- How to Share Your Internet Connection on a Mac via Wi-Fi
- What to Know
- How to Share a Mac Internet Connection
- Tips on Sharing Internet From a Mac
- Share the internet connection on Mac with other network users
- Совместное использование интернет-подключения на Mac с другими пользователям сети
- How to Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot in macOS
- Sharing Your Internet Connection
- Conclusion
How to Share Your Internet Connection on a Mac via Wi-Fi
Former Lifewire writer Melanie Uy has 5+ years’ experience writing about consumer-oriented technology and is an expert telecommuter.
- The Wireless Connection
- Routers & Firewalls
- Network Hubs
- ISP
- Broadband
- Ethernet
- Installing & Upgrading
- Wi-Fi & Wireless
What to Know
- Open System Preferences >Sharing >Internet Sharing.
- In the Share your connection from drop-down list, pick your internet source, such as Ethernet.
- In the left pane, select Internet Sharing. When the Sharing prompt displays, click Start.
This article explains how to use your Mac as a sort of Wi-Fi hotspot or access point for your phone and tablet to connect to. You can share the connection with even non-Mac computers and mobile devices through your Mac.
How to Share a Mac Internet Connection
This process shares your internet connection with your other computers and mobile devices, so you need an Ethernet network adapter and a wireless adapter on your Mac. You can use a wireless USB adapter to add Wi-Fi capabilities to your Mac.
Follow these instructions to share your Mac internet connection:
- Open System Preferences and choose Sharing.
Select Internet Sharing from the list on the left.
Use the drop-down menu next to Share your connection from to pick your internet source, such as Ethernet to share a wired connection.
Below that, choose how other devices will connect to your Mac.
In the left pane, put a check in the box next to Internet Sharing.
When you see the prompt about sharing your Mac’s internet connection, click Start.
Tips on Sharing Internet From a Mac
- If you’re using AirPort, enable wireless encryption by clicking on the AirPort Options button and checking the option to allow encryption. Although it only uses the inferior WEP protocol, the WEP encryption (choose 128-bit key length) is better than nothing.
- You can change the channel to minimize conflicts with other networks and also choose a unique name for your system.
- If your host Mac computer goes to sleep or shuts down, any connected clients will be disconnected, and no new clients will be able to find the connection until the computer turns on again.
- Stop sharing your internet connection by removing the check in the box next to Internet Sharing at Step 5.
Share the internet connection on Mac with other network users
You can share the internet connection on your Mac with other computers on your local network. For example, if your Mac is connected to the internet using Ethernet, you can share that connection to other computers over Wi-Fi.
- On your Mac, choose Apple menu
> System Settings, click General in the sidebar, then click Sharing on the right. (You may need to scroll down.) Open Sharing settings for me
- Network Name: Type a name for the shared connection.
- Channel: Click the Channel pop-up menu, then choose another channel if you don’t want to use the default channel.
- Security: If available, click the Security pop-up menu, then choose an option.
- Choose WPA3 Personal if all computers that use the shared connection support WPA3.
- Choose WPA2/WPA3 Personal if some computers that use the shared connection support only WPA2.
- Password: Enter a password. If you want to see the current password, select the “Show password” checkbox below the password.
WARNING: If your internet connection and your local network use the same port (Ethernet, for example), investigate possible side effects before you turn on internet sharing. In some cases, sharing your internet connection disrupts the network. If you use a cable modem, for example, you might unintentionally affect the network settings of other ISP customers, and your ISP might terminate your service.
Совместное использование интернет-подключения на Mac с другими пользователям сети
Вы можете предоставить доступ к интернет-подключению на Вашем Mac другим компьютерам в Вашей локальной сети. Например, если Ваш Mac подключен к интернету через Ethernet, Вы можете предоставить другим компьютерам доступ к этому подключению через Wi-Fi.
