Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Virtually Duplicates Your Wireless Card
akhomerun writes "Microsoft has released version 1.0 of its experimental new VirtualWiFi Software. The free software enables Windows users to use a single wireless card to connect to multiple wireless networks simultaneously. The current build is a very primitive release, with no support for WEP or WPA encryption."
You need two Wifi cards to do some man in the middle attacks..
;)
Will this make it easier
Does this mean we can connect to an AP and then connect using ad-hoc using the same card to another computer? This would result in a relay
This just doesn't look like typical Microsoft, and IMO that's a good thing...
Source code, a simple web site, and command line operation.....what more could I ask for?
Thanks, Microsoft (geez I still feel wierd saying that....)
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
The blurb makes it sound like this is essentially a way to quickly switch the hardware from one AP to another, buffering packets until the hardware is connected to the proper AP. I'm curious how efficient this process is, as there's bound to be some switching latency. For low-bandwidth non-latency-bound tasks, I assume it's virtually seamless, but I wonder how non-latency-bound you'd need a task to be before it starts becoming problematic.
Wouldn't a proper software-defined radio be the real solution, allowing connections to 2 APs simultaneously with only one antenna? Obviously Microsoft's working with what they've got, and it's certainly an interesting capability, but I'd rather see real effort on SDRs, particularly the regulatory issues therewith.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
Microsoft releasing tech previews with source code ? I mean, what has the world come to ?. Oh, sure it is under Shared Source license - but it raises serious questions about the way MS is dealing with the latest challenge from F/OSS. After all students are the major inflow of talent into F/OSS (starting from Linus Torvalds ...).
The only thing that scares me is that their website has an image that is 960x720 px resized using img tag height and widths - Which looks like it was done in powerpoint using 3DText. I wanted to pull the code and read it to see if it was some kind of trojan or something. All in all, it looks too unprofessional (website mainly) - at least compared to all the open source project sites I've run into.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
In related news, another Microsoft department is releasing a new DRM scheme that will prevent "unauthorized duplication of your wireless card, virtual or otherwise."
Innovation. From the beast..... I need to sit down :-)
This is Shared Source NOT free software.
May I use your sig please?
... found using Google, at: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/ranveer/multinet/ software.htm
And the author's page, which follows quite naturally:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/ranveer/ ...which, if you look at it, will explain the origins of this "Microsoft" project :) His papers on "MultiNet" date back to June 2003.
Gan Family Homepage
Microsoft released something with sources...
Quick! Someone brutally abuse their trust by ripping off the design and idea. Release a fully (and better) working Linux VirtualWiFi driver by tomorrow!
Hack evil minions! Hack hack hack!!!
The comments on the website indicate that the code buffers traffic meant for another AP between switching networks. This of course is hindered by the time it takes to complete the 802.11 authentication and association exchange as indicated with the suggested timer values for the supported wireless cards.
Intel Centrino cards are well-known in the industry as being particularly aggressive at associating and authentication to an access point after being deauthenticated, thereby shortening the time needed to switch between different networks. It's unfortunately Centrino cards aren't on the supported list yet, they would make for an interesting evaluation target to use this kind of technology in a sort of mesh wireless network.
Thanks, Microsoft (geez I still feel wierd saying that....)
Why should you feel weird saying that? I say it all the time. Oh wait, I normally say it sarcastically.
While I'm a linux fan, if the summary is accurate, you're comment is off-base.
Layer 3 aliasing is not the same thing as multiple physical/radio connections. If anything it's more like channel bonding than aliasing.
That said, I don't know how useful this would be. I mean for a windows box it is. I could see the usefulness of this for a repeater but in such cases I'd just use linux and save the license fees.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
You could use it to share a WLAN with a second computer/PDA/whatever, which can't connect directly... either because it's too far away, or isn't allowed (hasn't paid, not part of the company or simply blocked because some idiot login-requirements forcing people to use IE).
perl -e'print$_{$_} for sort%_=`lynx -dump svanstrom.com/t`'
Yep, at the tender age of five, Linus Torvalds conceived a method by which to clone network interfaces in the, as of yet, nonexistent Linux kernel.
At the moment, wireless AP's don't have to worry about frequent switching.
But if everyone and their brother started using these things, suddenly a given AP is going to have to deal with a huge amount of hookup requests.
Now admittedly I don't know much about the guts of an AP, and how limited their processing ability is (apart from bandwidth)... but this certainly isn't what they were designed for. I would be surprised if they could handle this kind of abuse from multiple users.
Or am I completely off base?
I'm really only interested if I can bond the two connections together and stea^H^H^H^H borrow twice as much bandwidth.
come on, this software isn't even anywhere near actual release. Give the guy a break. It doesn't come with a gui and the ability to check mail yet either.
Check out my sysadmin blog!