Windows 7 as a wireless access point

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.

To configure it use the Command Prompt as Administrator as shown in the figure below :

vwifi_1

For the first time use only, enter these command at the command prompt

c:\Windows\system32\>netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow "ssid=mynetwork" "key=mypassword" keyUsage=persistent

SSID is the public name of a wireless network.

Key is the passphrase for connecting to the network. (Make sure your key is a 8 to 63 Characters.)

This will create the required “Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter” and also set up your hostednetwork. You may now setup Internet Connection Sharing or Network Bridging for this newly found adapter. All this is onetime setting.

We now need to start the hosted network. At the command prompt enter the following with administrator credentials :

c:\Windows\system32\>netsh wlan start hostednetwork

Open properties windows of your Mobile Broadband Connection or whatever that connect you to internet and you are done.

To disconnect enter the following command

c:\Windows\system32\>netsh wlan stop hostednetwork

At last you need to reboot  the system and start your hosted network
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