External sound card usb. 10 Ways to Speed Up a Slow Internet Connection on the Mac. The Internet is your Mac’s gateway to the rest of the world, and having a speedy connection is vital if you want to download movies, make video calls, play games, or even work online. Check your Mac's network settings are correct.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had multiple devices that needed to connect to the internet, but only one available source (like an ethernet cable or cellular air card)? Sharing your internet connection is only a few clicks away. Although free WiFi access points are spreading like wildfire, let’s say you’re on vacation and the hotel you’re staying at only offers internet via a single ethernet port in the wall. It may not be a big deal if you’re traveling alone with one laptop, but you’re most likely staying with friends or family that have their own technology addictions to feed. So what are you going to do about this little situation where there are a mix of PCs, Macs, and iPhones clamoring for contact with the outside world? Patiently take turns? Good luck relaxing on that vacation.

The answer is in the Sharing pane of System Preferences on your Mac. Mac OS X actually lets you turn your computer into a mock wireless router for others to pick up the signal and connect to the internet. It’s an easy and secure way to get a variety of devices online when WiFi isn’t available.

Here’s how to do it: 1. Open System Preferences and go to the Sharing pane under the Internet & Network heading. On the list of services to the left, select Internet Sharing. Don’t check it quite yet — there’s a few options that need to be set first.

Depending on what your current internet source is, select it from the menu next to “Share your connection from.” As you can see below, I chose Built-in Ethernet since that is how my Mac is getting online at the moment. In the “To computers using” box, select and check AirPort from the list. While it is not required, it’s generally a good idea to lock down the WiFi hotspot you’re creating with a password just in case unwanted visitors are tempted to steal your bandwidth.

Click on the AirPort Options button to configure these security settings. In the window that pops up, type a basic Network Name and check the “Enable encryption (using WEP)” box. Enter an easy to remember (but not easy to guess) password in the boxes below.

Remember you will have to provide this password to anyone you want to have access to your Mac’s shared wireless network. Tried to set up a hotspot on my Mac for the first time today.

Have upgraded to Mountain Lion and 1) AirPort option described in earlier discussions has been replaced by “Wifi” 2) only security options offered are “none” and WPA2. 3) HERE’S THE KICKER. The WPA2 option requires a 13-character password. Except that it doesn’t tell you that anywhere in dialogue box. So if you’re wondering why your “OK” button isn’t lighting up after you’ve entered and confirmed a pass word, make sure you’re password is exactly thirteen characters long.

Thanks, that is my situation exactly: vacation apartment with a TWC “bundle” but wifi is simply not working. Spent half an hour on hold with them and gave up; tried to get into the cable modem’s login but it was not default pw. My Mac Book works with the CAT5 cable that was still in the bag left next to the modem, but 3 other devices in the family are wifi only. I looked for a hotspot app to no avail; glad to know it is built in! Just have to know where to look. I do wonder about the WEP only though. Why not more up-to-date security?

BTW, the wifi 2.4GHz band is very crowded here in a Manhattan apartment! But the 5GHz band is empty. I wanted to point that out: on the details you can pick the channel, and there is a split dividing channels from the two bands. The 5GHz band is often not used, or in any case use a wifi scanner to find the best place to set up your own. For all those using new version of OS (OS 10.9 OR later) instead of Airport option they show wifi option. System preferences > Sharing > Internet sharing share your connection from to computers using Click Wifi Options button give your network a name and choose your security if any and set the key and click “OK” enter your administrator password if prompted tick the box for’ internet sharing ‘ againthen a popup window will appear then click start. Note: save a password more then 8 charactersin some system they don’t show the number of characters.