Can a Macbook send out wifi?

Asked by meagan (4675

) June 22nd, 2011

I’ve got a device that requires the WEP setting on wifi. However, I’m moving soon and won’t be using my own wifi router, and won’t be able to change the settings.

Is there a way that I could connect to the local router wifi from my laptop, and then send out a WEP wifi signal from MY computer, for the device to connect to?

I wasn’t sure if there might be a gadget I could buy, or maybe by some miracle there could be a program I could use.

Thanks!

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4 Answers

If your connection is from something else like Ethernet or USB you can send that out over WiFi in the Sharing section of System Preferences.

In the screenshot I am using a USB WiFi thing and sharing via ethernet to my Apple TV. But you can share with wifi to as long as wifi isn’t your source.

jrpowell (40562

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I kinda missed the point of your question. If you get your signal from wifi you can use that and route that to a cheap router (I suggest Netgear) with ethernet. That way you can control all the settings.

jrpowell (40562

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In order to do this you would need two wifi adapters in the laptop- one to connect to the router in Managed mode and one to provide, in Master mode, a WEP connection to your device.

Technically this could be made to work in Ad-Hoc mode, but not all wifi devices support Ad-Hoc mode and of course you’d have to reconfigure all three even if they did.

So yes, if you go and buy a USB wifi adapter (one with MacOS support of course) then you should be able to make this work using @johnpowell‘s advice.

koanhead (4057

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