By Glenn Fleishman

Wi-Fi network detectors have become a large class of disparate items. Designed ostensibly to alert you to the presence and signal strength of nearby Wi-Fi networks -- and sometimes the network’s name, security setting and channel selection -- none of them works well enough to replace firing up a laptop.

Until getting my hands on ZyXEL’s AG-225H -Wi-Fi Finder and USB Adapter, the best Wi-Fi detector I’ve seen to date is Canary Wireless’s Digital Hotspotter, which uses an LCD display to provide text and symbol details. But it can show just a single network’s details slowly scrolling across the large territory of its screen.

The ZyXEL has a small but highly readable LCD display that shows you every useful piece of information at a glance. Unlike the Canary detector, ZyXEL’s Wi-Fi Finder distinguishes between an open network, one using WEP, and one using WPA/WPA2. Full Story...