How do I share my Wi-Fi via Wi-Fi Direct on my laptop?

Question

On Windows, my laptop's wireless card had the ability to share its own internet by Wi-Fi Direct. I could connect by laptop to other devices via Intel's My Wi-Fi program, which I believe uses Wi-Fi Direct, and then share my internet to them. Is there any way to do this in Ubuntu?

My laptop model: Samsung NP300E5A. My wireless card: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 130.

Thanks!

EDIT: I am using Ubuntu 12.04. Also, I am not trying to share my ethernet connection. I am trying to share my wireless connection to other Wi-Fi devices. See here.

Solution 1

Seems like you have misunderstood WiFi Direct use case. WiFi Direct is not about sharing the connection (as you wrote it), but a peer-to-peer communication without involving AP.

The sad truth is that you cannot mix WiFi Direct with Station mode, which so far makes the whole idea of using WiFi Direct pretty useless. At least I'm not aware about any solution that is capable of doing that.

My advise to you - wait at least couple of years until this technology will be widely supported. Currently, since this technology is primarily driven by Sony, WiFi Direct is already present in their TV's, so you can stream videos/photos to Sony TV directly from your WiFi Direct supported device. Excerpt from the same link:

Sometimes your friends want to share their personal photos and videos on your beautiful HDTV. With Sony's Wi-Fi Direct™ Mode, your friends can throw personal content to your TV without connecting to your home network. Wi-Fi Direct completely bypasses the Wi-Fi access point/router, so it’s easy to set up.

By the way, latest Android version supports WiFi Direct as well, Galaxy Nexus has it.

Solution 2

This is well documentated in Ubuntu Community Help Wiki.

Because is a large text, i send the link: WifiDocs/ShareEthernetConnectionThroughWireless

Good luck.

Comments

[funkeh]

Thank you, but this does not solve my problem. Your article is about sharing an Ubuntu laptop's Ethernet connection to a Windows laptop via Wi-Fi, whereas I'm trying to share my Ubuntu laptop's Wi-Fi via Wi-Fi.

[Zuul]

+'d for pointing out that the documentation does exist :)

[user239558]

Samsung phones support Wi-Fi Direct. It would be great if the answer explicitly included information on Wi-Fi Direct support under Ubuntu.

[Andrejs Cainikovs]

Now, nearly a year later after I wrote my answer, every Android OEM supports WiFi-Direct.

[conualfy]

Nowadays, not only Samsung phones support this, most newer Android do. I have an LG G3 (2014 technology) and it works great, I can watch a movie from my phone on the huge Samsung TV with only one click (tap actually). I can do the same from the laptop to the TV if I use Windows 10. It would be great to be able to do it in Ubuntu.

[Admin]

This is not about WiFi-Direct, is it?