Reference Manual

NAME

Click this icon if your system is not displaying the Virtual WiFi Adapter:

softap.exe - interact with the Windows Virtual WiFi Adapter  

softap [allow | disallow | on | off | devices | security | update | reset | refresh | init]

wlan [ei | conn | dc | qi]

When invoked with no argument, command softap prints the current Software Access Point settings.

Argument allow sets the mode of the Hosted Network Adapter to Allowed. Similarly, argument disallow sets the mode to Disallowed.

Argument on turns the SoftAP on, provided that the NAT32 environment variables ssid and passkey have been set and the SoftAP has been allowed. Argument off turns the SoftAP off.

Argument devices prints details of connected stations.

Argument security prints security details.

Argument update updates the Station Table.

Argument reset applies settings and resets the adapter if needed.

Argument refresh refreshes settings.

Argument init initializes the adapter if needed.

Command wlan allows interaction with the WiFi adapter that the Hosted Network Adapter is currently using. Argument ei enumerates available interfaces and displays the current status of the WLAN adapter. Argument conn connects the adapter according to a predefined profile. Argument dc disconnects the adapter if it is currently connected to an external access point. Argument qi queries the interface and displays details of the current connection.

Click this icon if your system is not displaying the Virtual WiFi Adapter:

The Virtual WiFi adapter must be configured to use a unique, private IP address under Windows. Otherwise, Windows will use an internal DHCP allocator that will assign addresses in the 192.168.173.0 range to clients, which is not what we want. NAT32 should be configured to use its own, unique, private IP address for that adapter. If NAT32 is configured to share the Windows IP address of the adapter, the SoftAP will not work correctly with some Wireless Repeaters, although this problem has been corrected in Windows 8.1.

NAT32's DHCP Server will assign IP addresses to machines that connect to the Access Point.

NAT32's Administration feature can be used to allocate bandwidth, access time and traffic volume for connected private computers.

The SoftAP feature will not work correctly if Windows IP Forwarding is on. Use the winrt off command to turn it off.

To modify the SSID, Passkey and Stations settings, first set the NAT32 environment variables ssid, passkey and stations to the desired values and then execute command: softap reset. Thereafter, the adapter will be off and all connections will have been aborted.

The WiFi adapter does not need to be connected to an external Access Point in order for the Virtual WiFi adapter to function. The wlan command can be used to turn such connections on or off. Alternatively, NAT32 can be configured to use such a WiFi connection, in addition to a LAN connection for Internet connectivity if needed. Details about such configurations are here.

A small SoftAP helper application Softap.exe has been included in the distribution. It can be used to view and change settings, and to monitor device connects/disconnects.

DHCPD, User Administration, Virtual WiFi, WLAN, Run NAT32 as a Software Access Point