Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Sharing Internet Connection with Others using Ubuntu

We were recently at a client's location where the internet access was restricted. We had a single USB Mobile Broadband device which had to be exchanged periodically so that we can go online.

This was a pain and wasted a lot of time. The 'Create New Wireless Connection' feature of Ubuntu came to the rescue. Here's how it works:

1) Enable wireless on your laptop
2) Click on the network icon at the top-right corner
3) Select 'Create New Wireless Connection'
4) Enter the Network Name, Wireless Security (I used None) and a Key
5) Ubuntu will try to immediately connect to this local Wireless network
6) Your friends should now be able to connect to this newly created wireless network like they normally connect to any wireless network
7) Connect to the internet the way you normally do (I connected using the USB device)

That's it, using these simple steps multiple machines can use the same internet connection.

Note: I used Ubuntu 10.10 with the default (Gnome) desktop environment.