Connecting your iPhone to your Laptop using a wireless ad hoc network [iPhone]
When I first got the iPhone, they used to tell me that the only means to get an internet connection to the iPhone is either the 3G or through a Wi-Fi access-point. I used to connect my older iMate to the internet over its USB connection to the laptop, that’s not possible anymore with the iPhone.
To keep it short, here’s what you need to do …
First, we need to create an ad hoc network. The iPhone needs to connect to a Wi-Fi access-point. It’s not possible to connect it directly to your laptop. So, we’ll create an ad hoc wireless network on the laptop, were other laptops and devices can connect to just as connecting to an access-point.
(The next steps are performed on Windows Vista. For Windows XP, do this and jump to step X.)
- Make sure your wireless adapter is enabled.
- Open the Networks and Sharing Center. Under Tasks (left), choose Manage Wireless Networks.
- In the Manage Wireless Networks window, click Add.
- Choose “Create an ad hoc network”. Press Next on the next page.
- On the next page, enter a Network Name of your choice (as “iPhoneNetwork”). This is the network you’ll connect to from your iPhone. Choose WEP for Security Type (you can also choose “No Authentication (Open)”, but this way anyone in your ad hoc wireless network range can connect to your laptop.) Enter a Security Key as instructed, check “Save this network” and click Next.
- You should get the “Your iPhoneNetwork is ready to use”. Before pressing Close, click on “Turn on Internet Connection sharing”.
- Select your Local Area Network internet connection you usually use to connect to the internet and press Next. The next page should say “Internet connection sharing is enabled.” Press Close.
Now, your ad hoc network is ready.
The second step is connecting your iPhone to the “iPhoneNetwork” ad hoc wireless network.
- From your iPhone, open Settings. Choose Wi-Fi.
- Click on “iPhoneNetwork” and enter the password you defined earlier (Security Key), then press Join. It take you back to the previous screen but with the “iPhoneNetwork” checked.
- On your laptop, you should see the “Set Network Location” screen. Choose Home or Work, no big deal.
You should open Safari browser and connect directly to the internet. Connect to Google or something to make sure that everything’s fine. And, yes, it’s a little buggy – you’ll sometimes have to do it over and over again!
Now you can access iTunes store or even download/update your iPhone applications directly without needing to do that on iTunes. Enjoy 
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nice
ahmad
April 10, 2009 at 3:37 pm
mine says local instead of local and internet connection
i had to manually set internet connection sharing
michelle
April 22, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I have to admit it’s not always as smooth as shown above. I sometimes have to repeat it again for a couple of times before it acts “stable”.
Michelle: Yep, you sometimes have to do it manually .. !
AlaaShaker
April 24, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Hi,
I tried the above method but its not working. My iphone detects the network and also updates the IP settings but i cant browse the net!
Please help!!!!
Anirudh
April 29, 2009 at 9:01 am
Anirudh: I’m sorry to hear that, but why? What happens?
AlaaShaker
April 29, 2009 at 10:11 am
I dont know. My iphone detects thhe nete network, connects to it, updates all the IP values but i cant surf. Safari throws an error “Safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding” . Iphone only detects when i manually connect to that network from laptop.
Please help yar!
Anirudhs
April 30, 2009 at 11:42 am
I am just getting IP address and subnet mask field in my iphone.. rest all is blank.
Anirudhs
April 30, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Anirudh: Perhaps you need to enable ICS (Internet Connection Sharing), make sure it is enabled!
AlaaShaker
April 30, 2009 at 12:51 pm
yes it is enabled!
Anirudhs
April 30, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Do i have to connect to that ad hoc network first on my laptop in order to detect it on my iphone? cuz this is how m doin now… if i dont connect it then the iphone doesnt detects it!!!!!!
Anirudhs
April 30, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Try setting the default gateway manually ..
AlaaShaker
April 30, 2009 at 12:55 pm
and how to u do that??? default gateway manually!!!
Anirudhs
April 30, 2009 at 12:56 pm
The router’s IP
AlaaShaker
April 30, 2009 at 12:57 pm
i am really very bad at all such things yar… no idea how to do it and which all settings to use!
Anirudhs
April 30, 2009 at 1:12 pm
How abt Windows XP. I cannot connect my iphone to laptop
Sascha
May 4, 2009 at 10:51 am
Anirudhs: Go to Settings > Wi-Fi > YourNetwork > DNS and edit that to your router’s IP …
Sascha: Here’s how you could set up an ad hoc network on XP, the rest is pretty much the same …
AlaaShaker
May 4, 2009 at 11:54 am
Tnx for the comment. i created the wifi, and connected ihpone to wifi. but no internet connection on iphone? any idea?
Sascha
May 4, 2009 at 11:56 am
Sascha: Perhaps u need to set the Internet Connection Sharing. Run to Google, I can’t help with this one
AlaaShaker
May 4, 2009 at 1:35 pm
i have a windows vista the i tried connecting my iphone to the laptop bt its local only can u help
yatin
May 5, 2009 at 10:16 pm
btw how much da iphone cost !!
ahmad
May 9, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Now the question that I have, is it possible to set it up the opposite way where you can use the 3G network for your laptop through the iphone…???
