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MacBook Internet Connection Sharing

A great feature of Mac OS X is the ease of sharing your Internet connection. For example, you are in a hotel with your family or coworkers, you have wired or cellular Internet access (this includes EVDO cards, USB cell cards, etc.), but more than one of you needs to be connected at the same time. With your MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air (with optional USB-Network connector), you can share your connection safely and securely!

First, open System Preferences: Click on Apple -> System Preferences… 

Second: Click on Sharing

Next, you will see the sharing preferences. In the list on the left side, click on the Internet Sharing line, but don’t click on the box to enable it just yet.

 

Now click on the button labeled AirPort Options…

Here, you want to name your network (I don’t suggest any self-identifying names here… something very generic is best: my_network, private_net, etc.). Spaces are okay when sharing with all Macs. Just to be sure you can share with everybody in your group, you can replace spaces with underscores as shown in the above examples.

Put a checkmark in the box to Enable encryption.

Choose a password, confirm it and choose your preferred WEP key length. See the explanation in the box to help you make your choices. Your choices will depend on the other computers in the network that you are creating.

Click OK

You will get this warning:

Click Start

In a moment or two, the icon in the menu bar will change to look like this:

 

When you are done sharing, just turn it off:

1) Go to System Preferences again

2) Click on Sharing

3) Click on the Internet Sharing checkmark box to “uncheck” it.

That’s all there is to it.

Note: in another post, I explain how easy it is to use an AirPort Express for this purpose. It is an even better solution because you can leave it plugged in and enabled, even when you want to shut your laptop down or take it with you. Your family can stay behind and surf or check email without you. The AirPort Express is inexpensive, easy to carry and very easy to set up. I usually bring it along. However, in a pinch, this solution, which is built right into Mac OS X, has saved so much time and frustration. When we get to the hotel, everybody can surf on just one wired connection.

Also see:

• Connecting Your MacBook with USB727 
• MacBook Air with USB727 from Verizon Wireless