How To Turn On Network Access Protection In Windows 7

 Introduction

Non many people are aware that Windows 7 has congenital-in capabilities that permit it to be transformed into a perfectly working access point so that wireless clients such as laptops, smartphones and others can connect to the local network or obtain Internet admission. Turning a Windows seven arrangement into an admission point is an extremely useful characteristic, especially when there is the need to connect other wireless devices to the Cyberspace with no access betoken available.

When Windows seven is configured to provide admission signal services, the operating system is fully functional and all arrangement resources keep to exist available to the user working on the organisation. In addition, the wireless network is encrypted using the WPA2 encryption algorithm.

Even though in that location are 3rd-political party applications that volition provide similar functionality, we believe this born characteristic is piece of cake to configure and works well enough to make users think twice before purchasing such applications.

Windows 8 & 8.1 users can visit our article Configuring Windows viii To Provide Secure Wireless Access Bespeak Services to Wi-Fi Clients - Turn Windows 8 into an Admission Point

Creating Your Windows vii Access Betoken

While there is no graphical interface that volition allow y'all magically to turn Windows seven into an admission signal, the configuration is performed via CLI using 1 single control. Nosotros should note that when turning a Windows seven station into a Wi-Fi access bespeak, it is necessary to ensure the station's wired network carte du jour (RJ45) is continued to the local network (LAN) and has Internet access. Wireless clients that connect to the Windows 7 AP will obtain Internet access via the workstation's wired LAN connectedness and will be located on a unlike subnet network.

To brainstorm, click on the Outset button and enter cmd.exe in the Search Programs and Files area every bit shown beneath:

Next, right click on cmd.exe and select Run equally administrator from the carte. This will open a DOS prompt with administrator privileges, necessary to execute the CLI command.

Equally mentioned earlier, a single control is required to create the Windows 7 access point and here it is:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork style=let "ssid=myssid"  "fundamental=mykey" keyUsage=persistent

The only parameters that volition need to change from the to a higher place command are the ssid and key parameters. All the residual can be left as is. The ssid parameter configures the ssid that will be broadcast by the Windows seven operating system, while the key parameter defines the WPA2-Personal primal (password) that the clients need to enter in order to connect to the Wi-Fi network.

Following is an example that creates a wireless network named Firewall.cx with a WPA2 password of $connect$here :

C:\Windows\system32> netsh wlan set hostednetwork way=allow "ssid=Firewall.cx" "fundamental=$connect$here" keyUsage=persistent

The hosted network style has been set to allow.

The SSID of the hosted network has been successfully changed.

The user key passphrase of the hosted network has been successfully changed.

C:\Windows\system32>

When executed, the above command creates the required Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter and will setup the hostednetwork. The new Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport adapter will exist visible in the Network Connections panel as shown below. In our example the adaptor is named Wireless Network Connection 2. Note that this is a one-time procedure and users will non demand to create the adaptor again:

Next step is to start the hosted wireless network. The command to start/finish the hostednetwork is netsh wlan start|terminate hostednetwork and needs to be run every bit administrator. Simply run the command in the same DOS prompt previously used:

C:\Windows\system32> netsh wlan start hostednetwork

The hosted network started.

C:\Windows\system32>

Notice how our Wireless Network Connection ii has inverse status and is now showing our configured SSID Firewall.cx:

To stop the hosted network, echo the to a higher place command with the terminate parameter:

C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan stop hostednetwork
The hosted network stopped.

Starting The WLAN via Shortcuts – Making Life Easy

Users who frequently use the above commands can apace create 2 shortcuts to start/stop the hosted network.

To help salvage time and problem, nosotros've created the 2 shortcuts and made them available for download in our Administrator Utilities Download Section.  Simply download them and unzip the shortcuts directly on the desktop:

Double-clicking on each shortcut will start or cease the hosted network. Users experiencing problems starting or stopping the hosted network can correct-click on the shortcuts and select Run as ambassador.

Enable Internet Connection Sharing  (ICS)

With our hosted network initiated, all that'south required is to enable Internet Connectedness Sharing on Windows seven. This will force our newly created hosted network (admission betoken) to provide Cyberspace and DHCP services to our wireless clients.

To enable Internet Connection Sharing, become to the Control Panel > Network and Net > Network and Sharing and select Change Adaptor Settings from the left menu. Right-click on the calculator's LAN network adaptor (usually Local Area Connexion) and select backdrop:

Next, select the Sharing tab and enable the Internet Connectedness Sharing option. Under Dwelling networking connexion select the newly created wireless network connection, in our case this was Wireless Network Connection 2, and untick Allow other network users to command or disable the shared Cyberspace connexion setting equally shown below:

After clicking on OK to accept the changes, we tin see that the Local Area Connection icon at present has the shared condition next to information technology, indicating this is now a shared connection:

At this signal, our Wndows vii system has transformed into an access point and is ready to serve wireless clients!

Note: Users with Cisco VPN Customer installed will experience problems (Fault 442) when trying to connect to VPN networks subsequently enabling ICS. To resolve this issue, simply visit our popular How To Fix Reason 442: Failed to Enable Virtual Adapter article.

Connecting Wireless Clients To Our Wi-Fi Network

Wireless clients can connect to the Windows vii admission point every bit they would with any normal admission point. We continued with success to our Windows 7 access signal (SSID: Firewall.cx) without any problem, using a Samsung Galaxy S2 android smartphone:

After successfully connecting and browsing the Cyberspace from our android smartphone, we wanted to test this setup and see if using a Windows 7 system every bit an admission indicate had any impact on wireless and Net browsing operation.

Comparing Real Access Betoken Operation with a Windows 7 O/Due south Access Indicate

To examination this out we used a Cisco 1041N admission point, which was placed correct next to our android smartphone and configured with an SSID of firewall. Both Windows 7 system and Cisco admission betoken were connected to the same LAN network and shared the aforementioned Cyberspace connection – a 10,000 Kbps DSL line (~10Mbps).

The screenshot below confirms our android smartphone had exceptional Wi-Fi signal with both admission points:

Keep in mind, the Wi-Fi with SSID firewall belongs to the Cisco 1041N access point, while SSID Firewall.cx belongs to the Windows 7 admission point.

We first continued to the Windows 7 access point and ran our tests. Maximum download speed was measured at six,796Kbps, or effectually half-dozen,6Mbps:

Side by side, nosotros connected to our Cisco 1041N admission point and performed the same tests. Maximum download speed was measured at seven,460Kbps, or 7.3Mbps:

Obviously there was a very modest difference in performance, all the same, this difference is so small that it is difficult to find unless running these kind of tests. In both cases, Net admission was polish without any interruptions or problems.

Conclusion

Being able to transform a Windows vii organization into an access indicate is a handy and much welcomed feature. We've used this feature many times in social club to overcome limitations where no access signal was available and it worked just fine - every time.  Performance seems pretty solid despite the small-scale, unnoticeable degradation in speed, which won't affect anyone.

While this setup is not designed as an permanent access point solution, it can be used to go you out of difficult situations and tin serve a small amount of wireless clients without any trouble.

Back to Windows XP/Vista/7 Section

Source: https://www.firewall.cx/microsoft-knowledgebase/windows-xp-7-8/968-windows-7-access-point.html

Posted by: overlyalifeen.blogspot.com

Share this post