Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Sharing an Internet Connection

If you have high-speed Internet service, like a cable modem or DSL, you’re a very lucky individual. Not only do you get spectacular speed when surfing the Web or doing email, but you also have a full-time connection. You never have to manually connect or disconnect.

But you’d be nuts to confine that glorious connection to one PC. Share it! Make it available to the whole house!

Your broadband company probably supplied you with a router (probably both wireless and wired) that shares the Internet connection with more than one computer. If not, there are two ways to do it yourself.

Get a Broadband Router

As noted earlier, a router (a gateway in Microsoft lingo) is a little box, about $60, that connects directly to the cable modem or DSL box. It generally doubles as a hub, providing multiple Ethernet jacks to accommodate your wired PCs, plus WiFi antennas that broadcast to your wireless PCs. The Internet signal is automatically shared among all the PCs on your home network.

UP TO SPEED: Ad Hoc: PC-to-PC Micronetworks

If your network has modest ambitions—that is, if you have only two computers you want to connect—you can ignore all this business about hubs, routers, and wiring. Instead, you can create a tiny, two-computer wireless network between them.

These so-called ad hoc networks are great when you want to grab a folder full of files from a friend on a plane, for example. (You can also create a wired ad-hoc network, using an Ethernet crossover cable, instead ...