Didn't Toms already cover news of this 'feature'?
I remember reading an article about it, cause my first thought was 'Hey, now I can use the virtual wifi to conquer my apartment complex' various routers, and combine their connections to get better throughput :3

And three, you can join another wireless network and still run the Connectify Hotspot on the same Wi-Fi card.

This is the money maker here. Any laptop can now be used a signal extender, basically.

Possibly even more important, you don't need a wireless router if you have a desktop near the modem, just plug the modem directly into the PC, and boom, WiFi router.

just because its connected doesnt mean it emits a wireless signal. you need a wi-fi card to do that lol

It reminds me of software that enables people's wifi cards to connect to multiple wireless networks,and adhoc computers!

Didn't you need one network card for an 'adhoc' network, and one other to connect to the internet, or can you with one and the same card be connected to a wifi, while sending wifi signal to the pc/laptops?

How can someone discover something that was already discussed previously concerning Windows 7, not only here, but on other websites?

One 802.11 adapter (Built in or Wi-Fi card)
= 1 Wi-Fi adapter
+ 1 Virtual Wi-Fi Adapter which can act as an access point.

The only new thing here is the Connectify software from Nomadio.

HostAP (hostapd) is available for ages on penguins. m$ can't ever get something right, especially on established standards... Maybe only if they could impose a new "widely accepted standard" (about 85% of luser base)?

how much is the laptop?

MS will eventually sue him .. of course let him bring out the news.. hype it up.. make millions from sales.. so he can eventually bring it back to them .. then again.. they did create it.. this will be fun to keep track of.

DUDE this was released and talked about months ago in the RC Beta.
It was the big thing and if i remember the orginal article i read
said that all windows 7 new wifi adapters had to support mutiple
connections. It was to allow mesh networks. I forget what microsoft
calls the actual term. But Its on there knowledge base, and was on
the net months ago. Atleast 2 months ago.

Somehow I don't think they will, I cant think of any instance where they slapped a devloper for increasing the functionality of windows, after all they never stopped software like tweakUI, object desktop, mermory managers and other windows optimisation/customisation apps which tapped in to 'features' or code unavailable through the standard interface. Besides if the code was part of any sent as part of a developer kit then I dont think they even have recourse to.

how much is the laptop?

dude... are you even reading??????

dude... are you even reading??????

*forgot about the citation there

I wonder if this will be exploited to create a security vulnerability for people using WiFi and 7. Sitting there in a coffee shop and a hacker can exploit you through the hot spot hole.

hacking is going to be so great *.*

I saw it a disable it, and it did not affected the real connection

if others connect to the internet through your virtual wi-fi, can the data traffic be saved and looked at later on?

well, your desktop would need a wireless adapter...
might as well spend that money on a router so you dont have to have you pc on to use ur laptop.

You can do this in about three clicks in ubuntu linux. Although you may need to use the ethernet for the actual internet connection.

I'd be wary about lag when bouncing a signal using the same device like that anyway.

i have never seen a reasonable Linux fan in my life! what is wrong with you people?! why are so angry about microsoft?!!

what's the problem here? what is wrong about this news?! if you can, if you know anything about operating systems, please enlighten us!

Maybe because they got rid of the gamer/drm o$ idiosyncrasies, and are sick of wintarded m$ fankiddies... Microsuxx "networking" is a prime example.
Half a year ago, m$ marketingdroids, and media ad pu$hers, drummed about the wonderful new virtual Wi-Fi "feature, not a bug", as the latest and greatest achievement in $even's networking, to just drop it dead (apparently years ago, but magically resuscitated, and again left unfinished) in the final version of vi$hta sp2+lipstick.
"Since 2002, Microsoft Research has been exploring a fascinating idea to virtualize the WiFi adapter, turning a single piece of hardware and radio into virtually (pun) unlimited adapters. Years after the project was seemingly abandoned, it is now uncovered Virtual WiFi technology has been baked into the Windows 7 networking foundations."
There is no such blatant false advertising in the penguin world...
After you'll use a *nix system, you'll never ask stupid questions again.

It's pretty obvious you're just a Microsoft hater. I grew up with Unix and I'll stick with Windows now. I still use Unix, yes Unix not the bastardized child Linux incarnations, to play with but I'll stick with an OS that runs 100% of commercially available software natively. Most Linux fun boys are mainly just Microsoft haters. Ossie wasn't a glimmer is his daddy's eyes when I was using Unix. Come down off your soapbox and stop sounding like an idiot.

I concur ossie is a moron/hater. I have no practical use for this myself, in fact I am concerned at the potentials to exploit this feature.

couldn't this technology potentially make public wifi relatively cheap!?

This can be enabled pretty easily if you type cmd into run and then enter "netsh wlan help" and follow the on screen instructions. You need to enter "netsh wlan start hostednetwork" after every restart or you can create a simple bat file to run on startup to enable it everytime. I demonstrated this feature at my launch party. You are also able to choose your security key, encryption, and SSID like on a regular access point.

Yes. But is it requires a bit of understand to pull off correctly. Take wireshark for example. You could use that to basically pull of a Man in the middle attack with this pretty much anywhere.

I see HUGE security issues with this feature.....

What flavor? OS X? It's UNIX certified... if you didn't know (not that I would wonder).
Sorry to must inform you, but Linux is not the "bastardized child" of Unix, even if sco tried really hard, with a helpful ca$h load from microsuxx, to prove otherwise (if you wonder why m$ is so "popular" with penguins).
If your only use for an OS is "to play with", you'll better stick with the gamer/drm o$. It suits you best.


I'm wondering what magical OS that would be... even billy boy's marketingdroids wouldn't dare to claim such an absurdity.
Too much windblow$ dumbs down.


Almost all gamer/drm o$ lu$ers wouldn't have a hint, if there isn't a big button to push "next", "accept", "ok", or "finish". To create a MITM atack, or even a Wireshark/Ethereal (FOSS from the penguin world, a real horror for "100% commercial SW" purists) filter is way too much for them... But there are tools for script kiddies, that take it down, almost to the necessary level.
Given the historically great "achivements" of micro$uxx in the networking department, with it's schweitzer cheese security, it's much more than HUGE.

there are people out there who are praising MS for this because they would find this useful...
but i'm concerned with lags and limitations of the host computer... wouldn't it be handicapped? honest question here.

This post asks a good question but is at a -1
There are some real trolls and little kids on this site any more. I see posts that are fine getting negative tags, probably the little kids just hits every post to be a brat.

WOW ! angry Linux fanboy try to ask a simple question. still not reasonable. calling others "stupid" does not make you reasonable!

(by the way, for your information, this "microsuxx" (!) that you are talking about has over 93% of the world's OS market and your precious Linux less than 1% ! well, that's another example of you as a reasonable person!)

another thing, what do you do with your OS?!!

and what is this thing with "M$" or "O$"?! you mean you are funny, right?!! LOL, ha ha... whatever!!!

What makes me laugh about all this is that Unix was the flavor of hackers long before M$ servers became popular! Besides, Unix (linux, BSD-Unixes) is the operating system of the Internet.