A ‘No AP Mode Supported’ warning means that your wireless card does not support running in Access Point mode. For more details, and a list of known supported devices, please consult the Supported Cards and Devices section.

When Wi-Fi was designed, it was considered to be a sort of "spoke and hub" style network, much like the Ethernet 10/100-Base-T routed or switched networks that came before it. So the usual Hotspot runs in "Access Point" mode, also known as "infrastructure" mode.  This mode uses Hosted Networks to utilize Internet Connection Sharing by creating a virtual nework adapter.  And it is this adapter that provides flexibility for our Soft AP, or virtual router, to remain connected to external wireless network at the same time it creates a wireless access point for potential clients.

However, device manufacturers wanted to create some way for devices to connect to one another without a router. They really did not predict the proliferation of Wi-Fi devices we have today, so this method was never truly fully developed. It is called Ad-Hoc mode, and it is essentially just a special mode of the old 802.11b protocol -- newer modes are not supported in Ad-Hoc mode. Still, it works fine for most devices connecting to the internet. 

Windows 7 added some new functionality in their network driver model, which is how Connectify Hotspot is able to create an infrastructure-mode, Access Point mode Hotspot, same as a hardware router or AP. But it does require both Windows 7 and a Windows 7 compliant network device driver. If you're a Windows 7 user and you see this warning, you are running network drivers from Vista or even XP. Some devices are updated regularly by their manufacturers, others are essentially "abandoned". Connectify has no control over this, but we do maintain a list of devices that are reported working, and others that are not well-supported.

You may find updated drivers via Windows Update. Many times, however, Windows Update does not have the latest drivers and you may need to check with your laptop or wireless device manufacturer to find them.  Connectify has support topics on devices we know about, so please check our support pages for more information.

If you are running Windows XP or Windows Vista, you have no options: you cannot run in infrastructure mode, because Windows does not provide the interfaces to create that kind of hotspot. You may still find Connectify Hotspot very useful. Nearly all personal computers, and many devices, can connect over Ad-Hoc hotspots without any problems. You may find out more information on connecting Android, Blackberry, and iOS devices here in our support section.