Virtualise my Reliance 3G dongle under Hyper-V

networking windows-8 virtualization hyper-v 3g

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Solution 1

Hyper-V does not accept wireless adapters, and this "by design".

To force Hyper-V to accept a wireless network adapter, one must use the old trick of camouflaging it as a dummy but acceptable virtual adapter which is bridged to the dongle adapter.

Below is described how to bridge your dongle network adapter with a virtual network adapter on the host machine.

Open Hyper-V manager
Click on the Virtual Network Manager and create an Internal Virtual Network by selecting Internal and clicking Add.
Give a meaningful Name
Apply and OK
Now a Virtual Network has been created which can be associated with 1 or more virtual machines.
On the host machine, in the Network and Sharing Center click on Change Adapter Settings
Select your dongle adapter and the Internal Virtual Network you created.
Right click and select Bridge Network and the bridge is created.
In the Hyper-V Manager, right click the virtual machine and select settings
Add a Network Adapter and select the Internal Virtual Network you created initially from the drop-down list.
Click Apply and OK.

For more information here are some articles that look useful :

Hyper-V: How to Run Hyper-V on a Laptop
Using Hyper-V with a Wireless Network Adapter
Using Wireless with Hyper-V (using RRAS)

Solution 2

There is another way of doing this. Follow these steps:

Open Hyper-V manager
Click on the Virtual Network Manager and create an Internal Virtual Network by selecting Internal and clicking Add.
Give a meaningful Name
Apply and OK

Now go to your host machine and in the Network and Sharing Center click on Change Adapter Settings.

Select your dongle adapter and click Set as default connection.
Click properties and click on sharing tab.
Check Allow networks to share internet and select the internal connection just created.
Click Apply and click OK.
Finally go to your Virtual machine settings and select the internal switch we created and click Apply and OK.

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pratnala

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Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

pratnala over 1 year

I mostly connect to the Internet with a Reliance 3G dongle with these specifications:

This is how it looks in network adapters when connected.

The problem:

I want to virtualise this in Hyper-V but when I open the virtual switch manager to add a new switch, I don't see it in the list of adapters.

Due to this, I can't use the Internet in my VMs. Is there a way to do this without going to my ethernet broadband connection (which is slow)?
- Prerak Diwan about 11 years
  
  Have you tried just sharing the USB device to the client and then connecting to the system as if it was directly plugged in?
- pratnala about 11 years
  
  Hyper-V doesn't let you share USB devices AFAIK
billc.cn about 11 years

The icon in OP's screen cap shows the connection as a RAS connection which cannot be bridged.
pratnala about 11 years

I just got myself VMware. It is miles and miles better. Hyper-V is only there for WP8 emulator.
harrymc about 11 years

I believe Virtualbox does not support wireless dongles.
billc.cn about 11 years

It supports USB pass-through which is the easier solution here.
pratnala about 11 years

I don't see a Bridge Network option
harrymc about 11 years

See this article for very detailed instructions : How to use Hyper-V with a wireless network connection. If nothing works for you, you could also try to Install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter in Windows 8 (must have IP segment address of 192.168.0.x).
pratnala about 11 years

But this isn't shown as a wireless network connection.
harrymc about 11 years

Have you installed the software that came with the dongle? This seems to be a modem and a data card weirdly rolled into one package. The Reliance 3G page contains two installation packages, one for the ZTE MF190 and one for the Huawei E173, so I suppose you need to install both. Take a system restore point first, just in case.
pratnala about 11 years

The dongle itself has a setup file which contains the relevant drivers. I have installed them because without that, you can't connect.
harrymc about 11 years

Please check if the files at the above page are not newer.
pratnala about 11 years

How can you connect the device directly to the guest OS? Hyper-V doesn't have the feature to pass USB devices
pratnala about 11 years

It is older. The files on the dongle are newer.
harrymc about 11 years

This card may be too weird for me. The ZTE & MF both seem to be network modems, so how this thing works as a single device is a bit beyond me. No wonder it appears as a RAS device, as it is a small network by itself. My last gasp effort are these two articles : article1 and article 2.
Prerak Diwan about 11 years

Depending on the version of Hyper-V you're using (say the version in Windows 8 pro) it actually does accept wireless adapters.
Antonio Petricca over 7 years

On my system the Mobile Broadband cannot be added to a bridge! (Dell E5450 with builting mobile broadband modem + Windows 10 PRO Anniversar updated). Could you help me?