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

Stealing

[Reason58]

or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that charges for WiFi

That coffee shop has to pay for its connection, and bandwidth is a limited resource. Is Engadget going to instruct us on how to distract the employees while you pour free coffee into your thermos too?

Re:Stealing

[Dogtanian]

Is Engadget going to instruct us on how to distract the employees while you pour free coffee into your thermos too?

Hrm... Bad analogy.

The Cofeeshop already sold you the coffee (bandwidth) by the temporary key and you are simply pouring it in someone else's cup free of charge by running windows 7.

Another bad analogy. Okay, my turn to play the silly moral analogy game...

This is more akin to visiting a place that gives free refills, and you constantly pouring it in someone else's cup, then doing the same for all your friends, in the process using far more coffee than you would reasonably have drunk yourself. You know damn well that wasn't the deal that was being offered. (*)

You're ultimately gaming the system- regardless of what "agreement" you think you have with them, it's probably against the spirit of the deal. Doing this type of thing with (e.g.) small businesses that aren't too assholish is ultimately what forces them to include irritating small-print restrictions on such services which I'm willing to bet people would be the first to whine about.

(*) Please *don't* say "that was the agreement I get an hour's free Internet with my $1.50 coffee, it's mine, I can do what I like with it, their bad business model isn't my problem". There probably wasn't an "agreement" in that much detail- lots of thing in a given society function on implicit understanding of how they work (e.g. you don't get arrested for trespassing if you enter some random shop because any reasonable person would say that's how shops work). Or they may well have some small print in some terms and conditions that you (understandably) didn't want to read before you took up their offer. Or whatever... even if it was "legal", see the final paragraph above.

Re:just like.. internet sharing

[gabebear]

Is that similar to the Internet Connection Sharing that Windows has had since (at least) Windows 95?

Yes and no, Windows ICS is only DHCP/NAT software. OSX Internet Sharing also allows you to configure your Wifi card into access point mode. Connectify is promising to allow you to run Windows wifi cards in access-point mode WHILE using it in regular structured mode... which seems like a dubious claim. The makers of Connectify haven't yet listed which cards they are going to support.

In short

• Windows ICS is just a simple DHCP and NAT server
• OSX IS is a simple DHCP and NAT server, plus access-point mode supporting WEP
• Connectify claims to be a DHCP and NAT server, plus access-point mode supporting WPA, plus structured mode

Re:Wow

[gbjbaanb]

Why do you need EVDO Broadband to connect with a guy in the back of the bus?

because you missed it and had to catch the next one?

Re:Wow

[CrashNBrn]

From TFA (reformatting/emphasis mine):

The resulting Connectify differs from ICS that Windows already supports via an "ad hoc" network connection, which lets several Windows computers share a single connection.
1) It shows up as a real wireless access point.
2) ICS returns to default settings every time you shut down a connection.
3) You can join another wireless network and still run the Connectify Hotspot on the same Wi-Fi card.

Re:Wow

[jo_ham]

It does indeed show up as an access point.

On OS X itself (that is set up this way) the Airport icon changes into a base station icon with an arrow to show you the card is running in AP mode instead of ad-hoc wireless network (which is a different icon again) or normal wireless client mode.

Re:Hey Frank remember this?

[Anonymous Coward]

you know, when I hear of a windows feature being "exploited" the utilization of a useful feature is not what comes to mind.

Re:"Virtual" hotspot?

[Toonol]

"Virtual" because it's on a computer, duh. "Cyber" would be an acceptable alternative prefix.

"2.0" could be added as a suffix, if it used Javascript.

Re:Wow

[blackraven14250]

This isn't even remotely ad-hoc networking. This is turning a regular computer into an access point. You can also connect to one wireless network, then set yourself up as an access point to that network, which normally would require two separate network cards.

Mods, please RTFS. People saying "Ad-hoc has been around for years" and similar keep getting all the mod points, even though they're completely missing the point. Apple has something like this since Leopard, not anytime before like everyone here keeps mentioning.

Been around since 2005

[modemboy]

So this feature was created by Microsoft Research back in 2005, and has been available for download ever since: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/994abd5f-53d1-4dba-a9d8-8ba1dcccead7/

I fail to see how this is news, they included it by default in Win 7 and someone accessed it, yay. This has been doable for 4 years...