How to Share Your VPN Connection? Getting a VPN shield lets you put your security in place; for all who would be wishing to either infiltrate your internet connection or get a grasp of your personal information. If you continuously use your laptop, mobile phone, tablet or TV streaming service; then its essential that you set up your VPN connection in such a way; that all your devices get to benefit from that VPN provider; and you can stop any form of getting hacked. Not many services allow for more than 4 of such connections; so sometimes you might have to look up for methods to share your VPN connection. In this guide; we’re going to take a look at some of the ways that you could contemplate.
How to Share Your VPN Connection
Sharing Your VPN Connection
There are plenty of options you can use to share your VPN connection with other devices.
1. Sharing Your VPN Through Router
Establishing up VPN connection on your router requires a bit more of technical knowledge; as most routers make it hard for you to tamper with their factory settings. Using VPN is known to slightly decrease the speed of your Internet connection; so you’re likely to stay on a low rate once you get it set up on your router; as there’s no easy way of turning it on or off. To make your router more compatible with having VPN setup on it; you might want to consider flashing it (replacing its firmware with another that supports VPN). Two such firmware is DD-WRT and Tomato. (also read, 5 Best DD-WRT VPN Service Providers 2018)
To get around the issue of your VPN always turn on; one thing you could do is setup two routers. One would function as your standard router would, and the other is the one that you’d set up your VPN connection on. This way, you’d be able to connect to the main one whenever you don’t want to use VPN.
2. Sharing VPN From Your Computer
You can also take benefit of the settings available in your windows or Mac computer to share your VPN connection with other devices running similar platforms.(also see, How to Secure Your Smart Home With a VPN)
Sharing Your VPN On Windows
Sharing your VPN connection on Windows involves setting up a virtual router with a selected SSID and password through the command prompt. You’ll first need to see if windows have the required drivers to do so, and if it does, you’d then have to proceed to share the virtual router. Doing so involves the following steps:
- Go to the “Network and Sharing Center,”
- Then go to “Change adapter settings,”
- Next right click on your lately created virtual router to open the “Properties” tab.
- Below “Sharing,” you will see checkboxes that state “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection,” and also “Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection.”
Remark that you’ll have to use your command prompt to activate or turn off your connection every time you start up your computer.(also check, Best VPN for Windows Phone 2018)
Sharing Your VPN Connection On A Mac
A few of preconditions that must be in place if you are going to be using your Mac to share a VPN connection. First, the service has to be using the PPTP or L2TP-IPsec protocol, and second, you’ll have to be connected to the Internet using an ethernet cable. If both conditions are met, then you can go ahead and start by assigning a name to your VPN connection like “My PPTP VPN.”(also see, 5 Best MacBook VPN- Secure Your MacBook with These Top VPN Services for MacBook)
Build a connection from your Mac to this service, then open the system preference menu and click on sharing. You’ll see a panel that reads “Share your VPN connection from,” followed by the name you’ve chosen for your VPN. You’ll also need to specify how the connection will be shared, and this can be done on the “To computers using” panel, where you should then select the “Wi-Fi.”
A window will then pop up for the “Wi-Fi Options”, where you’re required to give a network name for the shared VPN connection. Choose the default option for “Channel,” and select “WPA2 Personal” for “Security.” You’ll then be required to provide a password for your shared connection. Booting up your VPN sharing requires you to head to System Preference > Sharing and click on “Internet Sharing” which should be on the left panel. Click on “Start” to confirm.
3. Using Your Mobile As Hotspot
This comes as no surprise; you can share your Smartphone’s 3G/4G Internet connection with other devices as well. You can connect to a VPN server on your Android or iPhone and then set up the Hotspot to share its VPN connection with another device. The major downside here is that the mobile Internet connection is usually pretty expensive and thus you wouldn’t want to use for downloading or streaming content online.
Conclusion -How to Share Your VPN Connection
The ways mentioned above to share your VPN connection should be straightforward enough for you to apply by yourself, without the need for as much technical assistance. If you, however, get stuck, we’re happy to be of help. Just post your question or comment in the section below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
