Wireless Local Area Networks are wireless connections and can be substantially of two types. The first Wlan network is the typical one where all devices, computers, cell phones and consoles, can connect to the internet via a router.
The second model of Wlant is the one that can be established without using a router, with an ad hoc network where the devices are directly connected to each other.
In one case or another, to connect to the internet, you must obviously have access to the external network by paying a provider such as Telecom or Fastweb.
In the first case the router goes between the modem of the provider and the computers, in the second case it is one of the computers that acts almost as a router.
In another post you can read the guide to create an ad hoc network to share the internet from one PC to others.
In this case we see instead use the computer as a router or hotspot, which is possible with Windows 7 and Windows 8, through the integrated functionality and a little Virtual Router to create an access point with which to make all the other PCs or mobile phones go on the Internet in wifi network.
Before Windows 7, a wireless network interface (which can also be a USB stick) in Windows could be used in ad hoc mode or to connect to a wifi network.
Furthermore, for each wifi connection, only one wireless network could correspond and it was not possible to connect to two networks at the same time.
In Windows 8 and Windows 7 instead, going to Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change card setting, you will notice, if there is a wifi network interface, there is also a wireless connection 2, called Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter that allows you to turn your pc into a virtual router.
On Windows 7 and 8, the IEEE 802.11 network card will be seen as two, one real and one virtual.
The virtual card can be configured separately from the real one and allows you to connect to different wireless networks, at the same time, on a single physical network card.
Even if, until now, you have not understood anything, all this leads us to the objective, simple and clear, object of this article: to create a wifi hotspot, protected with WPA2-PSK, with the computer in order to connect to the internet by others PC, from cell phones with wifi connectivity, from iPhone and from Android smartphones (which do not support ad hoc connection), without using a real router .
In addition, with virtual wifi, the computer can function as a repeater and increase signal coverage.
If, in a house, the wifi radio signal does not reach all the rooms, one of the computers can be used as an additional hotspot to share the internet.
Another possible use is the ability to connect multiple computers wirelessly, perhaps to play on the network and still remain connected to the internet, via the real network.
The only drawback is that, to connect this virtual wifi network, you need to act, only the first time, manually because, as you can see, by right-clicking on the connection to Microsoft Virtual Wifi miniport adapter, there is no connect button.
The procedure to activate the so-called " Hosted Network " is very easy:
First of all, enable the hosted network card by going to the network connections ( Control Panel \ Network and Internet \ Network Connections ) and pressing it with the right button.
If the hosted or virtual network card is not visible, enter the services (type services.msc in the search box of the start menu) and activate the service: WLAN automatic configuration
Then open a command prompt with administrator privileges (From the Start menu -> Search -> Command Prompt ) and write (you can copy and paste):
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode = allow ssid = key name = password keyUsage = persistent
The name can be anything, the key is the password.
Write below: netsh wlan start hostednetwork
The network will now be active.
If it doesn't work, check if the network card driver supports the hosted network with the command netsh wlan show drivers
If the hosted network cannot be started, make sure that the virtual adapter driver is active in the Windows device manager (Control Panel -> System).
From now on, you can manually configure the IP address by clicking on the virtual network icon -> properties -> TCP / IP v4 -> set:
On the main PC: IP: 192.168.2.1 and Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
On the other computers IP: 192.168.2.X (the X with a number from 2 to 255), Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0, Gateway: 192.168.2.1, DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (they are the Google DNS and they should work for everyone).
Then go to the properties of the network that instead allows you to connect to the internet, (it can be the wired ethernet network or the real wifi) and share the internet on this wireless network 2 .
The computer has now become an access point with WPA2 encryption .
To connect, the next times, to the virtual network Hostednetwrok, just create a new shortcut on the desktop and give, as destination, the following line: netsh wlan start hostednetwork
To end the connection of the hosted network, on the other hand, you can create a second connection and give the following command: netsh wlan stop hostednetwork .
Creating an access point from your computer can also be done, almost automatically and without most of these steps, with some with programs to create a wireless hotspot with Windows 7 .
Let's finally say goodbye to the fragile and unstable ad hoc connections in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
