Windows 7 hotspot hacker turns to software bonding
The company responsible for hacking a Wi-Fi hotspot into Windows 7 is
turning its hand to software bonding, promising tens of megabits over
the slowest of cellular connections
.
The company has prototype Windows code which can bond multiple IP
connections into a single stream, merging multiple Wi-Fi, cellular or
physical connections to provide one IP address with serious
connectivity, assuming one has the USB ports to spare
:
Bonding IP connections together is nothing new, Be will happily glue
together multiple ADSL lines for the home user who wants a little more
poke, while SharedBand does the same thing across multiple ISPs for
those who want reliability as well as speed. But those offerings require
special routers and cloud-based aggregators, while Connectify's
solution runs on a single PC
.
Connectify reckons the software is ideal for bonding the coffee-shop
Wi-Fi with a personal (4G?) Hotspot, or multiplying up several slow
Wi-Fi connections, though to do that you'll have to have multiple Wi-Fi
interface cards obviously. Anyone sitting in an office equipped with
both Wi-Fi and wired access will see the utility in being able to load
both at the same time, though with 100Mb/sec Ethernet now commonplace
one has to question if the addition of Wi-Fi will make a significant
difference.
Connectify Dispatch, as the company is calling its software bonding
product, is currently selling for $40, bundled with Hotspot – despite
being little more than a prototype at the moment. The company is hoping
that pre-orders, and a Kickstarter page, will raise the money it needs
to turn Dispatch into a real product, though a more compelling use case
may also be needed to turn it mainstream. ®
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