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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
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.
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 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.
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.
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