Steve
May 19, 2009 at 8:36 am
it works very good i was impressed its was a awesome post
kaushik
June 7, 2009 at 9:05 am
Dude this does not work , I have used it to connect to other laptops it works perfectly. But the iphone detects the network with all the correct IP values but shows this message ” Unable to connect to network …..” what are all of us doing wrong ? Please advice.
Divitya
June 14, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Hey alaa I Made Every thing u Said but i didnt Find Turn on Internet Connection sharing Could you please Tell me How To Get It.Thx
Stat_jack
June 15, 2009 at 9:02 pm
mine it’s working fine, but when I restart the notebook it simply won’t connect, I need to make another connection, enable ICS again and then connect my ipod to it.
BobotzZz
June 18, 2009 at 7:05 am
Folks, those who don’t have this thing working, you gotta mess around with the Wireless Adapter Settings. Go to your Wireless Network Connection Status, Sharing tab, and there’s Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). It isn’t always stably working on Vista – honestly, I don’t know why! Sorry!
AlaaShaker
June 18, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Hi, i’ve been trying to follow the above mentioned steps and i need a little help.
I am on windowsXP, i set the ad hoc network for my PC and laptop from the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/adhoc.mspx
My iphone connects to my computer and everything is fine, the only problem is that my iphone continues using Edge for all my internet applications
it doesnt use the newly creater wifi network.
How can i fix this problem?
Hoping for a good reply
thanks.
Mann
June 19, 2009 at 1:50 pm
it doesn’t work!! my iphone detected the network and connected to it but it only received the IP and the subnet. i had to manullly enter the DNS. still it could not connect to the internet, saying that the connection with the server was not responding or something like that
PLZ help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NJ
June 28, 2009 at 11:48 am
thank you for the info alaa, you are the best
i’ve tried it on my vista many times before using ips and configuring my iphone manually,
then it turned out that easily leave everything as is in vista the ip is 192.168.1 by default, the iphone will have the .2 and will work
thanks a lot
Asaad
July 11, 2009 at 1:02 am
I have it all set up and working great but my mail app and skype apps do not work. This is because they are not http connections. Is there any workaround for this? i heard someone mention fpipe which is a port redirector but I do not know enough about this sort of thing to figure it out. Anyone have any ideas?
jru
July 22, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Thanks. That is amazing work!
Ahmed
July 25, 2009 at 4:33 pm
THX it work but just for 3 days but a problem similar to NJ problem occured((it doesn’t work!! my iphone detected the network and connected to it but it only received the IP and the subnet. i had to manullly enter the DNS. still it could not connect to the internet, saying that the connection with the server was not responding or something like that))plz anyone have an idea about this tell us
****i tried many laptops and many internet provider and the problem still HELP
aws
August 2, 2009 at 4:47 pm
thanx a lot….its working….nice job.
ashok
August 12, 2009 at 10:19 pm
OMG, I finally made it!
My laptop was connected to the internet using the ethernet card. In the ethernet card’s IPv4 properties there were specific DNS settings for the router I was connected to…
Then I connected the iphone to the wireless adhoc of my laptop, I had ICS enabled, and on the iPhone I put the same DNS settings that I had on the IPv4 Properties of the ethernet card in my pc and it worked, internet on the iphone!!!
Ricardo
September 1, 2009 at 9:31 pm
thanks a lot buddy; i was trying to setit up for a long time; now iam able to…
i did
=== ON WINDOWS XP ====
1. Internet Connection Sharing
2. Adoc network creation
=== ON IPHONE ====
1. Connect to the adodch net work above ====
2. Proxy setting are done MANUAL; and gave my windows networks proxy settings.
And now i am able to browse ….
thanks again
golu
September 17, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Hi Ricardo and Golu, please can you do me a favour of explicitly describing how exactly you set up the manual configuration for the IP proxy settings???
Would really apprecaite it…dont know about those stuffs…
bosun
September 24, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Hi,
I have tried a couple of times to set it up but after I enter the name, password and hit save, the message ‘windows could not set up ‘iphone’”. Any suggestions?
Dan
October 29, 2009 at 6:54 am
@Dan,
You would need to turn on the WIFI on your laptop. You get this error when you try setting up a connection without turning on WIFI.
Thx!
Shoaib
November 6, 2009 at 2:26 am
Sorry, thanks im up and running!!
Dan
November 6, 2009 at 3:23 am
Actually, am having issues with connecting my iPhone to laptop using WIFI. Tried the above procedure so many times. iPhone do find the network that i create on my laptop, it even connects to it and shows IP and DNS. But it won’t browse internet. I have even enabled ICS on my PC. I am using DSL. Can anybody help plz?
Thx!
Shoaib
Shoaib
November 7, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Do I have to enable ICS on my DSL (LAN connection) or the wirless connection i create? Plz advise
Thx!
Shoaib
November 7, 2009 at 2:52 pm
thx. it helped . God bless u . Jazak Allah Kheir
Shabbir
November 18, 2009 at 9:08 am