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The Kensington Wi-Fi Finder: Now You Find It, Now You Don't!
Any attorney or legal assistant who in the past few months has purchased a Wi-Fi ready laptop or similar device is in for some exciting news! Simply put, more establishments than ever before, including your favorite coffee stop or fast-food hang out, are setting up Wi-Fi wireless Internet connections ' commonly referred to as “Hot Spots.”
These hot spot areas can be accessed by merely walking into your favorite establishment and connecting, for a fee or even free in some locations. But the problem seems to be how to locate these spots. The hot spots are not well advertised and have no identifying symbols so that we can scout them out, albeit, McDonalds seems to use a sign with a large “M” to tell its consumers “Come on in here for Wi-Fi” or a T-Mobile sign in a small corner of a Starbuck's window. For the most part you just have to play search and seek to find the locations.
Well, to try and take some of the guess work out of this search mission, Kensington has come up with a device they call the Kensington Wi-Fi Finder, which runs about $29.95. This little device would seem to come in handy in finding the hot spot zones without the necessity of taking out our laptops and powering up to see if we can connect. But when put to the test, it seems that Kensington has a few more hours of development in its schedule to make this thing give us a proper result!
The unit is approximately credit card size with a silver finish to it, allowing for easy carrying ability. Located on it is a button and three lights. Simply put, when you press the button the device will detect the presence of a Wi-Fi spot within 200 feet of where you are! When the hot spot is found, the lights go green ' one, two or three, depending on the signal strength of the spot. Likewise, if no spot is detected then one red light glows to notify you as such, and you can move on in your hot spot quest.
About half-a-mile from my office is a Starbuck's location, and so I attempted to put the Kensington unit to the test. I consistently pressed the button and waited for a result. To my amazement the unit glowed red. Ok, now you're saying, why amazed? Well a peek into the shop would show you that all there where sipping their lattes and typing away wirelessly on their laptops, and, oh yes, a sign in the corner indicating that this store was indeed a T-Mobile Hot Spot!
I proceeded to move on to three other Starbuck facilities to again try the device, with the same result! I went into each store, ordered, opened my HP Tablet P.C. and connected to the wireless network, BUT my Kensington Wi-Fi finder gave me only red lights, or in once instance one glowing green light, even when I was already on a wireless network!
I next moved on to my doctor's office, where I tested his wireless network, and then to my own office to test mine, and in both instances, I only got a red light or intermittent green light ' at distances close to 20 feet and not 200 feet as advertised. When I finally got on top of both the transmitters in both offices, only then did the Wi-Fi finder give me a detection signal of a good glowing quality and tell me that here, indeed, was a Wi-Fi network.
It seems upsetting to me that a fine company like Kensington, who I have admired in the past for their product line, would let this device slip through their fingers and elude them. I think that they really need to do more testing and perhaps updating of the product, and perhaps release another version to help bring their image, when it comes to Wi-Fi finding devices, back to an acceptable status in the marketplace!
I really cannot recommend the Kensington Wi-Fi Finder to any of my readers at this point in time, as it was a disappointment to me and could not find the networks that most other laptops could locate in a matter of moments!
Alan Pearlman www.theelectroniclawyer.com
Any attorney or legal assistant who in the past few months has purchased a Wi-Fi ready laptop or similar device is in for some exciting news! Simply put, more establishments than ever before, including your favorite coffee stop or fast-food hang out, are setting up Wi-Fi wireless Internet connections ' commonly referred to as “Hot Spots.”
These hot spot areas can be accessed by merely walking into your favorite establishment and connecting, for a fee or even free in some locations. But the problem seems to be how to locate these spots. The hot spots are not well advertised and have no identifying symbols so that we can scout them out, albeit, McDonalds seems to use a sign with a large “M” to tell its consumers “Come on in here for Wi-Fi” or a T-Mobile sign in a small corner of a Starbuck's window. For the most part you just have to play search and seek to find the locations.
Well, to try and take some of the guess work out of this search mission, Kensington has come up with a device they call the Kensington Wi-Fi Finder, which runs about $29.95. This little device would seem to come in handy in finding the hot spot zones without the necessity of taking out our laptops and powering up to see if we can connect. But when put to the test, it seems that Kensington has a few more hours of development in its schedule to make this thing give us a proper result!
The unit is approximately credit card size with a silver finish to it, allowing for easy carrying ability. Located on it is a button and three lights. Simply put, when you press the button the device will detect the presence of a Wi-Fi spot within 200 feet of where you are! When the hot spot is found, the lights go green ' one, two or three, depending on the signal strength of the spot. Likewise, if no spot is detected then one red light glows to notify you as such, and you can move on in your hot spot quest.
About half-a-mile from my office is a Starbuck's location, and so I attempted to put the Kensington unit to the test. I consistently pressed the button and waited for a result. To my amazement the unit glowed red. Ok, now you're saying, why amazed? Well a peek into the shop would show you that all there where sipping their lattes and typing away wirelessly on their laptops, and, oh yes, a sign in the corner indicating that this store was indeed a T-Mobile Hot Spot!
I proceeded to move on to three other Starbuck facilities to again try the device, with the same result! I went into each store, ordered, opened my HP Tablet P.C. and connected to the wireless network, BUT my Kensington Wi-Fi finder gave me only red lights, or in once instance one glowing green light, even when I was already on a wireless network!
I next moved on to my doctor's office, where I tested his wireless network, and then to my own office to test mine, and in both instances, I only got a red light or intermittent green light ' at distances close to 20 feet and not 200 feet as advertised. When I finally got on top of both the transmitters in both offices, only then did the Wi-Fi finder give me a detection signal of a good glowing quality and tell me that here, indeed, was a Wi-Fi network.
It seems upsetting to me that a fine company like Kensington, who I have admired in the past for their product line, would let this device slip through their fingers and elude them. I think that they really need to do more testing and perhaps updating of the product, and perhaps release another version to help bring their image, when it comes to Wi-Fi finding devices, back to an acceptable status in the marketplace!
I really cannot recommend the Kensington Wi-Fi Finder to any of my readers at this point in time, as it was a disappointment to me and could not find the networks that most other laptops could locate in a matter of moments!
Alan Pearlman www.theelectroniclawyer.com
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
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