Finding Wireless Networks

[bLiss]

If you've ever used Windows, you might know that the dialog box that helps you find a wireless network is actually more helpful than Apple's Airport drop-down list from the menu bar.

Is there any way I can see ALL of the within-range networks, whether or not they're password-protected, and their signal strength -- at a glance? Thanks in advance.

[TheAnswer]

Here's a Dashboard widget that will do that: Airport Radar (http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/networking_security/airportradar.html). There are a couple more like it in Apple's downloads/dashboard section.

[bLiss]

Thanks so much! Perfect!

[M@lew]

iStumbler (istumbler.net) can do it as well.

[polycat33]

I really like coconutWiFi. It goes in the menu bar and shows the number of wireless networks it detects. If you click on it you'll get more info on each. There will be a green dot next to it if it isn't password protected, and an amber dot if it is. You can also get other info like the channel and the BSSID (don't know what that is but it might be useful) in that same drop down menu. You can set it to play a sound when a new network is detected as well. The only downside is it appears you can't actually select one in that drop down menu even though it lets you highlight and click and the menu goes away. So you have to find the one you want and then select it in the normal way.

[janey]

Wifind (not free) - http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/wifind.html

Not fond of it, loved to crash systemuiserver or something, vaguely remember what it did but it was not stable or very nice, and made switching networks a huge pain.

But it does the job.

[isalex]

Check out coconutWiFi 2.0 (http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutwifi/index.html)