How to Share PC Screen Over Wi-Fi Without Internet (Mobile Hotspot)
Learn how to turn your Windows PC into an offline Wi-Fi hotspot and stream your display to phones, tablets, or laptops with ScreenTask—no router or internet required.
When presenting in remote project sites, hotel conference rooms, moving vehicles, or during an ISP internet outage, you rarely have access to a dependable Wi-Fi router or high-speed internet connection. Cloud-based video meeting platforms (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams) cannot function without internet access.
Fortunately, you can turn your Windows laptop into a standalone local Wi-Fi router using Windows Mobile Hotspot and broadcast your screen directly to any nearby device with ScreenTask. Viewers connect directly to your laptop’s Wi-Fi network and view your screen inside their standard web browser—zero internet bandwidth required.
Why Share Screen via Windows Mobile Hotspot?
- Zero External Hardware: No need to pack or carry a travel router, switch, or Ethernet patch cables.
- 100% Offline Data Transfer: Screen video frames travel over your laptop’s Wi-Fi radio directly to client devices. Your cellular data and internet bandwidth remain completely untouched.
- Universal Client Support: Viewers on iPhones (Safari), Android devices (Chrome), iPads, or secondary laptops can connect without downloading any apps or APK files.
- Air-Gapped Privacy: Because no cloud server relays the broadcast, proprietary code, financial spreadsheets, and presentation decks never leave your physical perimeter.
Step 1: Enable Windows Mobile Hotspot (Offline Mode)
Windows 10 and Windows 11 feature a built-in virtual hosted network adapter that creates a local Wi-Fi hotspot, even when your computer has no active internet connection:
- Press
Win + Ito open Windows Settings. - Navigate to Network & internet $\rightarrow$ Mobile hotspot.
- Under Share my internet connection from, select your current Wi-Fi adapter (or Ethernet).
- Click Edit to configure:
- Network name (SSID): e.g.,
ScreenTask-Demo - Network password: Set a strong 8-character password.
- Network band: Choose
2.4 GHzor5 GHz(5 GHzoffers lower latency and higher transfer speeds if supported).
- Network name (SSID): e.g.,
- Toggle Mobile hotspot to On.
[!NOTE] On some Windows 10/11 updates, Windows might show a warning stating “We can’t set up mobile hotspot because your PC doesn’t have an Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or cellular data connection”. You can bypass this by enabling the virtual hosted network via Administrator Command Prompt:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=ScreenTask-Offline key=Password123 netsh wlan start hostednetwork
Step 2: Understanding the 192.168.137.1 Subnet
When Windows initializes a Mobile Hotspot, it automatically activates an internal virtual network switch (Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter) and assigns it a reserved private subnet:
- Host PC Hotspot IP:
192.168.137.1 - Connected Client IPs:
192.168.137.2through192.168.137.254(e.g.,192.168.137.100) - Default Port:
7070or9000
If you have ever seen queries like screen task 192.168.137.100 7070, this is precisely what causes it: the host computer is running ScreenTask on 192.168.137.1, and the mobile client at 192.168.137.100 connects to that local URL.
Step 3: Configure ScreenTask to Bind to the Hotspot Adapter
Now that the local wireless hotspot is active, instruct ScreenTask to broadcast over the newly created virtual adapter:
- Launch ScreenTask on the host PC (download the latest release from the ScreenTask Download Hub).
- In the IP dropdown menu, do not select your physical Ethernet or VPN interface. Look for the address starting with:
192.168.137.1 - Set Port to
7070(or9000). - Set your desired Refresh Rate (e.g.,
500 msfor balanced performance or200 msfor smooth slides). - (Optional) Check Password Protection and enter a session password to prevent unauthorized viewers on the hotspot.
- Click the green Start Server button.
Step 4: Connect Client Devices & Stream
Now your audience can connect their devices to your hotspot and view your desktop:
- On the client device (iPhone, Android smartphone, iPad, or another laptop), open Wi-Fi settings.
- Connect to your laptop’s hotspot network (
ScreenTask-Demo) using the password set in Step 1. - Open any web browser (Safari, Google Chrome, Edge, or Firefox).
- In the address bar, type the full URL:
http://192.168.137.1:7070 - If password protection was enabled, enter the session credentials. The PC desktop will now stream live in the browser.
[!TIP] On mobile devices, tap the browser menu and select “Add to Home Screen” or enter Fullscreen mode (
F11on desktop browsers) for an immersive full-display presentation.
Troubleshooting Hotspot Connections
1. The Mobile Browser Shows “Connection Refused” or “Site Cannot Be Reached”
- Check that Windows Defender Firewall is not blocking port 7070. You can quickly permit the port with PowerShell (run as Administrator):
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "ScreenTask Hotspot" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 7070 -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -Profile Any - Ensure the viewer device is connected to the laptop’s hotspot and hasn’t disconnected due to a “No Internet Access” prompt on Android/iOS (choose “Stay connected without internet”).
2. Stream Lags or Stutters
- In ScreenTask, adjust the Refresh Rate to
1000 ms(1 frame per second) if presenting static slides, or switch the mobile hotspot band to5 GHzin Windows Settings to minimize 2.4 GHz channel congestion.
Related Guides & Resources
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