Windows Mobile app allows internet sharing via WiFi

Via its Internet Sharing application, Windows Mobile allows sharing a phone's internet connection with a laptop via a USB cable or Bluetooth. WiFi is not supported, but that omission has now been corrected via WMWifiRouter, a free application by programmer Jorrit Jongma.

Being able to use WiFi instead of Bluetooth is desirable for those with 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connections, since these outpace the former's 2 Mbit data rate. But, as this FAQ on the XDA-Developers Web forum explains, Internet Sharing was not designed to use WiFi and has been able to do so only if users installed a hacked version of the relevant DLL (dynamic link library).

Windows Mobile's Internet Sharing (left) and the WMWifiRouter application (right)
The WMWifiRouter application, though only scantily documented on the above website, corrects this problem by allowing an ad hoc WiFi network to be set up between a laptop and the phone supplying the wide area connection. Available for free, it requires Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3 or Windows Mobile 6.

To download WMWifiRouter, visit Jorrit Jongma's website, here. For more information on Windows Mobile's Internet Sharing capability -- termed its "most underutilized/unknown feature" by Microsoft's Enterprise Mobile Solution Specialist Jason Langridge -- see Langridge's blog, here.