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Unfinished Windows 7 Hotspot Feature Exploited
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:54 AM
from the vestigial-tail dept.
from the vestigial-tail dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Engadget: "It wasn't all that long ago that Microsoft was talking up the Virtual WiFi feature developed by Microsoft Research and set for inclusion in Windows 7, but something got lost along the road to release day, and the functionality never officially made it into the OS. As you might expect with anything as big and complicated as an operating system though, some of that code did make it into the final release, and there was apparently enough of it for the folks at Nomadio to exploit into a full fledged feature. That's now become Connectify, a free application from the company that effectively turns any Windows 7 computer into a virtual WiFi hotspot — letting you, for instance, wirelessly tether a number of devices to your laptop at location where only an Ethernet jack is available, or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that charges for WiFi."
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Submission: Unfinished Windows 7 feature exploited by Anonymous Coward
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It'll be gone shortly (Score:3, Interesting)
Bloat... (Score:5, Funny)
Not surprising really. The secret formula for CokeCola is probably hidden in there too.
I wonder how many 'libraries of congress' could fit in the space occupied by unused but deployed windows code.
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You non-haters need to start hating more.
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And if Microsoft and Windows are one of your biggest concerns in the World, you really need to get a grip and a life.
Where does feeling compelled to pontificate about personal philosophy on the internet fit in on that scale?
Stealing (Score:5, Funny)
or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that charges for WiFi
That coffee shop has to pay for its connection, and bandwidth is a limited resource. Is Engadget going to instruct us on how to distract the employees while you pour free coffee into your thermos too?
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Low tech solution. Show em yer boobies.
If they are man boobies, it might even work better as a distraction, but the lawsuit for emotional scarring will probably be more than the cup o coffee.
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or even tether a number of laptops together at a coffee shop that charges for WiFi
That coffee shop has to pay for its connection, and bandwidth is a limited resource. Is Engadget going to instruct us on how to distract the employees while you pour free coffee into your thermos too?
Don't be silly - Engadget would never support you distracting an employee to steal coffee! The review for the device that distracts the employee for you is due any moment now, though.
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Bandwidth isn't the only limited resource. Physical space is a limited resource.
That "overpriced" coffee includes the rent for the space (resources) you take up. If the place is charging for WiFi then it is because too many people were ordering a single small coffee of the day and then plunking themselves down for the day with their laptop and not ordering anything else.
If you like the coffee house enough to go there and make use of its services you should also be willing to pay for them. Really good coffee
Re:Stealing (Score:4, Insightful)
"Um, if the coffee house let you use wifi all day after purchasing a single item, what is wrong with taking advantage of that? The coffee house goes under? So what, it was a bad business plan then and should be left to die."
This is why we can't have nice things.
"Ya right, like corportations aren't trying to screw you out of every cent possible either. Turn about is fair play you know."
Not every business is a soulless corporation... Though behavior like that will be sure to leave the big corps as the only ones left standing.
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Clearing the Static (Score:3, Informative)
One a
Re:Stealing (Score:5, Insightful)
Is Engadget going to instruct us on how to distract the employees while you pour free coffee into your thermos too?
Hrm... Bad analogy.
The Cofeeshop already sold you the coffee (bandwidth) by the temporary key and you are simply pouring it in someone else's cup free of charge by running windows 7.
Another bad analogy. Okay, my turn to play the silly moral analogy game...
This is more akin to visiting a place that gives free refills, and you constantly pouring it in someone else's cup, then doing the same for all your friends, in the process using far more coffee than you would reasonably have drunk yourself. You know damn well that wasn't the deal that was being offered. (*)
You're ultimately gaming the system- regardless of what "agreement" you think you have with them, it's probably against the spirit of the deal. Doing this type of thing with (e.g.) small businesses that aren't too assholish is ultimately what forces them to include irritating small-print restrictions on such services which I'm willing to bet people would be the first to whine about.
(*) Please *don't* say "that was the agreement I get an hour's free Internet with my $1.50 coffee, it's mine, I can do what I like with it, their bad business model isn't my problem". There probably wasn't an "agreement" in that much detail- lots of thing in a given society function on implicit understanding of how they work (e.g. you don't get arrested for trespassing if you enter some random shop because any reasonable person would say that's how shops work). Or they may well have some small print in some terms and conditions that you (understandably) didn't want to read before you took up their offer. Or whatever... even if it was "legal", see the final paragraph above.
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Does it work with any wifi card?? (Score:2, Interesting)
I read the article and it does not make clear if it will work with any card.
I ask this because I was looking to do this some time ago (I want to connect my DS and Wii to internet using my existing PC as an access point) and, although there was some software (now discontinued) that allowed you to do that on WIndows, and on Linux you had to spend your time with ifconfig and whatnot (it was never clear for me, but the first step was to change your wifi card to AP mode).
Thus I wonder if this Vista feature would
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Standard functionality... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Standard functionality... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, you can do virtual access points with the Mad WiFi drivers, but I'm not aware of any other drivers that support that. I use this to have my Linux home server provide both a public open network and a private encrypted network with a single physical wireless card.
But it's certainly not standard functionality, or I could have used any supported WiFi card and not be tied to a specific driver.
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Direct Link to Download (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Direct Link to Download (Score:4, Informative)
Offtopic I know, but your sig, really ...
