Your Guide To Wireless

Wi-Fi Trekker WFS-2

Smart ID's newly revamped [tag]Wi-Fi Trekker[/tag] is only slightly larger than PCTEL's [tag]Wi-Fi Seeker[/tag] but comes with a neck strap rather than a key ring. Holding the device's single button down continually scans the area. This device features a unique Auto Scan Mode, which continually searches for a wireless network when you click the button twice. The Wi-Fi Trekker's small size and sleek design make it one of the few devices that you'd want to be seen wearing around your neck. Th...

WEP Naming Conventions

There is some confusion among various vendors with regard to referring to encryption strength. You will see vendors variously referring to 40-, 64-, 104-, and 128-bit encryption. In reality, vendors refer to 40- and 64-bit and 104- and 128-bit encryption interchangeably. The length of the secret keys will be 40 or 104 bits (depending on the strength of encryption), but each will use a 24-bit vector initialization vector (e.g., 40 plus 24 = 64 and 104 plus 24 = 128). [tags]WEP,encryption [/tags]...

Wi-Fi HotSpots Finder DS2400

The Wi-Fi HotSpots Finder DS2400 features five green LEDs dedicated to displaying the wireless network's signal strength. A sixth green LED indicates the unit's power and scanning status. Pressing the Detect button once scans the area for a signal, while holding the button down continually scans while you move. This unit was our top performer of the bunch, detecting a usable signal in all circumstances, even at 100 feet away from the coffee shop, which stumped four of the six devices we te...

Wireless AMBER Alerts

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has partnered with the wireless industry to offer AMBER Alerts for text-enabled wireless devices. Subscribers whose wireless provider participates in the program can opt in to receive the alerts by registering at www.wirelessamberalerts.org. During the subscription process, the service verifies your provider's participation, and you can specify as many as five ZIP codes from which to receive text message alerts about missing children. Instruct...

Digital Hotspotter HS10

Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter has by far the most potentially useful sniffer of the lot. The Digital [tag]Hotspotter[/tag] is equipped with an LCD screen that informs you of a hotspot's SSID (Service Set Identifier), channel data, signal strength, encryption status, and whether the network is open or closed. Pressing and releasing the single button initiates a scan. Canary's device is the only one that uses AAA batteries, which are an easy find just about enywhere, but the unit suffers...

Surf Into Barnes & Noble

Your local Barnes & Noble bookstore has mind-boggling amounts of information in the hardbound and paperback books that line its aisles. Now the popular stores are offering even more information and entertainment, this time via wireless high-speed Internet access points. Barnes & Noble operates nearly 900 bookstores in the United States and more than 600 of those stores have wireless Internet access. To take advantage of the high-speed Internet hotspots at these stores, all you need is your noteb...

Wi-Fi Locator HWL1

Hawking Wi-Fi 2.4GHZ 802.11B/G Locator (HWL1) is the largest unit we tested. It has a clamshell design, with a high-gain antenna that flips up to pinpoint nearby hotspots. The Wi-Fi Locator features five blue LEDs for indicating signal strength and an orange power LED. Pressing the Locate button once scans the area, and holding the button down causes the Wi-Fi Locator to continually search for the signal's source. Because this device relies heavily on the directional antenna, it was sometim...