Sharing Internet Connection from my Laptop to my Android-based Phone

I was disheartened to know that my newly bought Samsung Galaxy S i9000 could not connect to an ad-hoc network created from my laptop.

After a little Googling, I found out the easiest way to turn a laptop into a WiFi Hot Spot (for uses such as sharing Internet connection with my Android phone) - Virtual Router and now I am enjoying fast internet on my phone.

As I call the above the easiest, it’s not the best method and doesn’t offer much features either. If your needs are not satisfied you can look for Connectify - the inspiration behind Virtual Router.

I forgot to mention that both of these methods work for windows, I still have to figure out a way to do the same under Linux.

EDIT (2012-04-28): Okay, it’s been too long, frankly because I was not using Linux much all this while (thanks to my laptop which used to turn into a heater with almost all distros I tried), but finally I found a way to share net from Linux too. I am on Android 2.3.6 XXJW4 on my SGS i9000. The following steps should work well with all versions of gingerbread:

• Root your Android. Folks at Android Advices usually come out with the easiest possible tutorials for things like this, I followed the steps available here, YMMY.

• Take a backup of your current /system/bin/wpa_supplicant file using a root-enabled file manager (Root Manager is a good option, though not available for gratis)

• Download the latest version of AdHoc fix available at this thread at XDA Forums, and transfer it your phone’s sdcard.

• Either apply the fix using by booting into recovery or just extract wpa_supplicant file from the zip and overwrite it at /system/bin using your favorite root-enabled file manager.

• Create a new ad hoc network in your linux system, and voilà you will magically find it when your phone scans for wi-fi networks.