Why is 8.1 bridging wired to wifi hotspoti so difficult?

Tambourineman

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There are now many wifi only android devices that do not have mobile wireless. Yes, almost everyone has a wireless modem at home for their broadband connection. there are free or guest wifi connections in many places. But sometimes only wired connections are available, such as at my office that I do not have a wifi one that I want to use. I do have wired internet connection and two wifi adapters.

At home my wifi only devices (Google Nexus 7) easily connects to my wifi router. I have a rooted S3 with a working native wifi hotspot to which my Nexus connects

It seems easier to share a wifi internet connection with another wifi device, but not so easy to share an ethernet connection by bridging to a wifi hotspot.

I do not understand why Win 8.1 does not have a GUI for setting up hostednetwork. Running command prompts is a PITA.

Does anyone know of a program that will easily bridge and share an ethernet connection to a wifi device and set up a hotspot for the wifi device?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
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    DIY - self built
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    i5 4690
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro (desktop), W10 (laptop), W10 Pro (tablet)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built i7-8700K, Hp Envy x360 EVO Laptop, MS Surface Pro 7
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    3.7Ghz Core i7-8700K, 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 4.7Ghz, 10th Gen Core™ i5-1035G4 1.1Ghz
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    ASUS TUF Z370-Pro Gaming, HP, MS
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    16G, 8G, 8G
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    AMD Radeon RX580, Intel Iris X Graphics, Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4
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    ATI High Definition Audio (Built-in to mobo)
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    Dual Samsung U32J59 32 inch monitors, 13.3" display, 12.3" display
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    500GB ssd boot drive with 2 & 10TB Data (Desktop), 512GB ssd (laptop), 128GB SSD (tablet)
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    IBM Model M - used continuously since 1986
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    Retired in 2015 after working in the tech industry for 41 years. First 10 years as a Technician, the rest as a programmer/software engineer. After 1 year of retirement, I was bored so went back to work as a Robotic Process Automation Consultant. Retired for 3rd (and final) time in 2019.
I had tried Virtual Router before, and in fact that is why I bought a wireless dongle as the help file said if the software solution did not work, then get a dongle.

It says it works with Win 8 (and does not specifically state it works with 8.1) Separately i have been trying to buy a wireless card or dongle for my desktop and many specifically state they do not work with 8.1 and customer comments on those that are silent say there are no drivers for 8.1 (apparently many use RealTek chipsets and apparently they are 8.1 challenged) and there they are inconsistent/unreliable and /or have weak signals.

My Nexus says its connected but it will not go to a website, nor download email. I think it is not getting access to a DNS server. I have not yet figured out the combinations of IP and gateway and DNS server addresses to plug into the nexus wifi settings that will allow me to actually connect - I keep getting and ERR - address unknown.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY - self built
    CPU
    i5 4690
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE|GA-Z97X-UD3H-B
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    palit GTX460
    Browser
    Pale Moon
    Antivirus
    bitdefender
I use PDANet on my netbook to tether my phone via USB. PDANet has built-in Hotspot capability which works for me. I have also used VirtualRouter to create Hotspot. PDANet and VirtualRouter both work for me on my netbook (Win 7) and laptop (Win 8.1) using the built-in wifi adapter.

The only device I have that I can't get to create a wifi hotspot using either PDANet or VirtualRouter is my Surface Pro 3 tablet. Apparently the built-in wifi adapter on it doesn't support hosted networking.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro (desktop), W10 (laptop), W10 Pro (tablet)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built i7-8700K, Hp Envy x360 EVO Laptop, MS Surface Pro 7
    CPU
    3.7Ghz Core i7-8700K, 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 4.7Ghz, 10th Gen Core™ i5-1035G4 1.1Ghz
    Motherboard
    ASUS TUF Z370-Pro Gaming, HP, MS
    Memory
    16G, 8G, 8G
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon RX580, Intel Iris X Graphics, Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4
    Sound Card
    ATI High Definition Audio (Built-in to mobo)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual Samsung U32J59 32 inch monitors, 13.3" display, 12.3" display
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160 (Desktop), 1920x1080 (laptop), 2736x1824 Pro 7
    Hard Drives
    500GB ssd boot drive with 2 & 10TB Data (Desktop), 512GB ssd (laptop), 128GB SSD (tablet)
    PSU
    Corsair CX 750M
    Case
    Antec 100
    Cooling
    Coolermaster CM 212+
    Keyboard
    IBM Model M - used continuously since 1986
    Mouse
    Microsoft IntelliMouse
    Internet Speed
    665Mbps/15Mbps down/up
    Browser
    FireFox, MS Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender on all
    Other Info
    Retired in 2015 after working in the tech industry for 41 years. First 10 years as a Technician, the rest as a programmer/software engineer. After 1 year of retirement, I was bored so went back to work as a Robotic Process Automation Consultant. Retired for 3rd (and final) time in 2019.
I too was a early user of PDANet but have since switched to EasyTether. This worked well to connect my laptop to my phone to get it to the internet using the phone's mobile wireless connection. Now that I have a custom Android ROM/kernel I can also do this wirelessly with wifi. That's what most people want to do.* I changed from doing this as while I had unlimited data with both Verizon's FTC's bid mandated free to all devices LTE and Sprint's 4G and neither ever complained as I only did minimal surfing and it worked well. I got a switch to share the broadband connection on my corporate network which works even better.

