It wasn't all that long ago that Microsoft was talking up the
Virtual WiFi feature developed by Microsoft Research and set for inclusion in
Windows 7, but something got lost along the road to release day, and the functionality never officially made it into the OS. As you might expect with anything as big and complicated as an operating system though, some of that code did make it into the final release, and there was apparently enough of it for the folks at Nomadio to exploit into a full fledged feature. That's now become Connectify, a free application from the company that effectively turns any Windows 7 computer into a virtual WiFi hotspot -- letting you, for instance, wirelessly tether a number of devices to your laptop at location where only an Ethernet jack is available, or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that chargers for WiFi. Intrigued? Hit up the link below to grab the beta.
posted November 2nd 2009 2:19AM
I'm referring to the item at the link, not the engadget piece. it's not an article. An article is written by a journalist and pretends to be news. This is an ad. That's why it says "beta test now", and you have to click the button "FAQ" in the corner to see info. That's why it's hosted by the software maker. That's why it says "all sales are final" at the bottom.
As to the rest of your post, that chip on your shoulder must get damn heavy at times. Give it a rest some time. Why do I come to engadget and subject myself to ads? Hey, well, I'm not being CHARGED to view them am I? So you somehow didn't notice that 70% of Live Gold was ads and you got burned. Get over it, it's been weeks.
i think there is one main point for this:
*you can create mesh networks*
before you would all physically cram around the range of a single wifi point/ethernet connection. now you can have lots of devices connect to each other and effectively extend the range by creating a "net/mesh" instead of cramming around the same physical space.
interestingly enough, the OLPC device has this ability already:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mesh_Network_Details
This has been around forever. It's how the Nintendo Wi-Fi adapter (to let DSes work) works for example (on Windows XP and up!). It's just ad-hoc Wi-Fi.
The feature W7 was going to have but lost was where you joined a Wi-Fi network and re-shared that back out over Wi-Fi. Or you could join two networks at once. This required support at the hardware level I believe.
Too lazy to read the entire article, huh?
This lets you share your Wifi....
This is not simply ad-hoc wifi, its wifi adapter virtualization. It allows a single wifi adapter to behave as if you have multiple wifi adapters.
Except multiple adapters would be able to work on multiple frequencies at once...
...And of course they just *had* to make this "exploited windows 7 feature" look like a half-baked knockoff of OSX.
TO ALL THOSE SAYING IT IS JUST AD-HOC:
Can I still join a WiFi network while my computer is acting as a WiFi Hotspot?
Yes, absolutely. You can join a WiFi network and run the Connectify Hotspot on the same WiFi card, at the same time. The Connectify Hotspot is always on the same channel as the WiFi network that you join, but WiFi networks can share the same channel.
Is this just WiFi’s ad hoc mode?
No, Connectify is a real WiFi Access Point running on your computer. Any device that can connect to a regular access point, can connect to a Connectify Hotspot, with no special setup or software required.
FAQ from Connectify's website.
Hey, someone who actually bothered to read the info on the program from their site instead of just jumping to conclusions and sounding stupid. I was going to post pretty much the same thing you did after reading all of the comments of people saying "can't you do the same thing with XP" and "Macs have been doing this for years" lol. I'll find this pretty damn useful since I can now tether my phone to my netbook running windows 7 and then connect my PSP to my netbook. The PSP can only connect to access points for internet and not Ad-hoc connections. Pretty handy when I'm at work and I want to do some online gaming in my downtime XD
This is basically setting up a repeater bridge without a dd-wrt router.
They seem to state you can have a different encryption (WPA/WPA2/WEP) on the network you make as the one you join. That would mean it isn't just WDS repeating.
@why not the LS2LS7?
Rad. This will be very helpful at school, which has unsecure WiFi but uses a portal to get us to log into the campus-wide Internet. I can login and turn my laptop into a secure hotspot so my Zune and DS can access the Internet without going through the portal.
@Jasmine
Only the connection between your device (i.e. DS) and your Connectify-running laptop will be secure. The data will be decrypted by your laptop and sent unencrypted to the access point that your laptop is connected to, so this isn't a way to secure communications on an unsecured AP.
