Posted by Raj on August 30, 2011 under News & Announcements | 
Today’s college students have expanded the back-to-school checklist. Gaming consoles, tablets, and laptops are now must-have items for life on campus. However, most U.S. college and university residence halls still provide only one Ethernet port per student, per room, which leaves freshmen who arrive with an Xbox 360, iPad, and laptop, in for a rude awakening. With Connectify, students can turn their laptop into a secure, Wi-Fi hotspot, and easily share their available Internet connection with any Wi-Fi-enabled device.
While Connectify Lite can solve many of the frustrating network issues in college dorms, the value-added functionality of Connectify Pro is sure to be useful in resolving a wider-variety of problems on campus. So, Connectify is pleased to offer a free, one-semester Connectify Pro license to any student who provides a valid academic email address.
Take, for example, Microsoft’s popular back-to-school promotion, where college students receive a free Xbox 360 4GB with the purchase of any Windows 7 laptop valued at $699 or more. As it turns out, most students living on campus will also need Connectify in order to get their free Xbox online for multiplayer gaming, or to use its Netflix movie streaming functionality, as advertised. Connectify CEO, Alex Gizis explains:
“With Connectify installed, students can plug their Windows laptop into the one available Ethernet port, start a Connectify Hotspot, and just like that, they’re running a secure, personal Wi-Fi network that all of their devices can use to access the Internet.”
And, while Wi-Fi is increasingly being offered in student housing, it presents another, equally frustrating problem: many devices, including the Xbox 360, can’t pass through university login pages to get online. Once again, running a Connectify Hotspot gives students the ability to easily repeat the college Wi-Fi network directly to their game console or other device.
Students with multiple devices on campus, especially those who received an Xbox as part of Microsoft’s back-to-school promotion, are encouraged to redeem their free Connectify Pro license by pointing their browser to http://promos.connectify.me/. (NOTE: the PROmotion has ended. Thanks for downloading! All clicks will now be re-directed to our main site!)
With Connectify Pro on your back-to-school checklist, you’ll have no problems keeping Xbox 360s, iPads, and any other Internet-capable devices online this school-year.
Posted by Raj on August 22, 2011 under News & Announcements |
Note: The EARLYBIRD coupon referenced below, expired on September 30th, 2011.
Please upgrade to the latest free version of Connectify v3.0, the most feature-rich and stable Connectify release to-date (now with support for Windows XP/Vista/7):
Download Connectify 3.0
With v3.0 Connectify is pleased to announce our first, value-added commercial release: Connectify PRO v3.0. With the new PRO version of Connectify, users will enjoy powerful new features, XP/Vista support, updated look-and-feel, as well as increased stability and error-resistance across-the-board.
Upgrade to Connectify PRO
So much has been added to this major new release of Connectify. Here’s a side-by-side analysis of new features:
|
Feature
|
Lite 3.0
|
Pro 3.0
|
|
Software Access Point
|
X
|
X
|
|
Share Internet from other
Wi-Fi networks
|
X
|
X
|
|
Share Wi-Fi from 3G/4G Networks
|
|
X
|
|
Display connected computers/ devices
|
X
|
X
|
|
“Scannify” Service Discovery
|
Web Only
|
X
|
|
Fully-customizable SSID
|
“Connectify-”
|
X
|
|
Repeater Functionality
|
X
|
X
|
|
AutoInternet selection
|
|
X
|
|
Streamlined UI, updated look-and-feel
|
X
|
X
|
|
Simple Firewall Controls allow user to control whether each client can get on your local area network, and/or use your Internet connection
|
|
X
|
|
Premium Support (automatic ticket escalation)
|
|
X
|
|
|
|
|
The biggest trade-off that we made after speaking to many users is that we have eliminated all advertising from our installer, as well as 3rd-party ads from in the user interface itself. This advertising brought in some revenue, but we understand that it bothered many Connectify users. The decision to remove ads from Connectify was a tough one. Instead, we now offer you two choices:
Connectify v3.0.0.20932 Release Notes:
Connectify Pro Features in v3.0.0.20932:
- Automatic Internet Selection: Connectify intelligently chooses which Internet connection to share! When set to “Automatic,” Connectify automatically detects your active Internet connection and makes necessary configuration changes to your hotspot.
- Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista (Ad-Hoc Mode only)!
- Service Discovery: In the all-new Services tab, Connectify will automatically scan your network for available shared folders or drives, web servers, and other remote services and provide you with options to easily connect. Now the services are also listed next to each client (in the blue oval) on the clients tab.
- Simple Client-by-Client Firewall Controls allow user to control which clients can get to Internet and which can access local computers only.
- Support for PPIP and Qualcomm Gobi cards: Connectify Pro now supports sharing Internet from Qualcomm Gobi-based 3G/4G cards.
- No Advertising
New features in both Free and Pro versions of Connectify v3.0.0.20932:
- Faster performance: 30% higher throughput when sharing fast Internet connections.
- Improved Device Identification: Improved detection of XBox 360s and certain Motorola devices.
- Completely new UPnP implementation: Improved performance, no spurious warnings. Fully-tested with Xbox 360 (PlayStation 3 sees Connectify as Type 3 NAT. This issue is expected to be resolved in an upcoming Beta).
- All new tabbed User Interface
- Intelligent warnings when hotspot starts without Internet Connection.
- Resizable User Interface: grab the top or bottom and resize UI to preferred height.
- New, clearer Status Area across top of UI.
