Virtual Wi-Fi router: how to distribute the Internet from a computer

Virtual Router Plus is a program that allows you to configure Wi-Fi distribution from a laptop. Works with all operating systems of the Windows family. It is also compatible with the anniversary OS. To create a wireless access point, just launch the program and click “Launch virtual router plus”. But often users encounter the error: “virtual router plus cannot be started.” I will write what to do in this case and how to fix the problem as part of this article.

Reason for error

Virtual Router Plus is a program with a simple interface that automates the creation and connection to an access point. The received error indicates problems in the software or hardware of the laptop:

There is no Wi-Fi adapter.
Wi-Fi is turned off or airplane mode is on.
The drivers for the wireless adapter are not installed.
The adapter or driver does not support running a virtual Wi-Fi network.
The virtual adapter is not enabled.

Elimination

Now let's check what caused the error.

Checking Internet access

Make sure your laptop is connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or LAN cable. If the Internet Access icon does not appear in the tray:

Advice! If you use wireless as your Internet connection, read the information on setting up Wi-Fi on Windows 10.

Checking the virtual network adapter

Right-click on Start and select “Device Manager”:

If there is no such device in the Device Manager or there is not even a mention of the Wi-Fi (Wireless adapter), proceed to the next step.

No adapter in Device Manager

If you are sure that your PC/laptop has a Wi-Fi adapter, you need to install/update the appropriate drivers. You can download the software on the website of your device manufacturer. The installer can be launched using the executable .exe file or through the device manager by selecting “Update driver”.

Hello, friends! I recently wrote an article in which I talked about . But as it turned out, the method I wrote about in that article is not suitable for connecting mobile devices such as phones, smartphones, tablets, etc.

And if we take into account the fact that a lot of people want to set up a laptop for Wi-Fi distribution and connect a mobile device to it, then I decided to correct the situation. This article can be considered a continuation of the previous article.

In order to make the laptop turn into a router and connect a mobile device to it, we will use the VirtualRouter Plus program. This is a small, simple program that is very easy to configure, which is what we will do now.

If you do not understand what we are going to do now and have not read the article linked above, then I will quickly explain.

Let's say you have a laptop and some other mobile devices that have Wi-Fi. And your Internet is connected, say, via cable and only to your laptop. There is no Wi-Fi router. Do you want to connect your phone or tablet to the Internet? So, we will force the laptop to take the Internet via cable (or in another way, for example via a USB modem. Just not via Wi-Fi) and distribute it via Wi-Fi. The laptop will be the access point.

There are several ways to set up distribution. You can use special programs such as VirtualRouter Plus, Connectify Hotspot, or through the command line. I really liked the free VirtualRouter Plus program, so I’ll show you how to set it up. With her help, everything worked out the first time.

What do we need?

We will need a laptop (netbook, desktop computer with adapter) which has Wi-Fi. Internet, which is connected using a network cable, or a USB modem. VirtualRouter Plus program (I'll give you a link later) and the device that we will connect to the Internet (phone, tablet, etc.).

Everything is? Then let's start :).

Setting up Wi-Fi distribution from a laptop

Let me remind you once again that the laptop must be connected to the Internet using a cable and not via a wireless network. Something like this:

And the connection status should be like this:

If everything is connected, we can continue.

Setting up the VirtualRouter Plus program

First download VirtualRouter Plus you can download version 2.1.0 (on which I configured) via the link, or . Links have been verified.

Download the archive and extract it to a folder. Run the file in the folder VirtualRouterPlus.exe.

A window will open in which we need to fill in only three fields.

Network Name (SSID)– in this field, write a name for your wireless network.

Password- password. The password that will be used to connect to your network. Specify a minimum of 8 characters, in English.

Well, on the contrary Shared Connection select the connection from which the Internet will be distributed. My Internet connection is via cable, so I left “Local Area Connection” as is.

That's it, press the button. Start Virtual Router Plus.

All windows will become inactive and the Stop Virtual Router Plus button will appear (you can use it to turn off virtual Wi-Fi). You can minimize programs and it will hide in the notification panel (bottom, right).

Connecting the device to Wi-Fi

Now take your phone, tablet, or whatever you want to connect (I have, for example, an HTC Android phone), turn on Wi-Fi on it and look for an available network in the list with the name that we set in the Virtual Router Plus program.

I have this network:

Click on this network, enter the password (which we specified when setting up the program) and press Connect. It should look something like this:

You can already try to access sites from your phone (or other device), which receives the Internet via Wi-Fi from a laptop. But the connection is there, but the Internet may not work. This is true:). Just some more tweaking to do.

The device connects to Wi-Fi, but the Internet does not work

Return to your laptop, open the program in which we configured the distribution and press the button Stop Virtual Router Plus. Then right click on the connection status and select Network and Sharing Center.

On the left select Change adapter settings. Right click on the adapter LAN connection and select Properties. Go to the tab Access.

Check the boxes like I have in the screenshot below. In field Connecting your home network you need to select an adapter. Everything works fine for me when installed Wireless network connection 3 (You may also have a Wireless network connection 2, or another). Experiment.

Then in the Virtual Router Plus program we launch our network again. The phone should now connect automatically. The Internet should already be working. Everything worked for me, the sites opened!

Converting a laptop into a router was successful :).

Advice! You can add the Virtual Router Plus program to startup so as not to constantly launch it manually. I wrote about how to do this in the article.

Afterword

Of course, if possible, I would advise buying a router. Even some simple, inexpensive model, for example, will do an excellent job of distributing Wi-Fi to several devices. And you won’t have to torture your laptop :). In addition, the laptop itself will be able to connect via a wireless network, rather than distribute it.

But this method is also good. You can quickly set up a wireless network, even without a router.

If you have any problems, leave questions in the comments, or even better on our forum. We'll figure out. Best wishes!

Also on the site:

How to configure a laptop to distribute Wi-Fi and connect a mobile device to it? Setting up VirtualRouter Plus updated: February 7, 2018 by: admin

Currently, any modern computer device is necessarily equipped with a wireless Wi-Fi module. These include computers, laptops, smartphones, tablet computers, etc. This is very convenient - there are no wires, you can move within sight of the signal, connecting and setting up the network is simplified as much as possible.

Of course, a lot of programs have been developed for general access to the Internet; if one of the computers has access there, these programs create a virtual wireless access point. One of these will be discussed in this article, answering the question of virtual router manager: how to set up and use it at home.

You can combine computers in two modes:

Point-to-point mode, when two computers are connected directly to each other and this mode only provides information exchange;
Through an access point, when many clients connect to a single point. In this mode, general access to the Internet is provided, and it is for this mode that programs have been developed.

Virtual Router program

The name of this utility is switch virtual router. You can download it here:

http://switchvirtualrouter.narod.ru/

The program is completely free, but the website contains details for voluntary donations.

You should immediately note that this program uses tools built into the operating system, for this reason it will not work in Windows XP and Windows Vista; at least Windows 7 is required.

Setting up the program

As already mentioned, the switch virtual router program is only a means of managing the access point, aimed at simplifying launch and configuration.

For this reason, after launching the access point with the program, you can close the program itself, and the access point will still continue to work.

So, download the program and run it.

Main program window

Go to the settings menu (gear in the lower right corner).

Program settings window

Select the “General” tab. In the right and lower parts of the window we make basic settings: automatic launch with the computer, an icon in the system tray, and more. But the main settings in the center of the window are the name of the wireless network (SSID) and the password for connecting to it. The password is entered twice for confirmation; it must be at least eight characters of English letters and numbers.

After setting, click “OK”.

Starting the program

We figured out how to configure a switch virtual router, now we need to start a wireless network.

After clicking "OK" we should have a new Wi-Fi connection. Let's check if this is true. We go to the Shared Networks and Access Control Center and find a new connection.

New network connection

In the connection status we see “No connection” - this is how it should be. We return to the main program window again and press the “Start” button.

Starting a virtual adapter

The button will change to “Stop” to stop the program if necessary. After it starts, the status of the wireless network will change to the network name:

The adapter works

Everything is ready, now with the rest of the computers we look for our new Wi-Fi network and connect to it.

Internet distribution

All that remains is to configure the operating system to distribute the Internet through this virtual router. Of course, the computer must have access there (via 3G, ADSL or other technology).

Go to the list of connections (icon in the system tray), and in the list select the adapter through which you access the Internet.

Setting up Internet sharing

In our case, this is TTK, access via Ethernet, but there could be Wi-Fi, 3G, or others. Go to the “Properties” of this adapter, select the “Access” tab, and check the box for sharing permissions.

Everyone, all computers on the network connected to our Wi-Fi have access to the World Wide Web.

Similar programs

Let's briefly consider another similar program - Virtual Wi-Fi. It is noteworthy that there is no need to download and install additional software; everything that is needed is already in Windows 7.

Let's take a closer look at how to configure virtual router.

Creating a virtual adapter

Launch the command line as administrator.

Running the command line

A window will open in which we enter the line “netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=”MS Virtual WiFi” key=”Pass for virtual wifi” keyUsage=persistent”. In our example, “MS Virtual WiFi” is the name of the wireless network SSID, and “Pass for virtual wifi” is the password to connect to it. You can substitute your own values for these two values.

Press "Enter".

Executing a command

As we can see, the operating system informs us that the task was completed successfully. Next, go to the Network Control Center.

Network Sharing Center

A new connection “Wireless Network Connection 2” has appeared, the status of which is no connection. We need to launch this network.

Starting a virtual network

We return to the command line again and execute the command “netsh wlan start hostednetwork”.

Starting a virtual network

Windows again informs us that the operation was successful, the network is up and running. To verify this, go to the Network Control Center and see that the status has changed to the name of the network.

Virtual network is working

That's it, you can connect to it on other computers on the local network.

If something is not clear, you can familiarize yourself with the setup procedure in the video lesson:

Hello! I once wrote an article about how... Popular and useful (judging by the comments). Virtual Router Plus is a good program that does its job well. But of course it wasn’t without problems.

For some, everything worked perfectly, but for others, while working with the Virtual Router Plus program, they observed an error. Which appeared immediately after clicking on the “Start Virtual Router Plus” button, that is, at the moment the network was launched.

This error looks like this:

In the comments to the article on setting up Virtual Router Plus (link to which is above), wrote about various errors. For example, the error “Cannot start virtual router plus” appears.

But it is not important. These errors indicate that the program cannot start the network because it did not detect the necessary hardware. If we are talking about Wi-Fi distribution, then we can suggest that the Virtual Router Plus program could not detect the wireless adapter. Or for some reason cannot work with it.

Update:

The comments advised running Virtual Router Plus as an administrator. This helped get rid of the error. I think it's worth a try. Just right-click on the Virtual Router Plus icon and select Run as administrator.

1. Your laptop does not have a Wi-Fi adapter at all. This is, of course, unlikely unless your laptop is very old. But it may be that there is an adapter on your laptop, but you simply do not have the driver installed for it. As a result, neither the system nor Virtual Router Plus can work with it. Or Wi-Fi is simply turned off.

It is worth adding that if you successfully connect your laptop to wireless networks, then this option can be excluded (see second point).

2. Recently, this topic was created on our forum: . It just says about the problem with the error “Virtual Router Plus could not be started. Supported hardware may not have been found.”

The author of the topic shared a solution to the problem. Updating the Wi-Fi driver helped. He used the “Slim Drivers” program for this matter. But, you can download and install the new driver manually. The link to instructions for updating drivers is above.

Indeed, Virtual Router Plus may not work with certain driver versions, or with certain devices. Therefore, you need to select a driver version that will be able to run the virtual network.

Best wishes!