Any Wi-Fi discovery tool can find a hot spot, but some network operators also provide connection managers for their Wi-Fi services, mainly to integrate account information easily on both ends of the link.

A good example is Wi-Fi aggregator Boingo Wireless. We installed its GoBoingo client on our Windows XP machine. Operating this application is a bit counter intuitive, it wakes up when near a Boingo hot spot, but otherwise remains invisible. So, while GoBoingo is frequently listed as a discovery tool, it is’nt really. It’s just a way to connect to Boingo, and only Boingo, and subsequently manage your Boingo account.

We also tested T-Mobile’s HotSpot Connection Manager 1.8, a fundamentally consumer oriented tool that unsurprisingly allows the selection of a skin during installation. Upon start-up, it rapidly produced a list of potentially conflicting applications, disabled them and subsequently fired itself up.

Selecting the “networks” button brought up the usual information such as Service Set Identifier, icons for ad-hoc and infrastructure-mode availability, Basic SSID, radio , details on encryption, and a bar graph depicting signal strength. While slower than our Intel manager, T-Mobile’s tool is very usable and suitable even for those who do not regularly use T-Mobile’s not spot service.

We should point out that neither the Boingo nor the T-Mobile services require a connection manager, but the whole point of these, apart from discovery, is to make network access simple, especially for the less than technically literate.

Interestingly, some wireless WAN operators also provide discovery and connection-management tools that are occasionally configured to support WI-FL For example, Smith Micro Software, whose QuickLink Mobile application is used by a number of carriers, is sometimes made available with basic WLAN connectivity.

The product, however, is sold only on an OEM basis, and the version we frequently use at Farpoint Group Verizon Wireless’ VZ Access Manager 6.7.3 has no WLAN capability. In WWAN mode, however, it functions in much the same way as a WLAN connection manager, discovering networks, letting users choose their connection, setting up links and gathering statistics. Similarly, T-Mobile’s manager is configured to enable the setup of T-Mobile GPRS and EDGE connections.

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