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WiFi Seeker, Finder, Detector Roundup
captainJam points to this review at handtops.com of five reasonably priced hardware WiFi finders. A snippet: "If you're not using a WiFi enabled PDA, you either have to turn on your handtop or laptop, or wake it from standby just to check if there's a network in the area. While a WiFi Finder / Seeker won't make a connection out of thin air, it will conveniently tell you whether there is a WiFi network in the area."
My girlfriend's dad once asked me what I was doing with my curious little LED encrusted black box... "It's a WiFi detector" I said.
"A wife detector?" He replied.
"Erm, no. Would be a good hack, though".
What ever happend to licking your finger and feeling for which way the wifi is blowing?
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
These could be a great idea if you live in an area that has some WiFi, but only sometimes. Also great for when you are out and about, or in another city/state/whatever.
If you are somewhere that you know has WiFi (office, known hotspot, Starbucks etc), it is not much use.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, however, there is.
You know WiFe technology has really been commoditized and has hit the mainstream when Home Depot is selling the stuff. I wouldn't be surprised now to see them stock these WiFi detectors, a great tool for the homeowner who wants to optimize his/her home network. They sell meters for just about every other wired products (RJ11, RJ45, etc.)
Linux at home
Its takes less than 7 seconds from the time I open the lid on my powerbook untill I can browse available networks. The wifi dector doesn't even tell you if you will be able to connect to the network or not. I don't really see the use for these devices
sorry 'bout the mess...
Accessing a network you don't have permission to access is illegal (and, frankly, immoral). I never once did that, even though I very well could have.
I got it from ThinkGeek... it was reasonably priced (Only $25). It's very well designed, and it's pretty compact.
While it wasn't the #1 in the comparison, i'd recommend it to anyone.
At about 2X the cost of the cheapest one (50 vs. 25 bucks), it's easily worth the expense.
I dunno about you, but the amount of time it would take me to get my laptop out of my bag, fire it up, and try to connect isn't minor.
The ability to show if I'm wasting my time or not is worth the extra 25 bucks.
2. "I wonder if someone else has a WiFi connection in my appartment block that is causing problems with my laptop connection to my home network" (do they interfere? Or can you just choose which to connect to?)
3. "Does this library have WiFi?" (Yeah, I know. Ask at the desk. But what kind of self-respecting geek asks, when he/she can find out for him/herself?)
Laugh. It's funny.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, however, there is.
I think our generation is gonna be walking around the city with these things when we're old like the old people at beaches with metal detectors..
--- We need more Ron Paul!
half the /. posts so far are people bad mouthing these things, claiming their bsd/linux laptop does so much more! well of course it does, it is a frickin' laptop! these are nice little devices to have when you don't want or need a laptop with, but still would like to know there is a network there for 'future use'...
Nice karma whoring.
That sort of thing would probably be pretty useless here in NYC.
The problem is, that a lot of networks -seem- open, but require a login once you are connected, and around here, you are never far from a signal, so I just never found it worthwhile to plunk down the $30 or so they ask for them.
The only one of them that I find interesting is the Canary one, which actualy has an LCD that shows you the SSID of the network. But I am not sure it's worth the $50 to me, but it's a much better value then any of the "if the light blinks, you got WiFi" ones.
The only downside to these devices, encription and B or b only networks show up as any other. They are existant or not and signal strength.
You found a AP in the area. Great, but it is an encrypted airport commercial network for say e-ticket kiosks. You wouldn't know unless you powered up you laptop, draining you battery further and have to wait for windows to start up and shut down. Even hibernation saves login time but not time for windows to load and dump ram.
The best solution by far that I've found is my Palm Tungsten C running NetChaser. Not only does it detect the networks, it will let you know their SSIDs, the last time you saw them, their MAC address, and a pile of other information. It can alert you by a tone or by using the Tungsten C's vibration function, and can operate with the screen off. It can even initiate a WiFi connection to a selected network.
I've had mine set-up to operate with the screen off, and vibrate when an unencrypted network is encountered. I can walk around with it in my pocket and can silently know when I'm within range of an unencrypted wireless signal (it just logs the encrypted ones without vibrating). At that point, I can either connect from the T|C, or whip out my PowerBook.
It's been fun walking around the neighbourhood with it in my pocket looking for open networks. I seem to hit upon one ever 2 or 3 houses. It's nice to know that if I'm really hard up for cash I can probably print up a bunch of fliers and distribute them around the neighbourhood where there are open access points offering to secure their access points for cash :).
Yaz.
Duhh.. antenna (cheap), plastic box (cents), couple of LED's/switches (cents), batteries (included?), small PCB (cheap), some dedicated IC's (???, anyone got some info here?), design/packaging/retail etc. (large portion of street price?)
Easy to build yourself as hobby project? Estimated price a couple of years from now?
And you can tell its YOUR network how?
Well, it lets me log in with my username/password, so I should see my home direc... Nuts. I just gave my work username/password to the identity theif that runs this network next to ours.
2. "I wonder if someone else has a WiFi connection in my appartment block that is causing problems with my laptop connection to my home network" (do they interfere? Or can you just choose which to connect to?)
And you can tell its not your network how?
"Hmm, what does this switch on the back of my WiFi hub do?"
3. "Does this library have WiFi?" (Yeah, I know. Ask at the desk. But what kind of self-respecting geek asks, when he/she can find out for him/herself?)
And you can tell its the library network and not the people nextdoor how?
Fire up laptop. Attempt to connect. "Well, it says 'pulic library WiFi hotspot' in the connection name. Must be them guys at the coffee store next door.
Seriously, though - in this case it doesn't really matter who owns it if it is a public hotspot - but if you are next to Starbucks (or someone who is known to have hotspots), ask at the desk anyway. They might not like it if you use their connection without buying a coffee.
I never said that they were good uses, or that these uses will work, they are just examples.
NOTE TO MODs: This is humour (yes, I'm Australian. We spell it like that). Not flame/troll.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, however, there is.
Thankfully poor planning, lack of funds, etc will cause there to be many upon many of blind spots in the buildings, these would be much more useful than carrying around a laptop and watching the indicator on the screen.
Especially useful when the AP's are "hidden" to be more asthetically pleasing.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Quickly looking for WiFi where it should NOT be seems like a good application. With access points at a nearly trivial cost, even a well intentioned but clueless employee can potentially compromise a private LAN. Even the best thought out policies could fail due to $25 in equipment from Best Buy in a lunch sack.
That is the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put!
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Wouldn't it have been funnier as "In Soviet Russia, WIFI finds YOU!"?
... buy a working Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic!
So there we were in New Orleans, staying in an older hotel in the French Quarter with absolutely no broadband (It was being installed for our meeting the following day).
Were we interested in partying - no way. One of the meeting participants from Germany needed his daily shot of freshmeat while another needed his daily shot of slashdot. So we pulled out our Smart Id WiFi detector, purchased at ThinkGeek and proceeded to walk the streets, laptops in backpacks, Wifi detector in hand.
Lo and behold, a few blocks from the hotel we found our first wifi hotspot, only to find it was secure. We walked on only to find another secure hotspot. After walking the French Quarter for the next 2 hours we had found several hotspots, but none that we could tap into. Now we realized that we really should have been partying.
Why can't someone build a WiFi detector that finds the hotspot, flashes if its open and blinks if it can be subscribed to?
Lo and behold, a few blocks from the hotel we found our first wifi hotspot, only to find it was secure. We walked on only to find another secure hotspot. After walking the French Quarter for the next 2 hours we had found several hotspots, but none that we could tap into. Now we realized that we really should have been partying.
Why can't someone build a WiFi detector that finds the hotspot, flashes if its open and blinks if it can be subscribed to?
From the article:
The only thing that seems to be missing is detection of whether the network is locked down by MAC address. Isn't the device described above approximately what you are looking for?
Most areas these days are covered by the gratis "linksys" network, so just set your essid and join the ranks of people who use "linksys" as our ISP. My apartment had access to two strong "linksys" signals, left completely unsecured by generous donors, and the same network is available at my girlfriend's place a 2.5 hour drive away. These WiFi finders seem pretty useless to me.
501 Not Implemented
The standard incarnation is a generic rf detector/level meter with an antenna that is tuned to 2.4ghz.
The Basic Circuit
(Back the url up one dir for datasheets and pics of one hobbyists's implementation)
And another version using a pic instead of a dedicated display driver chip.
"While a WiFi Finder / Seeker won't make a connection out of thin air.."
Isn't that what wireless is supposed to do?
The article says that it couldn't test the original Kensington finder, but that they only heard bad news about it. This is true according to my experiences.
:-) This is the grey-metallic creditcard-sized one with 3 lights. Unfortunately it sucks, the lights are way too dim to be seen in any sunlight and the button is so weak it gets pressed in your pocket and wastes battery power. Besides that it detects any bluetooth phone as well and doesn't mention the difference (so it seems WiFi is detected).
:-)
I've got one myself, bought it about a year ago in a typical airport impulse purchase
I've also seen situations where I was able to get a WiFi connection on my laptop and the finder showed none, and the other way around (probably because it detected a bluetooth signal). I can't recommend it at all!
Just my 2 cents
Here's our UK legislation :
------------------
Computer Misuse Act 1990
An Act to make provision for securing computer material against unauthorised access or modification; and for connected purposes.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--
Computer misuse offences
Unauthorised access to computer material.
1.--
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if--
(a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer;
(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and
(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.
(2) The intent a person has to have to commit an offence under this section need not be directed at--
(a) any particular program or data;
(b) a program or data of any particular kind; or
(c) a program or data held in any particular computer.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.
------------------
So it could be argued that authorisation is required *before* attempting to access. Leaving the gates unlocked is not an invitaion to enter.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
You could also use our AvantGo channel for WiFiMaps.com -- even on your PDA, or your cell phone. Slightly more portable than opening up your laptop.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.