MELANCHOLY404 TECHNOLOGY

Traditionally desktop PCs haven’t had any wireless connectivity hardware pre-installed on them. Usually they have got internet connectivity only via the Ethernet cable. Just recently, with the recent shift to ‘All Things Wireless’ have there been some motherboards that do come with wireless adapters for desktops.

But, if you’re stuck with an old PC (like me) with no such luck, don’t despair. With the help of a few tips and tricks, it can not only access Wi-Fi, but can also act like a virtual router. Let’s find out how!

Okay, so let’s get one thing clear. Nothing can magically enable a PC to somehow get wireless capabilities without any additional hardware. This just won’t happen. At all. But, the good news is – the wireless adapters that you can buy these days are pretty cheap. They can be used on laptops too, so in case your wireless card on that spanking new laptop has given way, you can try a wireless adapter.

They are usually pretty small and at times even smaller than regular sized thumb drives. But, don’t let the small packaging fool you.

Plugging in the wireless adapter will automatically run you through the setup process, like any other USB plug-and-play device. It shouldn’t be a problem to find a vacant USB port on your PC and even if you are on the ancient Windows 7 OS, the drivers of such adapters usually get installed fairly easily.

You know you have it correctly set up when you see two additional adapters in the Device Manager of your PC. Go there by right-clicking My Computer > Manage > Device Manager on the left. There should be one for a Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter and one Wireless USB Adapter with the brand name of your choosing. (TP-LINK, in my case)

Connecting to a wireless network on a desktop PC is exactly the same as on a laptop. Click on the Network icon on the bottom right of the taskbar and then scan for wireless networks. From there, it’s a matter of typing your Wi-Fi network’s password and getting connected. If you need more desktop PC’s to be connected in this manner, buy more wireless adapters. Easy, right?

This was merely the hardware side of things. Getting wireless connectivity to a PC may not be path breaking, because all you’re really doing is introducing a new hardware to give it the same abilities as a laptop.

But, what if I told you that you can also take a desktop and turn it into a Wi-Fi router? Oh, yes. It can.

I’ve looked high and low. In the depths of the fiery dark web to the most amazing software sharing repositories. But, I haven’t had a virtual router software that worked flawlessly on my desktop. Each had some clumsy issue after another. Or some were just way too complex for me to really care.

That’s when I accidentally discovered this great piece of software called mHotspot. It’s not only stable, reliable and easy, but also compatible with both Windows 7 and 8. (No doubt they will extend support to Windows 10 shortly, too).

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the software on the same desktop, all you need to do is configure it like you’re configuring a router. The good guys at the company already have a helpful video for their users, so I’m gonna put that down here for a quick look at how it works.

There is no audio in the video, so don’t start banging your computer! And if the video was still unclear in any way, let me say that all you have to do on the software is assign a network name (SSID) and password (WPA2-PSK). Since you already have a wireless adapter installed on your PC, this software will act in conjunction with that hardware and turn your PC in to a virtual router, once you hit that Start Hotspot button.

Yup, it’s really that easy.

Okay, so I’ve already stated my undying love for this software. Which means anything more I say might come off as an ‘upsell’, but I’m only imparting my knowledge from all the trial and error I’ve put into this method, for all of you to enjoy.

The company also claims that mHotspot can be used to extend the Wi-Fi range of your router, which is true in theory, but in practice, it didn’t work to such a great degree. What’s more you can also use this software to give access to your other devices from your laptop, if you’re on a Public Wi-Fi and only your laptop has security software to tackle it.

The other devices will only be connecting to your laptop’s connection and merely piggy-backing on the internet it has running. Do not worry, it may sound shady, but it’s completely legal too.

I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed our quick look at how a desktop can get Wi-Fi access and even act like a virtual router. If you’ve got questions, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments below. Additionally, we’d also welcome questions around Wi-Fi which we haven’t previously covered.

For a long time, Chrome on iOS and Android has had a data saver feature. When enabled, all the pages that you download on your web browser first go through Google’s own servers and are then compressed and delivered to you. This process is really fast. And I’ve actually seen significant data saving (20-40%) when using this feature. And Chrome is not alone in doing this. There are iOS and Android apps that let you do this system-wide (using VPN). Opera also has its own version called Opera Turbo.

Now, Google has released this data compression feature for desktop users as well. It’s not built-in or even a stable product yet. Data Saver is still in beta (like all Google products are,sometimes for years) and is available as a Chrome extension.

What exactly does it do, should you be using it, or is there anything better out there? Read on to find out.

Once you’ve installed the extension, you don’t need to do anything. You don’t need to restart the browser or even press a button to enable the service.

In the background, the extension will do its thing.

Yes, your data is routed through Google’s servers where the compression happens. No, not all data is routed this way, especially personal data. When you use a page that uses HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP, Google won’t touch that page. It’s the same if you’re going incognito.

This means when you’re visiting a website that requires you to log in, or a website that stores your personal information, the compression won’t work there.

A lot of major websites these days are using the HTTPS protocol. And we’ve also showed you how to force HTTPS on websites that aren’t.

This means that a majority of an average user’s online browsing, which usually consists of Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, YouTube, and more, won’t actually be compressed.

Compression will only work when you’re visiting blogs such as Guiding Tech or New York Times.

I’ve been using the Data Saver extension for more than a day now and it has saved me around 10% bandwidth. Which, if I’m being honest, is not a lot. Especially because I’m using unlimited broadband so I haven’t saved any money.

Also, because my internet is not dead slow, I haven’t seen a noticeable increase in page loading times.

One can argue that if you have fast, unlimited broadband, you don’t even need this.

But if you’re living in a place with limited internet connectivity, expensive data plans, or if you’re tethering from your phone, yes, even the 10-20% savings via Data Saver is going to be helpful. (According to official sources, it can save up to 45% of bandwidth, but I haven’t seen anything like that).

Opera has a similar feature built-in called Turbo. In my testing I found it to perform similar to Data Saver, meaning there’s not that much impact. Also for some reason, Opera doesn’t even show you the data you’ve saved on the desktop.

Do you use any kind of data compression service on your phone or your PC? Is it effective? Share with us in the comments below.