Wi-Fi finder/detector

John_Gray

Has anyone any experience of these hand-held devices? I'm looking for something which I could use to wander around in an office/small building and determine the signal strengths from a wireless router placed in various locations.

I's prefer something better than a cheapo device that has a few coloured lights (so no Kensington HiFi Spotter!), but nothing as expensive as a wireless-equipped PDA (with MiniStumbler or WiFiFoFum) or even a small laptop.

Specifically, I'm looking at the snappily-named ZyXEL AG-225H Wireless Hotspot Finder and USB Adaptor at around £50, so anyone with actual experience of this would be wonderful.

Otherwise, any suggestions to do the job would be welcome!

Thanks

John

lipidicman

Been looking at these myself. Can these devices indicate whether a hotspot is unencrypted?

John_Gray

That's what the blurb seems to indicate...!

John

espresso

I have just seen a printed advert for a TEW-429UB 54Mbps 802.11g wireless USB2 adaptor with hot spot detector at a Christmas Special price of £30.99.

See WN-Technologies for more info.

The price on the website checkout is coming up at £49.99 at the moment but it may be worth contacting them if you are interested. [EMAIL=info@wn-technologies.com]E-Mail[/EMAIL]

Fraserca

If you have a pocket pc which has WiFi built in and is running Windows Mobile 2003 you can download this for free and use it to detect and test signal strengths and encryption.

http://www.kasuei.com/wifigraph/

Its Freeware but works great on my HP 4700

There is a list of pocket pcs it works on on the site.

2ax

Raytac WiFi HotSpots Finder DS-2400 - about £20

http://www.scancom.co.uk/product.php/321/0

I don't have one of these - I just remember it from their website

seaniboy

fraserca do you know of a similar program for XP on my laptop?

nads

seaniboy wrote:

fraserca do you know of a similar program for XP on my laptop?

Perhaps https://www.netstumbler.com? Same peep as ministumbler.

What is NetStumbler?
NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g. It has many uses:
Verify that your network is set up the way you intended.
Find locations with poor coverage in your WLAN.
Detect other networks that may be causing interference on your network.
Detect unauthorized "rogue" access points in your workplace.
Help aim directional antennas for long-haul WLAN links.
Use it recreationally for WarDriving.
What is Wardriving?
Wardriving is an activity consisting of driving around with a laptop or a PDA in one's vehicle, detecting Wi-Fi wireless networks. It is also known (as of 2002) as WiLDing(Wireless Lan Driving), originating with the Bay Area Wireless Users Group (BAWUG). It is similar to using a scanner for radio. Most wardrivers will use GPS devices to find the exact location of the network found and log it on a website.

shykins

not sure if this is the what u are looking for but i have just bought a keyring hotspot finder from maplin

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Home.aspx?world=c&userid=VIRGIN_PC

when u switch it on it tells u how strong the signal is any area for u to use yr wifi

John_Gray

Thanks, but I specifically didn't want a cheapo one which only shows signal strength!

John

shykins

ooops sorry bit of a technophobe here lol