A recent discussion with a client regarding communications problems on an iphone whilst travelling abroad led me to a solution for their particular requirement. Many of us would be familiar with Internet Connection Sharing and other forms of enabling devices to share a single internet connection. This client knows that they are going to be using a wired connection but they need a number of wireless devices to access the internet for the purposes of meetings. So given the client is using windows 7 – I started looking for something easy to use but functional enough for this user.
So luckily I tripped over Connectify. One download later and a quick naming of the SSID for my “Laptop Access Point” and setting the WPA2 key to something strong and I was browsing the web through the wired connection of my laptop from my phone. Does what it says on the tin!
The authors say …
Connectify is an easy to use software router for laptops and smart phones. With Connectify, users can wirelessly share any Internet connection: a cable modem, a cellular card, or even another Wi-Fi network. Other Wi-Fi enabled devices can see and join your Connectify hotspot just like any other Wi-Fi access point and are kept safe and secure by password-protected WPA2 Encryption.
- Take any Internet connection and share it wirelessly with no additional hardware, wires, plugs, or chargers
- Easily connect any number of Wi-Fi enabled devices to your network including desktop computers, laptops, phones, gaming systems, and more
The current release 2.1 lists the following enhancements
Version 2.2.0 – 2.2.0.18699 – March 10, 2011
- Updated look and feel
- Installer should no longer be incorrectly flagged by Microsoft Security Essentials
- Fixed Windows XP SP3 clients not receiving DNS addresses (caused by this Windows bug: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953761)
- Fixed handling of incorrect DNS NXDomain from some name servers
- Support for more VPN software (OpenVPN)
- Better memory and resource handling, especially while using UPnP
- More icons and names for vendors