*I want to do the opposite. I want to connect my phone with mobile wireless turned off or a tablet which doesn't have mobile wireless to connect to a PC using wifi and sharing the PC's wired ethernet internet connection.

I may have my laptop's LAN and WAN devices and drivers screwed up at this point so I plan to do a drive image backup tonight and then remove/uninstall them all and let them re-install/update hopefully with default settings and start over.

I am getting so frustrated I may jest get a wired microUSB to RJ45 ethernet adapter (like BobjGear's or an eBay lookalike) and connect directly to my Zyzel switch rather than fooling around with my laptop anymore.

Anyway back to Virtual Router Plus: Assuming I get all me devices, drivers, and settings back to Win 8.1 default, when I start up Virtual Router Plus there are two options for shared connections; one is local area connection and the other is ethernet. Which do I pick? Do I still need to run these command prompts:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=myssid key=12345

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

Do I still need to set the LAN wired ethernet adapter to allow others to share my connection? Do I need to bridge the LAN wired ethernet adapter to the Wifi one?

In the Nexus, do I modify the connection setting to change from default HDCP to static and if so how do I find the Nexus' IP address (as there is no router client table to which to refer) What gateway do I use, my company's, laptop wired adapter, my laptop's wifi adapter, or what?

The TP-Link dongle came with a utility for a soft AP but it is useless also as it assumes the laptop's wifi is connected to the interent (it's not) and that what I want to do is share that with another wifi device rather than to share the wired LAN ethernet adpater with a wifi device connected to the laptop thru a wifi adapter/dongle.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY - self built
    CPU
    i5 4690
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE|GA-Z97X-UD3H-B
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    palit GTX460
    Browser
    Pale Moon
    Antivirus
    bitdefender
You do not need to run the netsh commands if using Virtual Router, those commands are being issues by VR using the info you enter into it's GUI.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro (desktop), W10 (laptop), W10 Pro (tablet)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built i7-8700K, Hp Envy x360 EVO Laptop, MS Surface Pro 7
    CPU
    3.7Ghz Core i7-8700K, 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 4.7Ghz, 10th Gen Core™ i5-1035G4 1.1Ghz
    Motherboard
    ASUS TUF Z370-Pro Gaming, HP, MS
    Memory
    16G, 8G, 8G
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon RX580, Intel Iris X Graphics, Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4
    Sound Card
    ATI High Definition Audio (Built-in to mobo)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual Samsung U32J59 32 inch monitors, 13.3" display, 12.3" display
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160 (Desktop), 1920x1080 (laptop), 2736x1824 Pro 7
    Hard Drives
    500GB ssd boot drive with 2 & 10TB Data (Desktop), 512GB ssd (laptop), 128GB SSD (tablet)
    PSU
    Corsair CX 750M
    Case
    Antec 100
    Cooling
    Coolermaster CM 212+
    Keyboard
    IBM Model M - used continuously since 1986
    Mouse
    Microsoft IntelliMouse
    Internet Speed
    665Mbps/15Mbps down/up
    Browser
    FireFox, MS Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender on all
    Other Info
    Retired in 2015 after working in the tech industry for 41 years. First 10 years as a Technician, the rest as a programmer/software engineer. After 1 year of retirement, I was bored so went back to work as a Robotic Process Automation Consultant. Retired for 3rd (and final) time in 2019.
Got my Nexus 2 wifi connect 2 internet thru lappie wired

I am not sure how I did it. Hopefully it will stay "done." I used Connectify-me and
I think I first had already bridged the ethernet and wifi adapters first, or maybe
the program did (or redid) it. Who knows? Only the Shadow knows.

I did image my 500GB SSD first just in case. It took about 18 hours on a USB 3.0
port and drive. Then I uninstalled all the network adapters and rebooted.

I tried a number of things first including Connectify, and then some manual ones
like ICS sharing the ethernet adapter and bridging it to my wifi one. The Nexus
would connect, save the secured WPA but then try to authenticate and gave an
authentication error. I am sure the password was correct as I kept it simple
(and unsafe for now) (12345678). I tried disabling my Bitdefender firewall and anti-virus.

I finally uninstalled an additional TP-Link TL-N725N wireless N dongle (that
I purchased as Virtual Router had suggested adding another)and its drivers and
utility program, rebooted and let that wifi adapter find non-TP-Link/RealTek
drivers (aka (shock shock) Microsoft drivers as there are many posts about how
crappy the Realtek ones are).

But I didn't use the TP-Link wifi dongle, nor virtual Router. I stayed with
the Lenovo x220 built in half mini card. I decided to try Connectify-me again and
selected the Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Driver as the adapter to use
to internet share (after trying some adapters that didn't work).

Just call me Thomas Edison. I tried many things that failed and persevered until
something worked. Let there be wifi.

I was about ready to buy a zyxel pocket router as the tablet connects flawlessly
to my two Asus routers at home and at my summer place.

I hope this helps someone else - at least a little.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY - self built
    CPU
    i5 4690
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE|GA-Z97X-UD3H-B
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    palit GTX460
    Browser
    Pale Moon
    Antivirus
    bitdefender
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