Wednesday, June 5, 2013
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Turn Windows 8 Computers into a WiFi Hotspot

9:41 PM
Windows 7 introduced a new feature called Virtual WiFi Technology that basically lets you to turn your Windows 7 or 8 computers into a wireless hotspot without a 3rd party application. Even though the process looks quite cumbersome, see our step-by-step instruction here, this new technology does help the software vendors make the better 3rd party tools to not only simplify the process but also offer enhanced features. We’ve covered and recommended Connectify before, but here we are going to introduce another 7 alternatives for you.

MyPublicWiFi

MyPublicWifi is an easy-to-use software that turns your Windows laptop/pc into a wireless access point. You can use it for setting up a temporary wireless network that’s isolated from local area network. It also allows you to record and track all visited url pages. It’s completely free and works on systems that runs Windows 7 and 8, Server 2008 R2 and 2012 on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

Winhotspot

Stands for Windows Hotspot, Winhotspot is a free software WiFi hotspot which can be used anywhere anytime as long as you have Internet and Windows PC. It has a bandwidth meter built-in to monitor the usage as well as a separate tab that shows client IP and MAC addresses. It works on Windows 7 and 8 computers, both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

WiFi HotSpot VPN

WiFi HotSpot Creator turns your Windows PC into a WiFi Router for free. What’s different is that it works not only for Windows 7 and 8 computers but also on Windows XP and Vista as well. It’s built on .Net framework 4 so you will need to install it before using the software.

mHotspot

mHotspot is another freeware that turns your Windows 7 and 8 computers into a software Wireless Hotspot. It lets you connect up to 10 devices, in-app internet selection, see the details of the connected devices such as Name, IP and Mac addresses, check the network usage, etc.

VIRTUAL ROUTER PLUS

Virtual Router Plus is a free, portable open source project that acts like a virtual software router to turn any Windows PC to a wireless hotspot. It uses Windows Wireless Hosted Network technology to let users to wirelessly share any internet connection with any wife devices. It works on Windows 7 and above systems, including Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012, both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

Note that Virtual Router Plus is an open source project based on another open source called Virtual Router Manager.

Wi-Host

Wi-Host is a portable freeware that turns your Windows 7 and 8 PCs or laptops into a WiFi hotspot to share internet connection. It’s portable so you don’t have to install it before using it, but what you do need is to run it as Administrator by right-clicking the tool and choose “Run as Administrator” option. It’s a AskVG’s exclusive tool so you will find the link is actually a blog post. You can find the download link at the end of the post.

Connectify

Last, how can we end without mentioning Connectify again. It’s one of the earliest and simply one of the best. It offers a lite version that is free and a pro version that is feature rich but costs $40 lifetime or $25 annually. It also has an inspiring product called Dispatch that basically combines all available internet connections you have on a single computer to boost the overall internet speed as well as the reliability of internet surfing experience.

Conclusion

There are so many of them, so which one should I pick? All tools mentioned above use pretty much the same technology, and work the similar way. It’s hard to say what is the best. Otherwise I wouldn’t list them all here in this post.

You may also ask how secure it is to use these tool. Well, it seems to me that security isn’t a main concern here as they all provide the password protection. Besides, the hotspot you are creating based on these tool is just a temporary network that is only available in short period of time.

That’s it for now…happy hotspotting!

Note: If this Tutorial and News worked for you (and it should work), please leave a comment below. Thanks.

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