In this guide I show you how to create a wifi hotspot on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and the recent Ubuntu 23.04 release.
Why would you want to do this?
Well, before able to share your internet connection with other people (though more commonly, other devices) is a basic feature that most operating systems (desktop and mobile) offer. Ubuntu is no different.
The most common use case for this is sharing a wired internet connection from a PC or laptop as a wireless connection that other devices (e.g., mobiles, tablets, etc) can connect to wirelessly.
You need to have some kind of wireless networking equipment present on the device whose internet connection you plan to share (as this is what’s used to create a hotspot – it can’t happen out of thin air, sadly) as well as, obviously, an active connection to share.
Other than that, the process is straightforward regardless of which Ubuntu version you’re on
Creating a Wireless Hotspot in Ubuntu
To create an access point in Ubuntu make sure you have a wired connection, or a data connection that is not using the same wi-fi card/dongle you plan to create your hotspot with.
- Open Settings > Wi-Fi
- In the overflow menu select “Turn on Wi-Fi Hotspot…”
- In the modal that appears enter a network name and password
- Click Turn On
That’s basically it; you can open the system menu (or Quick Settings in 22.10+) to check the status. You should see “Wi-fi hotspot active” staring back at you.
You can connect to your newly minted wifi hotspot from other devices. The stop on how to do that vary based on OS but generally you go to the wi-fi settings panel, tap the name of your new hotspot, enter the password, join, start pillaging memes/download cat gifs/trolling me on Mastodon/etc.
Wrapping Up
The steps above work in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and above. Similarly, since Ubuntu is a GNOME-based distro, these steps will work in other GNOME-based distros such as Fedora, Zorin OS, etc.