Unfinished Windows 7 Hotspot Feature Exploited

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Engadget: "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 charges for WiFi."

Comments

It'll be gone shortly

[KeithH]

If these are undocumented APIs, then you can bet that they'll be removed or otherwise disabled in the first service pack.

big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

I can do this with my HTC phone and don't even need to find an ethernet port to do it.

Does it work with any wifi card??

[xtracto]

I read the article and it does not make clear if it will work with any card.

I ask this because I was looking to do this some time ago (I want to connect my DS and Wii to internet using my existing PC as an access point) and, although there was some software (now discontinued) that allowed you to do that on WIndows, and on Linux you had to spend your time with ifconfig and whatnot (it was never clear for me, but the first step was to change your wifi card to AP mode).

Thus I wonder if this Vista feature would make it possible use the computer as an AP with all types of wireless cards.

"Virtual" hotspot?

[Captain_Chaos]

Why a "virtual" hotspot? What's virtual about it? If this turns a Windows PC into a Wi-Fi access point, then surely that's a hotspot plain and simple?

Re:Bloat...

[jazzduck]

And if Microsoft and Windows are one of your biggest concerns in the World, you really need to get a grip and a life.

I dunno, I think that if Windows is your biggest concern, you've clearly figured out all the other more important aspects of life, and therefore you've probably got a better grip on the world.

;-)