available if you only have one network connection. Click OK. Make sure you are sharing the air card connection and not the wireless or the local area connection.

Now, go to another laptop and open the network connections the same way you did in the first step. Right-click the wireless connection, and then click Properties. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.Click Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically then click OK.

Now, just one more step. Click the start orb and type “internet options” without the quotes and pick the top option again. You will get a window like this:

Click the Connections tab, and then click Never dial a connection if the option is available.

Then click LAN Settings. In the Local Area Network (LAN) Settings dialog box, under Automatic configuration, clear the Automatically detect settings and Use automatic configuration script check boxes. Under Proxy server, clear the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box, and then click OK.

Now your second laptop should have an internet connection. Repeat for all other laptops or desktops that have a wireless adapter.

The host computer with the air card must stay on while other computers are using the internet.

If you have any game consoles, you should be able to pick up the wireless connection that you created with this guide. Brighthub had a good guide on connecting a wii to a wireless connection.

Please leave any feedback you have (good or bad). This is my first guide so please take pity on me.