If you're only worried about people in your immediate area sniffing out your wireless packets, they'll go for the unsecured laptop-to-AP connection anyway.
Kanye-meme, Linux.
Umm... I don't have Windows 7. I use Windows XP. Is there any software for XP like this? Been wanting to make my laptop a virtual hotspot for a while now. Need it sometimes for my group cause I'm the only one with a data plan and when we're not a place with wifi, they can't connect to the internet.
No. I don't think so. Connectify requires Windows 7. But why don't you try making an AD-HOC WiFi network?
Just f-ing upgrade already.
I did something similar on my iPhone, its called MyWi, its actually a cool feature. Looks like one more thing to throw in when I upgrade to Windows 7.
is there a device that can steal bandwidth from multiple sources and combine them into 1 super pipe? sort of like torrent, but for general internet usage...
I think that M$ has taken a big step forward with this ...
not expect similar innovations from M $ .. ^_^"
The virtual wifi feature is fully intact and present in windows 7 not some unfinished feature as Engadget claims - it just has no GUI & it is activated via command line only.
All they did was build a GUI to the interface.
That is correct. Everyone should check the WinHEC slide linked to above. The architecture (component names and all) are exactly how it was built into the OS. You can turn it on in netsh if you want without the UI. WCN also uses it as well.
The connectify software fits in as "ISV App."
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/microsofts-virtual-wifi-will-make-windows-7-wireless-adapters-d/
"or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that chargers for WiFi"
Does WiFi need batteries? Or horses?
This would be useful for sharing a mobile internet connection with other users.
So it's like Joiku Spot for the pc? Awesome.
"or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that chargers for WiFi"
Does WiFi need batteries? Or horses?
This feature is available on all rooted android phones and winmo. Turns your data connection into a signal and your phone into a router. Very sweet and convenient:)
Haha we DDOS'd their site.
Tested it, works well. Didn't initally work but I found out this was because I 'updated' to newer drivers from the Realtek site which it didn't like (I'm guessing they're just Vista drivers) but after rolling back to the ones included with Windows 7 it worked like a charm. Connected my PS3 to it without any trouble and was just as fast as connecting to my router, although I'm guessing it would increase ping somewhat.
get the program here:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4899-connectify.html
The article is wrong. The feature is not missing from Windows 7.
The feature is there, but there is no GUI for it. You can still create and modify the Virtual WiFi from the command prompt.
Connectify is just a GUI for this functionality, not the functionality itself!
Kill yourself :)
For those wondering, this WAS a reply to one of those damn spam adverts.
I have been able to do this with my Symbian Device for a long time, but it's still nice to hear.
Macs have had this since at least Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger". For those who don't know, we're now on Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard".
So, I'm curious as to whether anybody is actually aware that Virtual WiFi was never supposed to contain a Microsoft frontend. Not in the original version from Microsoft research back in 2002, not the current version.
Here, have a slide from WinHEC in May of this year. http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090516/windows-7-native-virtual-wifi-technology-microsoft-research/
Also, have an Engadget article from the same timeframe with the same slide: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/microsofts-virtual-wifi-will-make-windows-7-wireless-adapters-d/
Come on, guys. At least read your own articles before posting false news. Your article clearly shows that VWiFi is just a framework. It's up to ISVs to develop the frontend.
Thanks for writing about Connectify. We thought you may want to know that today Connectify 1.0 is now available as the first production ready release. We believe that we have fixed all of the issues that were seen in testing. Some older wireless cards do not yet have full Windows 7 support, and for those devices Connectify will act as an Ad Hoc connection manager, instead of a full blown Wi-Fi Access Point.
Changes since Beta 4 include:
• Improved Notification tray icons (including a warning icon if the selected Internet connection is not currently working)
• Support for even more wireless cards and configurations
• Improved memory and CPU management
• Recover from sleep/hibernate
• Support for machines where multiple users install Connectify and log on at same time
• Ability to remove clients from the Client History list (right click to get menu)
• Auto-hiding of the Mode box. By default we hide the “Mode” box to choose between AP or Ad Hoc mode. If your wireless card supports both, then we default to Access Point mode. To keep the mode box visible, there is an option on the Option menu (right click on the Connectify logo to show the menu).
Thank you again for your support.