My stepdaughter visited us for Christmas. She has an iPhone. My wife has resisted getting the iPhone because of the touch interface. I took the opportunity to sell the benefits to here while her daughter was here. I pointed out that they could do FaceTime for free and use the iMessage feature too if she got an iPhone. FaceTime requires a wifi connection to work. My stepdaughter advised me that where she goes to college they do not have wifi in their dorms, they only have Ethernet. I suggested an Apple airport express, but being a student she could not justify the spend. I then remembered that you can create a wifi network using your Mac as the base station. The process is very straightforward and what follows will take you through the steps involved.
- You will need a Mac and an Ethernet connection to the Internet.
- Click on the AirPort icon in your MenuBar.
- From the options select Create Network.
- Give your Network a Name, Select a channel and enable the security options. Enabling the security options is extremely important if you don’t want strangers accessing your network and your computer.
- Enter a password which you will use to connect to your network then click create.
Your network is now created and you can access it from your wireless devices.
Once set up you can now use the wifi network you have created to get your mobile devices online. You can FaceTime with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You can us AirPlay to stream content from your iTunes library to your iOS device. You can browse the web, tweet and email all over wifi from your mobile device. If you have a roommate that you trust, they can get online wirelessly through your network even from their laptop. This not only works for college dorms but for hotels that have Ethernet but no wifi in the rooms.
I hope this will be of use to those who did not know the feature existed. To those who did I would love to hear how you use this feature.
