coconutWiFi: WiFi As It Should Be
Many people who travel with their laptops a lot find themselves constantly trying to find new WiFi networks to connect to. The airport menu provides something to be desired when searching for WiFi networks, because you must keep opening and closing it to check for new networks. To find out if a network is secured or unsecured, ou must try and connect to it first. coconutWiFi from coconut-flavour makes a great step forward in solving some of these problems.
While coconutWiFi is running, it shows an icon in your menu bar that is color coded to give you all the necessary information on any available WiFi networks. The icon is green when there is at least one unencrypted and open network (the number is shown next to the icon), yellow if there are only encrypted networks available, and red if there is no network available. If you click on the icon, the shows you the SSIDs, BSSIDs (non user modifiable router ID), and channel for each network. Is shows which networks are open (by the same colors) and also alerts you if the network is ADHOC (created by another computer). You can also enable or disable your airport and access network preferences from this menu.
While there are other programs that do similar things such as WiFind (which we have reviewed), coconutWiFi has the best user interface of any I have seen. coconutWiFi is available as freeware from coconut-flavour. If you find the program useful, the author asks for small donations.
one thing ive never figured out is what cant any app like this be used to replace the default airport or send back data to airport.
For example, if lets say coconutwifi pick up an open wireless signal from say SSID ‘opennet’, then I should be able to choose that and it should automatically connect to that network using airport.
is this doable?
I prefer WiFind. It doesn’t add any menu bar items, instead adding functionality to Apple’s existing Airport menu bar item. It identifies open and locked connections, as well as signal strength (and channel if you hover). Download the trial at tastyapps.com and give it a whirl! And at only $8, it is an easy purchase. (No, I don’t work for them or are affiliated in any way. Just a rabid fan.)
[...] access to Wifi in coffee shops, book stores, airports, hotels and countless other places is wonderful. It allows [...]