Create an ad-hoc network in Windows 8

My USB drive died and I needed a very quick way to get some larger files from my tablet to my laptop.  The largest problem was that I was connected over an open WiFi network in my hotel room and I needed it to be as secure as I could make it.

So, creating an ad-hoc network came to mind between my laptop and tablet to transfer the files.  I have never actually had a need to create one of these, but the steps are more manual than I remember them being in previous versions of Windows.

I found my answer at http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-create-wireless-ad-hoc-internet-connection-in-windows-8/  The site has detailed steps and pictures if you need them, so I'll give a very quick run-down of what needs done.

Notes:

• Your NIC needs to support virtualization (see the website for more info).  Any modern NIC should support it, however.
• Your ad-hoc network will broadcast a public SSID.
• The encryption is WPA-2 Personal.
• Copying between the tablet and the laptop is pretty slow, but it works over a network share that I made.

To enable it:

1. From a command prompt run:
1. netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=NETWORK_SSID key=PASS_KEY
2. netsh wlan start hostednetwork
2. Open up the network adapter list, you can search for "View Network Connections" in the Windows 8 search.
3. Enable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) by going to the Network Adapter properties you want to share (the same place you'd assign an IPv4 static IP at) and choose the Sharing tab.  Then just enable it to be shared by others.
4. Look for your SSID on your other device(s) and connect to it.