Windows 7 Virtual WiFi lets you connect to multiple hotspots
Microsoft has been developing Virtual-WiFi or VWiFi technology since 2002 and is including this as a feature of Windows 7. According to Long Zheng, this feature has been in Windows 7 for quite a while but insufficient drivers have made it impossible for anyone to discover this feature on their own.
VWiFi will allow hardware adapters to act as separate WiFi adapters, thus giving the computer the ability to connect to multiple hotspots simultaneously. One of the most useful things you could do with VWiFi is to connect to a WiFi hotspot and also share the connection simultaneously with other laptops. This would definitely come in handy when dealing with paid WiFi hotspots. VWiFi also opens up the opportunity to create mesh networks.
We’ve yet to see this feature in action due to a lack of driver support. But the good news is that it will soon be a requirement for all WLAN drivers under the Windows 7 certification logo to support Virtual WiFi. The feature should automatically be activated once supported by the driver:
On Windows 7 and later, the operating system installs a virtual device if a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is present on the machine. This virtual device normally shows up in the “Network Connections Folder” as ‘Wireless Network Connection 2’ with a Device Name of ‘Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter’ if the computer has a single wireless network adapter. This virtual device is used exclusively for performing software access point (SoftAP) connections [...]. The lifetime of this virtual device is tied to the physical wireless adapter. If the physical wireless adapter is disabled, this virtual device will be removed as well
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Tags: virtual wifi, windows 7, windows 7 virtual wifi, windows 7 vwifi
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9 Responses to “Windows 7 Virtual WiFi lets you connect to multiple hotspots”
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What is driver requirement?
They haven’t released them yet
Wow, that’s one real cool thing. Normally when i wanted to share a cabled internet connection, it was easy as i could just create a bridge between wired and wireless adapters, but it wasn’t possible to share a wireless connection because the adapter was already in use.
This virtual wi-fi will come in really handy…
ABCK, btw, driver requirement (in my opinion) would be a specific function delivered by the driver in order to make the physical adapter to work under certain circumstances.
Please, anyone correct me if i’m wrong.
I’m not too informed of the specifics but it’s similar to how Virtual OS works. Check out Long Zheng’s write-up here:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090516/windows-7-native-virtual-wifi-technology-microsoft-research/
I think this idea sux.
First off, it is a huge security hole.
’nuff said. (like windows needs another.)
Secondly, who cares? Why would I want to connect to an AP network WHILE I am connected to an Ad-Hoc network. I do not use Ad-Hoc now, why would I use it this way?
You are only allowed to have one extra virtual interface so why all the hubub?
Based on the security problem alone I give this a 1 on a scale of 1-10
[...] Windows 7 Virtual WiFi lets you connect to multiple hotspots – VWiFi will allow hardware adapters to act as separate WiFi adapters, thus giving the computer the ability to connect to multiple hotspots simultaneously. One of the most useful things you could do with VWiFi is to connect to a WiFi hotspot and also share the connection simultaneously with other laptops. via @windows7center on Twitter [...]
[...] Windows 7 Virtual WiFi lets you connect to multiple hotspots Microsoft has been developing Virtual-WiFi or VWiFi technology since 2002 and is including this as… [...]
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