Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter

I recently picked up a Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter, which is a handheld WiFi detector for 802.11 b/g networks.

It replaced an el-cheapo basic WiFi detector I had that showed a simple 4-bar graph of WiFi in the immediate area. While the el-cheapo was a neat starter device for WiFi detection, I wanted something better.

The Canary is idiot-proof - you press the button, and it shows the SSID (or 'Cloaked' for hidden SSID's), signal strength, channel, and secure/open status of all WiFi networks in the area. To list multiple networks, just press it again. It shuts off after 30 seconds of nonuse.

I've been really impressed with this thing's sensitivity, and I'm amazed at the level of WiFi saturation in the world. And not just consumer-level AP's - the Canary is also pretty good at picking up WiFi based inventory systems in places like the supermarket and the drugstore.

So this comes with me everywhere now, and I start dowsing for Wifi whenever I'm bored. The thing's about the size of a pager, and it runs off of two AAA batteries.

For a $50 (USD) device, it's pretty cool, and saves you the time and effort of walking around with the laptop open, hoping to stumble onto an open AP.