Connectify: Turn Your Windows 7 Laptop Into A Virtual Hotspot

Virtual Wi-Fi was going to be a cool Windows 7 feature to turn PCs into a Wi-Fi access-point, so devices could share a connection without special software. It missed the cut, but this free app finishes the work Microsoft abandoned.

Some of the code that Microsoft Research used to virtualise one Wi-Fi card as several adaptors still made its way into Windows 7′s underpinnings. Connectify completes the job.

The result is a shared connection that differs to the usual “ad hoc” network connection, because it shows up as a real access point, reverts to default settings each time you restart, and you can join a Wi-Fi network and run the Connectify hotspot on the same Wi-Fi card. Traffic can also be encrypted using WPA-2 Personal (AES).

“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.”

If you want to give it a try, the beta of Connectify is currently a free download. Check it out at: [Connectify via PC World]