PC to Steam Link WiFi Hotspot Guide

Use your PC's WiFi card and bypass your Router (Windows only).

This guide might seem extremely long but that is because I listed every click and dialog box. Anyone should be able to follow along as long as they do the steps in the correct order.

Order in the steps below is very important!

Host PC Prerequisites

• Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 (Vista might work)
  
• Connection to wired Internet Connection (Ethernet)
  
• Un-used 5GHz A, N, or AC WiFi card (Not Connected to any network)

A. Driver/Network Prep

1. Update your WiFi Driver
   
2. Remove any OEM WiFi management utility's
   
3. Disconnect from and disable auto-connection to any previous WiFi network

B. Configure the Wireless Card

Part 1: Device Manager

1. Press Win+R, type "devmgmt.msc" and Press OK
   
2. Find and double-click your WiFi card under "Network adapters"
   
3. Go to the "Advanced" tab
   
4. Change the Ad Hoc Channel to a non-DFS 5GHz channel[en.wikipedia.org] [See Note 1]
   
5. Click OK

Part 2: Command Prompt

1. Open a Command Prompt and type:
   
   • "netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=SteamLinkWiFi key=PasswordHere"
     [See Note 2]
     
   • "netsh wlan start hostednetwork"
     
   • "netsh wlan show hostednetwork"
     [See Note 3]
2. Minimize the Command Prompt

• Note 1: On my card this was called "WZC IBSS Channel Number", and I set it to "149(80MHz)"
  
• Note 2: Change the password to what you want the new WiFi network pass to be
  
• Note 3: WARNING: If the channel is 1-14 or any of the 5GHz DFS channels you will need to go back into Device Manager and fix it!

C. Configure the Network Interfaces

Part 1: Network Connections Cpl

1. Press Win+R, type "ncpa.cpl" and Press OK
   
2. Right click on the new "Local Area Connection" and Rename it to "Ad Hoc Wi-Fi"

Part 2: Ethernet to WiFi Sharing

1. Right Click your Ethernet Connection and Click Properties
   
2. Go to the Sharing tab
   
3. Check "Allow other network users to connect" and select "Ad Hoc Wi-Fi"
   
4. Uncheck "Allow other network users to control or disable"
   
5. Click OK

Part 3: WiFi IP Config

1. Right Click on "Ad Hoc Wi-Fi" and Click Properties
   
2. Uncheck "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)"
   
3. Double-click "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)"
   
4. Click "Use the following IP address" & "Use the following DNS server addresses"
   
5. Enter these settings:
   

   IP address	192.168.2.1
   Subnet mask	255.255.255.0
   Default gateway
   Prefered DNS Server	8.8.8.8
   Alternate DNS Server	8.8.4.4

6. Click OK Twice

Part 4: Reset the Hotspot

1. Go back to the Command Prompt, Type "netsh wlan stop hostednetwork" and then Type "netsh wlan start hostednetwork"
   
2. Close the Command Prompt

D. NetSh Login Task

Part 1: Task Scheduler

1. Press Win+R, type "taskschd.msc" and Press OK
   
2. Click "Task Scheduler Library" on the left side
   
3. Click "Create Task" on the right side

Part 2: Task Configuration

General tab

• Name: "Enable Ad Hoc WiFi"
  
• Description: "Enables the 802.11 Ad Hoc network on this computers Wi-Fi adapter during logon events."
  
• Click "Change User or Group..." type: "SYSTEM" and click OK

Triggers tab

1. Click "New...", choose "At log on" from the drop-down and click OK
   
2. Click "New...", choose "On connection to user session" from the drop-down and click OK
   
3. Click "New...", choose "On connection to user session" from the drop-down, click "Connection from local computer" and click OK
   
4. Click "New...", choose "On an event" from the drop-down, in the "Log" drop-down choose "System", set "Source" to "Power-Troubleshooter", set "Event ID" to "1" and click OK
   

Actions tab

1. Click "New..." and enter the following:
   
2. Program/script: "%SystemRoot%\System32\netsh.exe"
   
3. Add arguements: "wlan start hostednetwork"
   
4. Click OK

Conditions tab

• If you have a laptop and want to use Ad Hoc WiFi on battery, Uncheck "Start the task only if the computer is on AC power"

Settings tab

1. Check "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed"
   
2. Change the "Stop the task if it runs longer than" box to "30 seconds"
   
3. Click the box at the bottom and change it to "Queue a new instance"

• Click OK to save the task

E. DHCP & DNS

Install DHCP Server

1. Download the latest version from here: http://www.dhcpserver.de/cms/download/
   
2. Create a new folder in Program Files called "DHCP Server"
   
3. Copy the files from the ZIP to "C:\Program Files (x86)\DHCP Server\"

Configure DHCP Server

1. Right Click on "dhcpwiz" and choose "Run As Administrator"
   
2. Click Next
   
3. Choose "Ad Hoc Wi-Fi"
   
4. Check "DNS (Dynamic Name Service Protocol)"
   
5. Enter "8.8.8.8" in the "Forwarding address" box
   
6. Set "IP-Pool" to "192.168.2.2 - 101"
   
7. Check the "Delete expired leases" box
   
8. Uncheck the "Trace" box
   
9. Click Advanced
   
10. Under "Gateways" click "0.0.0.0" then Edit
    
11. Enter "192.168.2.1"
    
12. Click OK Twice
    
13. Click Next
    
14. Click Write INI File
    
15. Click Next
    
16. Check "Run DHCP server immediatly"
    
17. Click "Install"
    
18. Click "Configure"
    
19. Click "Start"
    
20. Click "Finish"
    
21. In the new window that pops-up click "Don't show this window next time"
    
22. Click "Exit"

[Flare25x25]

I am having one issue with this. My steam link can connect to the network no problem but when I search the network for computers I don't get anything. I took some classes a while ago and have a CCNA but I'm not as advanced nor as familiar with something like this and would like some guidance.

[BrokenFun212]

When I connect my steam link to my pc via wifi hostpot, the tv shows black screen while my pc shows the big picture active. After 5 seconds the tv goes back to home screen. How can I fix this? This don't happen when I connect my link to the router via wifi...

[Quad]

It doesn't require 5GHz but unless you live in the middle of nowhere 2.4GHz is probably going to be very laggy.

[CFHeadphase]

Does this absolutely require a 5GHz adapter to do? I tried it on a 2.4 and it won't work

[Quad]

Note:
Guide was created Dec 11, 2015 but Valve had not enabled Guides for the Steam Link Community yet. So it was uploaded and posted as a PDF here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/487876568227772452/