- Easily access the Connectify Menu by clicking on logo next to the Start / Stop button.
Fixes and Updates:
- Service startup on boot
- Support for multi-monitor setups where the taskbar is not on the primary monitor.
- Fixes to UPnP and fragmented packet handling to improve gaming and streaming video over Connectify.
- New algorithm for choosing IP address of hotspot improves compatibility with iOS devices.
- Uninstaller now requests error report.
- New ‘About’ screen thanks all open-source projects utilized by Connectify.
- Microsoft has been working with us regarding the Blue Screen of Death issues that certain computers experience when hibernating. Based on what we learned, we have reworked how Connectify interacts with the Windows power management system entirely. With this new power management code, no Connectify user (with up to date Service Packs) should ever see the BSoD again!
Posted by Scott on under Release Notes |
Pro Features
- Automatic Internet Selection: Connectify intelligently chooses which Internet connection to share! When set to “Automatic,” Connectify automatically detects your active Internet connection and makes necessary configuration changes to your hotspot.
- Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista (Ad-Hoc Mode only)!
- Service Discovery: In the all-new Services tab, Connectify will automatically scan your network for available shared folders or drives, web servers, and other remote services and provide you with options to easily connect. Now the services are also listed next to each client (in the blue oval) on the clients tab.
- Simple Client-by-Client Firewall Controls allow user to control which clients can get to Internet and which can access local computers only.
- Support for PPIP and Qualcomm Gobi cards: Connectify Pro now supports sharing Internet from Qualcomm Gobi-based 3G/4G cards.
- No Advertising
New Features in both Free and Pro versions of Connectify v3.0:
- Faster performance: 30% higher throughput when sharing fast Internet connections.
- Improved Device Identification: Improved detection of XBox 360s and certain Motorola devices.
- Completely new UPnP implementation: Improved performance, no spurious warnings. Fully-tested with Xbox 360 (PlayStation 3 sees Connectify as Type 3 NAT. This issue is expected to be resolved in an upcoming Beta).
- All new tabbed User Interface
- Intelligent warnings when hotspot starts without Internet Connection (New in this Beta)
- Resizable User Interface: grab the top or bottom and resize UI to preferred height. (New in this Beta)
- New, clearer Status Area across top of UI (New in this Beta)
- Easily access the Connectify Menu by clicking on logo next to the Start / Stop button (New in this Beta)
Fixes and Updates:
- Service startup on boot
- Support for multi-monitor setups where the taskbar is not on the primary monitor.
- Fixes to UPnP and fragmented packet handling to improve gaming and streaming video over Connectify. (New in this Beta)
- New algorithm for choosing IP address of hotspot improves compatibility with iOS devices. (New in this Beta)
- Uninstaller now requests error report.
- New ‘About’ screen thanks all open-source projects utilized by Connectify.
- Microsoft has been working with us regarding the Blue Screen of Death issues that certain computers experience when hibernating. Based on what we learned, we have reworked how Connectify interacts with the Windows power management system entirely. With this new power management code, no Connectify user (with up to date Service Packs) should ever see the BSoD again!
Posted by Scott on August 18, 2011 under Tips & Tricks |
We’re always listening to what features Connectify users want to see implemented into upcoming releases. With the latest major version of Connectify being released next week, our development team has added several useful features that Connectify users themselves have requested. If you’re interested in trying out these new features and updates, you can take advantage of our pre-launch offer, which gets you a full one-year Connecitfy Pro v3.0 license at $14.99 (half-off the retail cost).
One of the coolest new features gives Connectify users the ability to see, interact, and control access-level of the various devices connected to your Connectify Hotspot.
Before you get started, you’ll want to click on the Connectify ‘hand’ icon at the top-left corner of the user interface to access the Connectify Menu, click ‘Display Options’, and make sure that ‘Always Show Access Icons’ is checked. Now, click on the “Clients” tab where all connected computers, smartphones, tablets, and any other devices will appear, along with an IP address and descriptive icon (when Connectify is able to determine what type of device is connected). To the right of each device, you’ll see four icons which allow you to do as follows (clockwise from top-left):
- Globe Icon: Disable Internet access for the particular device, while still allowing for local access.
- Refresh Services Icon: Allows user to manually refresh the services running on an individual client.
- Available Services Icon: Shows users the number of available services that are currently running on the client device. The Available Services Icon can be refreshed by simply clicking the Refresh Services Icon directly above it.
- LAN Icon: Allows user to enable or disable local area network (LAN) connection between the host and client. When the LAN Icon is disabled, client devices will still have Internet access unless the ‘Globe Icon’ is also disabled.
With Connectify v3.0, now you can control which client users/devices can access Internet through the Connectify Hotspot, and which can access the LAN only. This feature adds a strong measure of security, where you can allow client access to your Internet without compromising your local data. You can even totally block certain clients by disabling both the LAN Icon and Globe Icon.
In addition to seeing what devices are connected to your Connectify Hotspot, the pro version of Connectify automatically scans your network for available shared folders or drives, web servers, and other remote services and provides you with options to easily connect. We like to call this the “Scannify” function, named after our popular port-scanning Android app. To do so, just click on the “Services” tab in the Connectify application, where a list of available services will be listed. To launch any service, simply double-click on it and Connectify does the rest!
To upgrade to Connectify Pro v3.0 at a special one week only pre-launch price of $14.99, simply follow this link to the Connectify Store: https://sites.fastspring.com/connectify/instant/connectifyprelaunch
