3. Wi-Fi Detector Practical Usage

In practical use over a period of several weeks, we found the LCD display to be adequate, though certainly not ideal in all lighting conditions. The display is a relatively low contrast one, making it difficult to see in both bright and low light conditions. There is no backlight, either, so in “no-light” conditions, you’re not going to see anything at all.

In terms of signal identification, in controlled testing with a pair of wireless routers, we found some interesting results with the Wi-Fi Detector. For the most part, when the device is first turned on, it does correctly identify the number of hotspots, as well as their SSIDs, encryption levels (or open is there is none) and signal types.

What was somewhat surprising, though, was the fact that if we turned off the Wi-Fi Detector and then turned it on again (while still keeping both wireless routers running without interruption) there were intermittent cases where the Wi-Fi Detector did not detect one or both of the signals.

In some cases (though not all) the signal detection loss was likely attributable to a low battery power situation on the detector itself. The Wi-Fi Detector has internal rechargeable power that is recharged by simply plugging it into a USB port. Over our testing period we ran out of power on a fairly regular basis - this was typically because the device was left in the “on” position, and there is no automatic shut-off or battery saver mode.

The Wi-Fi Detector also did not fare well when one of the wireless routers was powered up after the Wi-Fi detector was turned on - apparently it doesn’t do a solid job of detecting new hotspots as they join. The same kind of persistence issue occurred when we changed the SSID of the wireless router, after it had already been turned on. Simply pressing the “seek” button on the bottom of the device did, however, consistently locate whatever hadn’t been located initially. So the real trick is to keep pressing the scanning button if you want the latest up-to-date info on local hotspots.

To be fair, it’s not likely that an SSID will change mid-stream in a public place, unless it’s some kind of rogue access point. When the SSID is hidden (or unknown) the Wi-Fi detector displays a question mark, which is helpful.

When it comes to measuring signal strength, StarTech’s device does provide an easy mechanism for persistently detecting signal strength. When you hit the SSID you’re interested in, all you need to do is hold in the “lock” button, which will then lock in the signal and provide real-time updated information.

The signal strength identified by the Wi-Fi detector was usually consistent with the default Microsoft Wi-Fi signal strength indicator on our Windows XP SP2 powered notebook.

As a part of our testing, we also brought in a Bluetooth access point, as well as a 2.4 GHz cordless phone into the same immediate area as the two wireless routers. To the Wi-Fi Detector’s credit, the extra signals did not seem to interfere at all with the identification of the two wireless routers.