Hi guys,
I have an internet connection with static IP. The last hardware router it’s been long gone due to frequent power outages (I know, I’n already using an UPS, it’s just not physically possible to connect the media converter to it as well). The idea would be to set a virtual access point using the wireless NIC which is already installed in the machine besides the wired ethernet connection (kinda Connectify on Win7 or shared internet connection through wireless in MacOS X). Moreover, I don’t have the means to dedicate a separate machine to run the Mikrotik RouterOS but I have more than enough resources on the existing one to run it under VirtualBox. From what I’ve read and understood so far, RouterOS would be a good choice to accomplish this. Can it be done? If yes, what would be a step-by-step solution? How would I have to set up the network adapters in the virtual machine (NAT, bridged, tec.)? Should I even bother trying this?
Thought this is absolutely the best place to ask for help.
Eagerly waiting for your answers and thanx in advance,
Danny KiD
- If your needs are pretty basic, there is built in internet connection sharing functionality into windows.
It is about as simple as it comes, but gets the job done in a pinch.
The trick is you turn your wireless card into an ad-hoc network first, and then you start sharing.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Using-ICS-Internet-Connection-Sharing
FYI - an “ad-hoc” network and a “Access Point” are two different types of connections running different types of drivers.
Most companies assume windows users are not going to be using their machine as an access point, and generally don’t include the necessary components to do so. However, if you were running linux most drivers support it
- If the wireless adapter is USB, then you should be able to pass through to virtualbox.
If not, then I don’t think virtualbox allows that low of a level access (at least, not in vmware anyway) for a pci device.
I know in vmware, you can give the VM dedicated access to a specific device but it only works for USB devices.
However, I’m pretty sure you can do it if you ran a hyper visor (like esxi) and kept windows inside a virtual machine they claim you can pass PCI devices directly to a specific VM.
http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/
So instead of it being
Hardware → Windows → Virtual Machine → RouterOS
it would be something like (excuse the ascii art funkyness)
->Windows
Hardware → Hypervisor (split)|
→ RouterOS
This provides better performance between the different virtual machines and allows lower level of access to the hardware (as otherwise windows takes control of everything, and it gives you program just a little bit access). With the hypervisor running below it, you can pick and choose who gets access to what.
Of course, that would require reinstalling everything, and spending a bunch of time tinkering to get it to work… but it should be possible… in theory anyway.
Thanks for your quick answer 
The following things have to be mentioned, though:
- Windows ICS doesn’t work with static IP since it’s changing the IP address to 192.168.x.x, therefore it can only share a dialup connection (like pppoe, for example). Plus, the ICS and firewall in XP are bundled to a single service, that being one of the first things I disable after installing Windows (don’t like ém at all So that’s not an option.
- Secondary, the wireless adapter is PCI (Airlive WT2000 based on the Ralink RT61 chipset). I know about the USB filters in VMware but this doesn’t apply either. Virtualbox is also not very happy about wireless adapters.
- MacOS X in virtual machines is a pretty bad joke ))))))))) and I tried installing it natively after doing quite a lot of reading but it doesn’t work with the sound card (shitty SB Audigy SE 7.1) neither does it recognize the wireless NIC even with hacked drivers. So this fails, too.
- I can consider myself lucky since the my wireless NIC does work with the Virtual WIFI adapter provided by M$ in Windows 7 and therefore Connectify works but it’s a shitty application and very very limited (basically u can only surf the web and that’s about it). Interesting though (I thought it’s good to let u know this) not all wireless NICs or USB wireless adapters support this (had a machine to fix last week with a Realtek 8185L chipset based PCI card or a Netgear WG111v1 wireless USB and none of them worked with Connectify).
- Wanna get rid as fast as possible of W7 since it’s not a lot better than Vista, which is truly a nightmare. Just to let u know, the machine is a quad core 9300 Intel at 2 Ghz with 4 Gb RAM and a blazing fast Seagate 250Gb SATA2 drive running in AHCI mode and even W7 64bit Ultimate it’s still sluggish.
- Tried bridging the connections in XP after a lot of reading but that didn’t work either (Ethernet wired card with static IP for Internet bridged with wireless PCI having local 192.168.x.x set in adhoc mode).
- Found a pretty neat software router (zeroshell) with pretty nice web interface and all, but it only supports wireless adapters based on the Atheros chipsets. This probably has to do something with what I mentioned at point 4 (the fact that not all wireless adapters support this kinda stuff).
That being said, what u suggested with ESXi is a very good idea and I thank u for it! Now there come the final questions:
What router distribution do u suggest or have experienced with?
Has Mikrotik RouterOS any chance of accomplishing this? Is it also limited to certain wireless chipset(s)?
Thank u in advance, have a nice day and looking REALLY forward to hear from you!
Danny KiD
Finally, I did enable the ICS but it only worked after switching the wireless NIC into AP mode with the utility that comes bundled with the driver!
Very important, I used the bundle from the chipset manufacturer, NOT the one from the company that actually manufactured the card (Ralink being the chipset and Airlive being the manufacturer, the Airlive driver doesn’t allow using softAP mode). Hope this helps other users being in the same situation and they can learn from it!!!
So, lemme tell you this is the very first time in my life I used a technical support forum cause I’m used to finding solutions by myself, exactly as I’ve been doing for more than 20 years (no joke). Back in those days, I was defeating copy protections from the C64 (tape and/or disk).
I know this is a bit off base but this is my last post around this forum anyway (and all forums, as a matter of fact) but if u happen to have a problem (hardware/software) that seems impossible to solve, drop me a line and I’ll try to help u!
Just remember, I’m still alive and better than ever
“Forever & Ever / Again & Always / Too cool to be real / Too hot not to be alive”
Danny KiD