13. Canary Wireless DigitalHotspotter: A WiFi Network Discovery Tool That Works

Reviewer: Barry Gerber

Life's frustrating enough for most dads. Your dad shouldn't have to turn on his laptop or notebook computer and fiddle with WiFi settings only to discover that no usable network is available. That's where the battery operated DigitalHotspotter H10 from Canary Wireless comes in. Just press the little white button and the DH H10 searches for and shows you available WiFi networks in seconds.

Unlike other WiFi finders, the H10 doesn't just tell you that networks are around. It tells you the Network's service set identifier (SSID) which will be displayed on your computer when it looks for available WiFi networks. You also use the SSID to tell your computer which WiFi network to connect to. In the photo the HS10 is showing the SSID of our MobilityGuru test network, mobguru.

The DigitalHotspotter also show the strength of each WiFi networks signal. In the photo you can see three of the four bars that indicate signal strength. Actually, mobguru's signal got four bars from the HS10 you just can't see the last one. The WiFi finder shows two more pieces of information, the network's encryption status as either open or secure and the radio channel number used by the network. The HS10 isn't just for finding WiFi networks. We've used its channel number info to troubleshoot channel interference problems in a variety of situations.

We tried the Canary Wireless WiFi finder in several locations from a crowded condo building to a very busy airport to a large office building to a quiet single family residential neighborhood. The HS10 quickly identified a number of wireless networks in all cases. There were usually a few that weren't closed and we were able to piggyback on them. Of course, this is neither courteous nor a good idea if you're concerned about the security of your own computer. Rather, think of the HS10 as a quick way for dad to find "legal" open WiFi networks in public places like coffee shops and airports.

We did notice one interesting thing about the DigitalHotspotter. If a wireless access point is not set for encryption, but is set to permit connections only by authorized MAC addresses, the HS10 can't find and/or doesn't show it. That provides folks who use this form of security just a bit of protection, given that it isn't too difficult to find an authorized MAC address on the access point and then use the address to connect.

At just 2.5 ounces and measuring 2.52" x 2.17" x 1.06" the Canary Wireless DigitalHotspotter HS10 just might be the inexpensive, but essential Father's Day gift you're looking for.