Choose which adapter to use for mobile hotspot on Windows 10

Question

When a device has multiple wifi adapters, is it possible to select which one is used for Windows 10's mobile hotspot feature?

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I am trying to connect my tablet directly to my laptop for better performance in in-home streaming (Steam Link iOS app). However, when both the laptops's connection to the internet and its hotspot use the builtin Wifi hardware, I am experiencing significant stuttering. In terms of a ping from tablet to laptop I am seeing lost packages and latency spikes.

After connecting a USB Wifi adapter I have noticed, that Windows 10 will still use the builtin wifi hardware for creating the hotspot.

Is it possible to tell Windows 10 to use the builtin Wifi adapter for connecting to the internet, and the USB-adapter for providing the hotspot?

Workaround (limited/inconvenient)

Since posting the question I found, that I can work around the problem by connecting the USB Wifi-Adapter to the home-wifi. Enabling mobile hotspot then (presumably) uses the built-in wifi adapter, allowing the following topolocgy:

                                       +-------------------------+
                                       |Win10 Laptop             | 
                                       |                         | 
[ISP-Router] ------ (HomeWifi) --------|-[USB-WifiAdapter]       | 
                                       |                         | 
                                       |                         | 
                                       |                         | 
[iPad] -- (Win10MobileHotspotWifi) ----|-[Built-in Wifi Adapter] | 
                                       +-------------------------+ 

It isn't a full solution however, as I can attach a more powerful antenna to the USB-Adapter, but not to the built-in adapter, for streaming across room boundaries. Additionally, when pluggin in the USB adapter this way instead of only enabling the hotspot, more steps are needed:

• Disable the connection of the builtin-adapter to the Home wifi
• Enable connection of the USB Adapter to the Home wifi
• Enable mobile hotspot.

Answer 1

Yes, you can select which interface the mobile hotspot is using if you are willing to edit the registry.

The key you need to modify is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\icssvc\Settings\PreferredPublicInterface.

Make sure the hotspot is off before you make a change.

The binary data in this key is the ID of the adapter you want to use. You can get the adapter id with:

wmic nicconfig get description,settingid

To make it easier you should export the registry key (and make a copy) and change the current PreferredPublicInterface with your new one and then import it back into the registry.

The first three sections between the dashes of the id has its bytes reversed, e.g. if the Id of the interface you want to select for Windows to use as the adapter for the Mobile Hotspot is:

01020304-0506-0708-0910-111213141516

then the data you would put in the key would be:

04 03 02 01 06 05 08 07 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

or in the registry file:

"PreferredPublicInterface"=hex:04,03,02,01,06,05,08,07,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

REBOOT before starting the Mobile Hotspot.

Tested, works without issue on my system, however, YMMV.

Answer 2

It has already been answered here few times but any way. The only way to select adapter for Mobile Hotspot (or for any other WiFi Direct feature) is to disable all other WiFi adapters, then create/start what you need and then enable all other WiFi adapters back.

Answer 3

_{^{Spent all day on this. All credit goes to @mike-petrichenko, wouldn't have been able to do this without him providing the solution.}}

For a computer with 2 WIFI adapters/NICs, these instructions will allow you to use:

• 1st WIFI Adapter/NIC to Host a Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot.
• 2nd WIFI Adapter/NIC to connect to a Router/Internet.

1. Decide which WIFI NIC you wish to use for the Mobile Hotspot and which to use to connect to the Router/Internet Source. For this example,

   • WIFI #1-MH will be for the Mobile Hotspot.
   • WIFI #2-RI will be used to connect to the home Router for Internet Access.

2. In Control Panel > Network Connections, Disable the WIFI #2-RI adapter (and any others you may have, except WIFI #1-MH's adapter).
   So, now, the only possible Mobile Hotspot will come from the only "Enabled" WIFI adapter, ie. WIFI #1-MH.

3. Connect WIFI #1-MH to the Router/Internet Source. Yes, the one that's supposed to be for Hotspot. (This is done so you can start a Win10 Mobile Hotspot).

4. Initiate the Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot.

5. Connect WIFI #2-RI to the Router/Internet Source. Now, both WIFI NICs will be connected to the same Router/Internet Source.

6. Disconnect WIFI #1-MH from the Router/Internet Source.

7. Still in the Network Connections folder, right click on the WIFI #2-RI adapter > Properties > Sharing tab. Tick the box "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection". Select the new network adapter (Mobile Hotspot adapter) that was created in the folder, when you Initiated the Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot. For example, mine says "Local Area Connection* 2". It will be the adapter that is described as "Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual ..." Click OK.

Voila!

Note: It is ALSO possible to share the network of a Mullvad VPN adapter, to your Mobile Hotspot network ("Local Area Connection* 2" in my case). After Step 6, simply add Step 6b, & slightly modify Step 7:

6b. Start the Mullvad VPN program and connect to a VPN network. The "Mullvad" network adapter should appear in the Network Connections folder. Described as "Mullvad Tunnel".

7-VPN. Instead of Sharing the WIFI #2-RI adapter, you will instead Share the Mullvad adapter to your Mobile Hotspot adapter ("Local Area Connection* 2" in my case).

This was useful in my case because we could not install Mullvad VPN onto my wife's work laptop. So, the moment she connected to the Mobile Hotspot, she appeared as if she was coming from home, rather than overseas, where we are ;)