What 802.11 detector do you use?
 

I got the Kensington WiFi Finder Plus. It seems to work great although I haven't been able to try it at any airport yet.

Do any of you use a detector? Which one?

With Windows XP, you don't need a detector -- there's one built in. Simply go to network connections (in control panel) and right click on your wireless icon. Then click on the tab that says "view available wireless networks".

Ditto for Macintosh, except it's even simpler. Look at the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar. If there's a network around, it will show one to four black (as opposed to light grey) arcs. The number of black arcs indicates signal strength.

None of these guarantee that you'll be able to use the network, of course. They just tell you it's there.

That's not really the point of a detector. It's useful so that you can check for wifi connectivity without booting up.

DUH! Laptops make poor network detectors.
 

:rolleyes:

Now please explain why I would want to boot up my laptop just to see if a wireless network exists. Suppose the network doesn't exist where I'm sitting. This is the case in many airports. Do I want to walk around with my laptop powered on looking for the presence of a network?

I wanted a simple device that would tell me if 802.11 is present without having to boot up.

pdxer,

Thanks for that review.

Let me see if I understand this. You want to buy a second piece of equipment, one which you will need to carry around in addition to your laptop, and one which not only requires batteries, but probably non-rechargeable batteries. And you want to do this only so that you don't have to boot up your laptop?

To each his own, I suppose.

What's this about booting up? Doesn't every laptop made for years go into Sleep mode when you close the lid, then wake up in about a tenth of a second when you open it?

So, when walking around the airport with all your bags, you think it's effective to open the laptop bag, and carry a $2500 laptop around in your arms watching the wireless signal while dragging the bags around looking for a signal and dodging fellow passengers?

To each his own, I suppose.

Yes, it's called Hibernate and it does exactly that (except it takes 2 or 3 seconds.) Besides, some of us have work to do on our laptops even if we can't find a WiFi connection!

Interesting.

Only one of them tells you if the channel is encrypted or not, and none of them can tell you if the connection is open or if you have to log in to use it. So there's still going to be some booting up your computer trial-and-error.

Perhaps I misunderstood. I thought the OP asked becaused he wanted to _use_ his laptop. If all he wants is just find a signal, then you are quite correct. However, if he plans on actually using the laptop, then, yes, he will have to open the laptop bag, etc.

No sense in ordering the ice cream if all you want are the sprinkles, eh? :)

We're talking about whether there's any signal at all. If there's no signal it makes no sense totry your comouter.

No sense in getting your wallet out if there's no ice cream store nearby.

OMG! If must be rocket science for some of you.
 

Wow. It seems as though only ScottC and Xyzzy can only understand the goal of not wanting to drag out my laptop just to see if a wireless network exists.

Equipment? You make it sound as if we're talking about some heavy oscilloscope. :rolleyes: The damned thing only weighs an ounce.

That's just stupid. That still doesn't solve the fact that I have to either walk around with my laptop open or keep opening and closing it while searching for a connection.

By the time I drag out the notebook, I can already know whether or not there was a Wifi presence. Hibernation still adds more time to the process.

:rolleyes:

And some of us need a connection of some type to do our job. Spare me the attittude.

MiniStumbler on my wifi-enabled PDA

Well, speaking of attitude ... ahem.

Pardon me if this is common knowledge, but I have a question: is "accidental" wifi access in airports really that common? I thought that commercial ISPs were providing access-for-pay at some airports and that perhaps stores like Starbucks might also provide it. But, what kind of source might there be at an airport for open access wifi without payment?

AA's terminal in ORD has no Wifi outside of the AC. At JFK there is no access in T9. Even the Starbucks is Wifi-less. MIA has nothing, but that's to be expected from that banana republic. LAX has nothing either.

Someone told me that there was acccess at these airport being provided by some off-brand(non T-Mobile) ISP's, but the coverage was sporadic and didn't cover the entire terminal. This is where the detector comes in.

There are places where the signal leaks from the Admiral Clubs, but it's not always near the front door.

I don't know what you need the access for, but I basically need only to check email and, if I'm extremely bored, browsing the web. For both of those things I use a Treo. It uses GSM, which is everywhere (at least where I live), and my ISP has multiple POPs (points of presence) in Belgium, as well as all over the Netherlands. This means a local phone call to download (or upload) my email. As I carry the Treo on my belt anyhow, this is, for me, a very nice and easy solution.

This thread - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=283094 - shows that there are quite a few. I was videoconferencing with my family at McDonalds at PIT last week waiting for a flight.

Accidental access at airports is rare to non-existent. Terminals tend to be too far from any other buildings to have spill-over from anything outside the airport. Sources within the airport are limited. This differs from cities, where it's common to find open wi-fi networks within range of publicly accessible places. (I know one Starbucks that offers paid wi-fi but is in an building where a nearly tenant has an open network. Maybe someone pays for surfing there, but I don't.)

Several airports provide free public wi-fi access on purpose, though. The above thread lists quite a few of them.

With my new NetGear card, their wireless network util scans networks and reports on signal strength and whether the G or B networks are open or not.

Is there stand-alone software that can do the same thing?