Due to... reasons... I only have access to the internet through ethernet. A non-issue for everything except the 3DS which to my knowledge has no way to use a wired connection. I do have a Switch which for the most part invalidates the 3DS so it's lack of internet hasn't been a problem, but then Animal Crossing got announced, which naturally makes me want to play New Leaf some more. That isn't all though, as pathetic as it is, New Leaf was also my sole way of comfortably talking to people in real time via Tortimer's Island. Been much too long since I've done that, I'm starting to fear for my sanity. :o

I got a usb wifi adapter but it didn't work on my laptop, apparently it doesn't have the proper hardware or something. I don't know if that means there's absolutely no way it can ever be used as a wifi hotspot or not. Hoping a PC expert sees this and can answer which is why I posted in gaming discussion. There's also a crappy old Vista era PC no one else in my family uses, but the adapter didn't work there either, though not for the same reason, the utility just wouldn't detect the adapter.

I'm gonna try another adapter on the PC, but ideally I'd prefer my laptop being the hotspot. If anyone has any ideas they'd be much appreciated!

Looked it up and it requires hosted network support which my laptop lacks.

I bought a new WiFi adapter for my PC just a month ago, in fact. I had a weird issue where my adapter came with an extra USB plug extender that could be used as a mount, of sorts. For some reason when plugging it in through that mount, it didn't work, but once I instead plugged it into the USB slot directly, it worked. Just a shot in the dark, I suppose, but if you have a Windows PC/laptop, I can't imagine that there are any compatibility problems. It's also possible that you need to put the disk in the computer to install any dependencies that it requires. If you have your wired connection instead, it can probably be done without the disk.

After some research, the problem might be the wireless network adapter driver. The windows 10 version has an issue for some reason, but switching to a windows 8 version should solve the issue. Now I just have to figure out how to do that.

Yeah it's windows 10 and I made sure the usb adapter was compatible with it. My laptop has no disk drive, but I don't think the issue is the adapter itself. It installed and was working to the point my 3DS could see it and attempt to connect with it. Using command prompt I could check if my laptop would allow internet sharing and the answer was nope.

Why didn't you just get a cheap wireless router? Wouldn't that be easier?

Ha I had just learned about that app while researching on my own, but thanks much for posting anyway in case I hadn't found it. It indeed works! Did a quick test and New Leaf played the same as before. Something more intensive like Smash and Mario Kart it probably wont work for it, but that's no big deal. Just realized Pokemon should also work well so that's a huge plus!