Unfinished Windows 7 Feature Turns Laptops Into Wi-Fi Hotspots

[a in yul]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/18104...ml?tk=rss_news

Philadelphia developer has rooted out an unfinished feature of Windows 7 that turns any laptop into a wireless access point, allowing other Wi-Fi-enabled devices to share the connection without special software.

Nomadio, which specializes in military network consulting and development, used the new "Virtual Wi-Fi" feature in Windows 7 to create Connectify, a free application that it released as a beta last Friday.

Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted in Microsoft's research group as a way to "virtualize" one wireless card as several separate adapters. The project was discontinued in 2006, but the work made its way into Windows 7 as "Native 802.11 Virtual Wireless Fidelity (Virtual Wi-Fi) object identifiers (OIDs)" .

"A year ago, Microsoft talked a lot about this as a big feature in Windows 7," said Alex Gizis, the CEO of Nomadio. "But driver support didn't get finished. The low-level code is in there, but the driver-level stuff isn't. And there's no app or setting in Windows to turn it on."

Explaining that the feature was "half there" in Windows 7, Gizis said his company realized "we have the rest of the software here, in our networking work."

The resulting Connectify differs from the Internet connection sharing that Windows already supports via an "ad hoc" network connection, which lets several Windows computers share a single connection. "For one thing, it shows up as a real wireless access point," Gizis said. "Two, Internet connection sharing has issues. It returns to the default settings every time you shut down a connection. And three, you can join another wireless network and still run the Connectify Hotspot on the same Wi-Fi card."

One application came immediately to mind, Gizis continued. "You're sitting in a coffee shop that charges you for a wireless connection. With Connectify, I can pay for that connection, and still have all my other devices, like my iPhone, connected to the Internet."

Connectify lets a Windows 7 laptop "tether" other wireless devices to a single Internet connection by effectively turning that PC into a software-based wireless router, added Gizis. "We've done a lot of military networking, including a lot of mesh networks," he said, "where special routers connect to each other." That technique, he said, was ideal for keeping in-the-field troops connected to the Internet.

Gizis has used his Connectify-equipped Windows 7 laptop as a wireless access point for his Apple iPhone, for example, and to provide a wireless connection to multiple PCs when only one Ethernet jack was available.

"There are a lot of neat scenarios where this comes in handy," he said. "For example, people can use a wireless printer without any setup, which usually requires that you first plug the [wireless] printer into the computer with a USB cable so it can select the network."

Although the Connectify beta is free to download, Gizis said that Nomadio would likely pin a price on the final, full-featured version when that's ready to release in about six weeks. "I think we'll end up with two-tier model, one that's free, potentially ad-supported, and then sell a full version," said Gizis.

Windows 7 is required on the notebook acting as a wireless hotspot, but any wireless-equipped device, including PCs running Windows XP or Vista, or even Mac laptops, can reach the Web through Connectify without any additional software. Connectify also encrypts the traffic to and from the software "hot spot" using WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption.

The beta of Connectify can be downloaded from Nomadio's Web site.

Apple's Mac OS X already offers a similar feature under the "Internet Sharing" preferences setting.

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[Nettles]

In English please. So this is a possible security loophole?

[gilboman]

In English please. So this is a possible security loophole?

what good is english if you don't know how to read

[a in yul]

NOT a security hole; this allows those with windows 7 to generate a hotspot WITHOUT a router..!

ie coffeeshop, airport, home, etc etc....

[Tig]

Sure it's a possible security hole. The coffee shop is one example. Another scenario is if your company configures your laptop to connect to its wireless network. If your laptop is turned into a WAP then other unapproved devices might be able to connect to that network as well.

Granted, they would need to authenticate against the lan first...

[a in yul]

i quickly skimmed the article and from what i read similar to a router u need to ok the connection, similar to a key or password i believe.

[Oversized Rooster]

That's cool - in essence your machine will act as the router!

[Nettles]

BUT I get the feeling that a lot of people might have this feature on without possibly knowing.

[FlyingSoLow]

BUT I get the feeling that a lot of people might have this feature on without possibly knowing.

"But driver support didn't get finished. The low-level code is in there, but the driver-level stuff isn't. And there's no app or setting in Windows to turn it on."

...it doesn't exist...yet

[a in yul]

http://lifehacker.com/5369381/turn-y...reless-hotspot


Everybody's got a wireless network at home, but if you've ever wanted to get your iPod touch, iPhone, or other wireless device connected, but all you've got is a wired network at work, school, or elsewhere, Windows 7 makes this process trivial.

Not using Windows 7 yet? You can accomplish the same thing in Windows Vista, XP, and even OS X—the Windows Vista method is almost identical to Windows 7, but XP requires a few more steps.

Before we begin, you should make sure that you've got a laptop or desktop with a wireless card that isn't currently connected—if your laptop is connected to the wired network, your wireless card should be free, and we can use it to allow access to the internet. Note that you have to be plugged into a wired connection in order to share the connection wirelessly with others, or have a second wireless card. Readers should also note that this won't work on (some) work networks that use group policies to enforce TPS report cover sheet boredom and prevent you from having any fun at all.

You'll want to start out by heading into the Network and Sharing Center through the Control Panel, or you can quickly get to it by right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray. Once you are there, find the link for "Set up a new connection or network".
You'll be prompted with a wizard that allows you to connect to VPNs, dial-up, or create a new ad hoc wireless network, which is what we want to do. You can easily use an ad hoc network to share files back and forth between two computers, but today we'll be using it for sharing the internet connection.

You'll need to give your network a name and choose some security options—remember that WEP is extremely easy to crack—and you'll want to make sure to use at least a decent sized key even for WPA2. The really important option on this page is to remember to check the box for "Save this network".


At this point your ad hoc network should be running and ready to start connecting your devices, but you'll want to hold off just a minute.

You'll notice that the ad hoc networks that you create get added to the quick-select wireless network list—when you disconnect from your ad hoc network, it's the same as stopping it. Connecting to the network is the same as starting it back up; this way you can quickly switch back and forth between connections with just a few clicks.

The last step is enabling connection sharing through your regular network card, which will allow anybody connected to your ad hoc wireless to use your internet connection. To do so, you'll want to head into the Network and Sharing Center, click the "Change adapter settings" link on the left, and then find your network connection in the list—it's very important that you only enable internet connection sharing on the adapter that is actually connected to the internet. In this case, my internet access at work goes through my Local Area Connection, so I've enabled it there.

At this point, you should be able to connect any wireless device to your new ad hoc network and access the internet, or even share files directly with your laptop.

[hugh_da_man]

BUT I get the feeling that a lot of people might have this feature on without possibly knowing.

No, they can't. Read the article.

[JLee]

Almost everywhere you NEED internet has wireless, unfortunately =(

[gilboman]

No, they can't. Read the article.

He doesn't know how