Developer uses Windows 7 feature to turn laptops into WiFi hotspots

Nomadio has discovered a partly finished feature in Windows 7 that can turn a laptop into a wireless access point.

Nomadio said it used the new [1]"Virtual WiFi" feature in Windows 7 to create a free application called Connectify that enabled other devices to share the connection without special software. Nomadio has released a beta of the application that can be downloaded from the company's website [1].

The Virtual WiFi feature was created within Microsoft's research group as a way to virtualize a single wireless card as many separate adapters. The effort ended in 2006 but some of the developments became part of Windows 7 as "Native 802.11 Virtual Wireless Fidelity (Virtual Wi-Fi) object identifiers (OIDs)."

But there is no driver support or app for the feature, which is why Nomadio created an application. Using the application, users can tether other wireless devices to their single Internet connection by turning their laptop into a software-based wireless router.

For more:
- check out this TechWorld article [2]

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