Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: wifi, wireless, detector | Themes: Networking
5. Kensington WiFi Finder Plus
The Kensington WiFi Finder Plus is a bona fide keychain - it even has a hook for attaching your keys. It also includes a neat little amber flashlight.
Oh, and it’s a Wi-Fi signal detector too!
Unlike the StarTech device, though, the Kensington WiFi Finder Plus is a very simple affair that just has a series of five LEDs that indicate signal strength.
You push the button, the lights cycle - oooh, aah, flashing lights... - and then however many lights stay lit is what your signal strength is.
There is no SSID or encryption identification on this device. As was the case with the StarTech unit, the Kensington WiFi Finder locates only 802.11 b/g signals. It is also supposed to indicate if there is a Bluetooth signal present. In limited testing with a Motorola Bluetooth access point, however, the Kensington WiFi Finder did not positively identify the active signal.
In terms of identifying 802.11 b/g, signals the Kensington WiFi Finder provided results that were intermittently inconsistent. The Kensington WiFi Finder would usually identify the signal and provide the same signal strength that was indicated by the StarTech Wi-Fi Detector. The problem was that when we clicked the WiFi Finder the second or third time, the signal strength would change or sometimes not even register - even though the wireless router was in the same relative position, and no changes had been made. This same issue recurred consistently during our testing period.
For the most part, though, the WiFi Finder did correctly positively identify the wireless signals in the majority of attempts.
Without knowing how many access points are in an area, however, and whether or not they are open or closed (encrypted) the WiFi Finder is a somewhat limited device. If you just want to know if there is Wireless access in an area (for whatever reason) this device may be all that you need. If you’re looking for more information about the signals that are actually out there, you should probably be looking at a different device.
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Great review and very helpful. Thanks!
Would have been nice to see how they stack up to the internal catcher you have integrated in notebooks.
That's it? Only 2 devices tested? I am disappointed.
Yeah, I'm with Droseph on this. Surely there are more than 2 of these devices on the market.
And I owned the Kensington detector. It was a useless piece of junk.
Yeah, I'm with Droseph on this. Surely there are more than 2 of these devices on the market.
And I owned the Kensington detector. It was a useless piece of junk.
There's really little point in Carrying one of these devices nowadays anyway. Many Nokia N & E series mobile phones have WiFi built in and come with an app on the main screen that constantly scans for access points, lists their names & allows you to dive in to find out what encryption & signal strength is available. Even older Nokia (WiFi enabled) mobiles that didn't have this as a main screen app allowed you to do the same by loading the "connection manager" app. Far more convenient than carrying an extra device.
Save yourself the money and hassle and buy a Nokia N95
...or you could just open Safari or Mail on your iPhone and it will tell you for certain not only what Wi-Fi is available, but which are locked for security which the other devices won't do. Keychain devices have a bad habbit of picking up WiFi that has no SSID broadcast so even if it claims there's a clear signal, dragging out the notebook usually results in finding out you can't log on anyway.
Most people with a notebook and a need to use WiFi in multiple places typically have PDAs or smartphones anyway, so who do these keychain devices really target anyway? They're just an accessory for retailers to push on people buying a new laptop, or on a kid starting college...
...or you could just open Safari or Mail on your iPhone and it will tell you for certain not only what Wi-Fi is available, but which are locked for security which the other devices won't do. Keychain devices have a bad habbit of picking up WiFi that has no SSID broadcast so even if it claims there's a clear signal, dragging out the notebook usually results in finding out you can't log on anyway.
Most people with a notebook and a need to use WiFi in multiple places typically have PDAs or smartphones anyway, so who do these keychain devices really target anyway? They're just an accessory for retailers to push on people buying a new laptop, or on a kid starting college...
If you have set your router to not broadcast it's SSID, will they show up on either of these units?
If you have set your router to not broadcast it's SSID, will they show up on either of these units?
I personally how this device
http://trendnet.com/langen/product [...] 9UB&cat=84
And it works great
I also own this cheapo D-Link hotspot detector
http://www.dlink.ca/products/?pid=618
One thing, the more expensive TrendNET base itself on the SSID, so the SSID-off access point won't show up. The D-Link will show the presence of an access point even if the SSID broadcast is disabled, but will indeed not show the access point SSID name, only the signal strengh.
try it first