Virtual WiFi in Windows 7?

A little feature that goes by the name of Virtual WiFi, developed by Microsoft Research, would allow any Windows 7 machine to to act as an ad hoc WiFi hotspot, allowing you to share your internet connection to anyone in your vicinity.

However, this little feature, for some reason, never shipped with any version of Windows 7.

But apparently, some of the code for this feature was left behind, and aftermarket software developers like Nomadio took advantage of this. They created Connectify. It is free to download, and effectively turns any Windows 7 machine into a WiFi hotspot.

This works by using the wireless network card that is already installed on your machine and instead of just using it to obtain a network connection, it projects your connection so others can connect to your machine.

One benefit that is mentioned here is that if you have a 3G or ethernet connection, you can instantly share that connection with the devices of your friends or co-workers.

Bottom line? This little feature is a great idea. I can remember when I bought my first laptop, but I didn’t have a wireless router, yet. But I did have another laptop hooked up to an ethernet connection, and this feature would have worked great by turning my old laptop into a virtual WiFi connection.

Why does Microsoft leave out cool stuff?

Link to original article: geek.com

~ by i101al8iupui on November 2, 2009.