- На Mac выберите меню Apple
> «Системные настройки», нажмите «Основные» в боковом меню, затем нажмите «Общий доступ» справа. (Возможно, потребуется прокрутить вниз.) Открыть настройки общего доступа
- Имя сети. Введите имя общего подключения.
- Канал. Нажмите всплывающее меню «Канал» и выберите другой канал, если не хотите использовать канал по умолчанию.
- Безопасность: Если доступно, нажмите всплывающее меню «Безопасность», затем выберите вариант.
- Выберите «WPA3 Personal», если все компьютеры, которые будут использовать общее подключение, поддерживают WPA3.
- Выберите «WPA2/WPA3 Personal», если некоторые из компьютеров, которые будут использовать общее подключение, поддерживают только WPA2.
- Пароль. Введите пароль. Чтобы увидеть текущий пароль, установите флажок «Показать пароль» под паролем.
ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ. Если интернет-подключение и локальная сеть используют один и тот же порт (например, Ethernet), перед включение общего доступа к интернету узнайте о возможных побочных эффектах. В некоторых случаях предоставление общего доступа к интернет-подключению может нарушать работу сети. Например, при использовании кабельного модема Вы можете непреднамеренно повлиять на сетевые настройки других пользователей поставщика услуг интернета, и поставщик услуг может остановить Вашу службу.
How to Create a Wi-Fi Hotspot in macOS
You might wonder why, in a world of seemingly-infinite Wi-Fi connectivity, you would ever need to share your internet connection between devices. Those who have stayed in high-end hotels already know the answer to this question. It’s an easy way to turn the often-cheaper Ethernet connection into a personal Wi-Fi hotspot without paying the ridiculous extra fee for the privilege of accessing an insecure and slow network.
Sharing your internet connection on your Mac basically pipes your connection from one interface to the other. The most common way this works is piping an Ethernet connection to a Wi-Fi hotspot, but it can theoretically work in other ways. You could, for example, pipe the Internet from your USB-connected iPhone to an Ethernet port. When would you need to? Who knows! That’s the point of plentiful options.
The important thing to remember is that the incoming connection and the outgoing connection must be different. You can visualize your Mac as a Wi-Fi router. The router needs to get Wi-Fi from Ethernet so it can broadcast it on Wi-Fi. It can’t “absorb” a Wi-Fi connection and then re-broadcast it. If your Mac is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, you can’t share that Internet over the same Wi-Fi connector. The connection method can only do input or output, but not both.
Also, don’t forget that you’re basically inviting any connected device into your host computer. If you have file sharing turned on, those files will definitely be exposed to the connected devices. The other sharing settings will do the same. This is fine when it’s just your devices, but you don’t want some random poking around in your things. So be sure to set a strong password and enable WPA2 security.
Sharing Your Internet Connection
1. Open System Preferences and click on the “Sharing” pane.
2. Click on “Internet Sharing” in the pane on the left. Don’t click the checkbox yet.
3. Click the dropdown to select the incoming connection method. This is the connection that your Mac will convert to your outgoing connection in the next step.
4. Select the way you want to share your internet. The most common connection method will certainly be Wi-Fi, found at the bottom.
5. Click “Wi-Fi Options” below and set the name, channel and security for your network. Do yourself a favor: be sure to override the default “no security” setting.
6. Finally, click the checkbox next to “Internet Sharing” to turn it on.
This will pop up a confirmation dialog warning you that this will make the outgoing connection mode unusable for your Mac. In this case, that means our Wi-Fi connection will become unusable by our host Mac. It will be busy broadcasting the internet connection from our Ethernet jack.
Click “Start” when you’re ready to share your connection.
Conclusion
It might seem like an old-fashioned thing, creating an ad-hoc network. And, to be fair, it’s not as commonly used as it once was. Devices talk to each other with significantly less effort, and desktops and laptops are increasingly secondary, office-only devices. But if you’re one of those old-timers that likes to have LAN parties, this is the setting for you.
Alexander Fox is a tech and science writer based in Philadelphia, PA with one cat, three Macs and more USB cables than he could ever use.
Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox