Connectify Hotspot: Best Virtual Wi-Fi Router Software for Windows to Create Wi-Fi Hotspots

Often you need to share an Internet connection with other devices, extend a Wi-Fi network, or just create a network between your devices. That calls for the functions of a Wi-Fi router, but there is no reason to carry a bulky piece of hardware around to stay connected on the road or at a job site. With your PC’s internal Wi-Fi card and Connectify Hotspot software, you have a fully featured virtual router right inside your Windows PC.

Best of all: it is free to use. Read below to see how simple it is.

Why Do I Need to Use a Virtual Router Software?

Here are a few scenarios you might recognise:

• You are stuck in a hotel room with only a wired Ethernet connection and no way of getting your Wi-Fi devices online.
• You are on an airplane, in an airport or in a hotel room where Internet is expensive and paid per device.
• You are outside your home, on the lawn, and you cannot get your Wi-Fi network’s signal on your mobile devices.

In all of these cases the goal is the same: get your devices online quickly, without paying again for each one.

This is where a virtual router does something a physical router cannot. A hotel, airport or campus network usually puts a sign-in page in front of you, where you have to enter a username and password or click a button on a website before anything works. A travel router has no browser and no way to fill that page in. A PC does, which is why the computer you are already carrying is often the only thing in your bag that can get the rest of your devices onto that network.

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What is a Virtual Router?

How to Turn Your Windows PC Into a Virtual Router

Solved: Best Virtual Router Software for Windows

Connectify Hotspot Turns Your Windows Laptop Into a Virtual Router

Connectify Hotspot’s virtual router functions work with any routing scenario. The app runs on Windows PCs and laptops and lets you share any type of Internet connection via Wi-Fi hotspot or wired Ethernet.

So whether you are sharing a Wi-Fi Internet connection over Wi-Fi to your smartphone, or trying to get an Ethernet-only game console onto your 4G hotspot, Connectify can do it, sharing your computer’s mobile Internet connection over an Ethernet cable to get all your devices online.

It runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11. If you are still on Windows 7 or Windows 8, the download page also lists earlier releases under “Need an older version?”, and one of those will run for you. Those older versions of Windows have no built-in mobile hotspot at all, so software like this is the only way to do it there.

QUICK GUIDE: See here how to turn your laptop into a Wi-Fi hotspot and share Internet with all your devices.

Connectify Hotspot: Much More Than Just a Virtual Router App for Windows

Alongside the main function of sharing any type of Internet connection via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, Connectify Hotspot comes packed with other advanced virtual router features:

• Boost Your Range Instantly with Wi-Fi Repeater Mode: easily extend the range of your existing Wi-Fi network.
• Save Money While Traveling: stuck at a hotel that charges for Internet per device? Join the Wi-Fi, start a hotspot, and get all of your devices online for the price of one.
• Save time, bandwidth and battery life on your devices by turning your Windows laptop or PC into a whole house ad blocker. The ad blocking is universal: it also works with in-app ads and is a viable way to block iPhone app ads.
• Connectify Hotspot is also fully compatible with all gaming consoles: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and the rest. It solves the usual problems with connecting to the Internet or the home network via its Gaming Mode feature.

Looking for the best virtual router software for Windows? Get started quickly and easily with Connectify Hotspot for FREE! There is no need to sign up for an account: just turn it on and you are ready to go.