If you have a reasonably new laptop with an Intel WiFi chipset then I have some good news. A set of new Intel WiFi drivers made available just a couple weeks ago, version 13.0.0.107 if you’re playing along, finally adds the necessary driver-level support for the new native Virtual WiFi technology in Windows 7.
After downloading and installing the drivers (32-bit here, 64-bit here), assuming your WiFi chipset supports the functionality (which I can verify the 5300 can but 3945 cannot), a new “Wireless Network Connection” with the adapter name “Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport” will automatically appear in your network connections.
Recently, the internet has been abuzz with a new software called Connectify which interacts with this Windows 7 Virtual WiFi technology, but it appears their intention is to sell this application once its finalized. Personally I find it ludicrous that someone would charge for what is essential a wrapper to some functionality already baked into Windows.
To set up and use Virtual WiFi in Windows 7, without paying a buck, just follow these three simple steps:
- Open an elevated command line with administrative privileges and type
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Test key=password
replacing the name and password with your own preference. - Start the adapter by
netsh wlan start hostednetwork - Share an existing connection to it by going to the “Properties” of a connection, selecting the “Sharing” tab and enabling ICS and choosing the corresponding Virtual WiFi adapter.
Of course this functionality isn’t that useful day-to-day, but a powerful usage scenario for this internet sharing functionality via Virtual WiFi will be when you’re at an airport or hotel which limits your connection to a single wireless adapter. Not only would this save you playing switcheroo with the hotspot, but it might also save you paying for multiple connections if you’re traveling with somebody else.
10 Comments
Texnomic
I think Connectify used the lake of easy UI for this feature as a weak point in Window. We can’t blame them for doing what Microsoft should have done to make this great feature more “Visual” other than showing a VWiFi Adapter in Connection Manager. CMD is not user friendly at all, Only IT Admins & Geeks can use it in a right way.
_||_
FYI, I posted on this on Nov 3rd on my blog:
http://lituuslimacon.blogspot.com/2009/11/connectify-you-windows-7-pc- for-free.html
But I had been using it to sync and make purchases from my Zune by connecting to my PC (HP tx2 w Realtek card) via the “hostednetwork” since a month or so.
Not asking for credit, since this is publicly accessible info from MSDN. Just an FYI.
Fred
“It might also save you paying for multiple connections if you’re traveling with somebody else.”
This is -exactly- why public hotspots will start blocking this behaviour somehow within the next six months or so, and render the feature next to useless.
Long Zheng
@Fred: I don’t think its possible to block this behavior since everything is client-side.
Damian Esteves
Thanks for this! I’ve just got it working on my Atheros (not Intel) wireless card.
8675309
i doubt they will bother since its not setup by default
bb10
5100 supports this too.
Leyond
I am just wondering How can I use virtual wifi adapter to connect another new wireless network? not just only share your internet to others
David Carr
4965 doesn’t appear to work. I presume that us with 3965 and 4965 chipsets are out of luck, even though these are fairly recent chipsets. It’s a shame that cheaper third party chipsets can support this functionality yet these apparently can’t. I wonder if it really is a lack of a hardware feature or if it’s simply a choice by Intel not to allow it to happen.
8675309
seeing as hp just bought 3com i could see them making use of this.
dell i’m sure got this working seeing as they work closly with hardware manufactures
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