There is a bottle of Coca Cola on my computer desk. There is a 7-month old puppy sitting by my side.
The fact that the bottle of Coca Cola is on my desk *is* informative. Who's the source, the fucking dog ?
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"Virtual" hotspot? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:"Virtual" hotspot? (Score:5, Funny)
"2.0" could be added as a suffix, if it used Javascript.
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Been around since 2005 (Score:5, Informative)
So this feature was created by Microsoft Research back in 2005, and has been available for download ever since: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/994abd5f-53d1-4dba-a9d8-8ba1dcccead7/ [microsoft.com]
I fail to see how this is news, they included it by default in Win 7 and someone accessed it, yay. This has been doable for 4 years...
Re:Been around since 2005 (Score:4, Funny)
I fail to see how this is news, they included it by default in Win 7 and someone accessed it, yay. This has been doable for 4 years...
Someone created a free download that put a GUI on the feature that just about any user can figure out... that makes it news.
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Re:Wow (Score:4, Informative)
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Is there a package and UI that supports this, or are you referring to setting up the interface as ad-hoc and turning on IP-forwarding?
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Yes. You can do this with wicd [sourceforge.net]
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
No, ICS sets up an ad-hoc network. This sets the card into master mode *while simultaneously allowing you to send and recieve on another network*.
It really is pretty cool
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That is if you can get Wi-Fi working on it of course.
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Connectify lets a Windows 7 laptop "tether" other wireless devices to a single Internet connection by effectively turning that PC into a software-based wireless router, added Gizis.
Serious question: can you do this easily with linux? I mean with only one wireless NIC.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
This is not an exploit as in a vulnerability, this is exploiting a feature in the sense of taking advantage of and using it. The story is just that Microsoft released the OS without doing this themselves. It's entirely possible that Microsoft intended to release something down the road that enabled all of this, so it may make sense to ship the OS with most of the base code so that it doesn't need to be downloaded again later.
According to TFA the lower-level implementation code was there, but the driver-level code had not been finished because of an apparent lack of driver support. The company who finished this feature says that they realized that they already had all of the needed code in their other networking products.
But, let's be serious, you just wanted to write "M$", didn't you?
Parent
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
It appears the UI isn't in Windows 7, but the feature is definitely there. If you have Windows 7 with a recent WiFi driver (virtual WLAN support is required for Win7 logo program), just type "netsh wlan start hostednetwork" and it'll create the virtual WLAN. Type "netsh wlan set hostednetwork" to see the options for SSID, passphrase, etc. The documentation for this is on MSDN [microsoft.com].
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You have to type cryptic commands into a terminal? Windows isn't ready for the desktop.
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Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
It does indeed show up as an access point.
On OS X itself (that is set up this way) the Airport icon changes into a base station icon with an arrow to show you the card is running in AP mode instead of ad-hoc wireless network (which is a different icon again) or normal wireless client mode.
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Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
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Why do you need EVDO Broadband to connect with a guy in the back of the bus?
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Why do you need EVDO Broadband to connect with a guy in the back of the bus?
because you missed it and had to catch the next one?
Parent
Re:Wow (Score:4, Informative)
It's better than ICS, the host laptop shows up as an access point that the other laptops can connect to (in my experience, connecting to an access point is quite a lot easier than setting up an ad hoc network).
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Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah but when you do you cannot connect to another hotspot anymore. And that's what this is about. And this is currently not possible in OSX, and probably not in OS9 (I cannot check that).
Parent
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
This isn't even remotely ad-hoc networking. This is turning a regular computer into an access point. You can also connect to one wireless network, then set yourself up as an access point to that network, which normally would require two separate network cards.
Mods, please RTFS. People saying "Ad-hoc has been around for years" and similar keep getting all the mod points, even though they're completely missing the point. Apple has something like this since Leopard, not anytime before like everyone here keeps mentioning.
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Re:just like.. internet sharing (Score:4, Informative)
No. OSX does not allow you to use a single wireless card for both 1) connecting to a wireless network, and 2) broadcasting itself as a hotspot.
Windows has had Internet Sharing since the 90's (oh dear, did Apple not invent that feature?!). The new feature here is virtualizing the wireless card so it behaves as though it's two wireless cards. Try that on any version of OSX and let me know how it goes.
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Re:just like.. internet sharing (Score:5, Informative)
Is that similar to the Internet Connection Sharing that Windows has had since (at least) Windows 95?
Yes and no, Windows ICS is only DHCP/NAT software. OSX Internet Sharing also allows you to configure your Wifi card into access point mode. Connectify is promising to allow you to run Windows wifi cards in access-point mode WHILE using it in regular structured mode... which seems like a dubious claim. The makers of Connectify haven't yet listed which cards they are going to support.
In short
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Re:Can someone please tell me.. (Score:4, Funny)
Time zone differences?
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Re:Internet sharing? (Score:5, Informative)
What is the difference between this and creating an ad-hoc network and enabling internet connection sharing for the physical port in Vista (and XP, and OS X, and Linux)?
It's an actual access point, not an ad hoc network. My Android Dev Phone 1(which does not support connecting to ad hoc networks) can connect to it.
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Re:Hey Frank remember this? (Score:5, Funny)
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