Portable WiFi Detector Comparison

I take my PowerBook when traveling and it’s often handy to be mooch some WiFi while waiting at an airport gate or cafe. Of course, it’s not so convenient to have to lug out the laptop just to check if there’s WiFi in the area. Fortunately, there're various hand-held WiFi detectors that can tell you if there's WiFi in the area. And, Handtops has a comparison of five of them.

As opposed to some first-generation WiFi detectors — some of which didn’t even work — this lot fairs much better. All of them include 802.11b & 802.11g support and one even detects Bluetooth. The one that caught my eye, though, was the Digital Hotspotter from Canary Wireless:

The Digital Hotspotter (HS10) is the only device on the market that not only detects a connection and its strength, but can also tell you whether it is encrypted, what channel it is on and the name of the network. You simply press the button and the device starts scanning and then stops once it finds a network. […]

WiFi detectors are useful in theory, but not good for much when they obediently report on the nearby full-signal network… that’s encrypted. With a digital screen which can display the nearby networks’ SSID information, there’re shouldn’t be as much of the doh-it’s-encrypted problem. (Then again, it wouldn’t be able to differentiate from open networks and “open” networks with a for-pay gateway.)

All the same, even though the Digital Hotspotter was the only device with a digital screen and the device with the longest detection range, Handtops wasn’t conclusive in declaring a winner. Apparently, the Digital Hotspotter occasionally had trouble detecting some networks; according to the manufacturer, it could have trouble with some devices that “broadcast their beacon frames at a higher than acceptable data rate”. Still, I don’t see anyone else offering a digital screen and a range of up to 600 ft ;). I may just have to get one of these sometime.