ok, this may or may not be legal, i'm not sure, but someone was telling me the other day that a friend of theirs had picked up a box for their apartment at a market that 'finds' all wifi networks within 5km range and allows access to them. i assume thats only unsecured networks, but hey, if it can find them up to 5km away, i should be laughing.i wouldnt dream of stealing anyones bandwidth, but i would be able to get mcd's, and stuff like that, with any luck. anyone heard or seen these?
either this or a dongle me thinks.....
DD

Will be watching this space with interest

why? problem? i've had telefonica for 5 years and have paid the full whack for it. i'm living in a rented apt for 2-3 months so dont want a 12 month contract - free wifi is free wifi where-ever you are. denia has 3 wifi hotspots around the town, they just all happen to be the other side from me, and take me a half hour to walk to.
DD

Technically I would venture that 5Km seems a long way, 100m would be optimistic with Spanish buildings.

No no problem, you got the wrong end of the stick. I drive round like a saddo when down at the coast, trying to find unsecured WiFi because I´m reliant on a very slow system (burnside unit) at home or going 16km round trip to the village computer room! So if anyone comes up with a way of identifying where WiFi´s available, I´m interested!

Hi - Yes there is a system linked with BT. If you have BT wireless in the UK - you can go on line and share your system. This means if you are on holiday you can go on line and see who has signed up in your area, and link into their system (for no charge). There is a limited range on the wireless connection. It is a reciprocal agreement with some provider like telefonica. It means somebody can come to where I live in Shetland and park outside and use our wireless/ or we can drive to our next village in Spain and share a system there. (Its does mean for the England match on Saturday - OH as to sit outside somebodies house in Granada with a laptop, to watch the match)

I hope this makes sense - my OH signed up for this, and he is away at the minute, so I can't give you all the details. But, you can get them on the BT website.

It must just be a signal amplifier, all I can say is just don't do anything using one of these networks that is in any way really important, if you can access their network, they can access your computer, and as has been shown on TV, they can find ANY personal information, which may give them the opportunity for ID theft.

ooh, sorry - thought that was a 'sneaky' bugger reply. apologies. no, i know the feeling. after moving, i'm now going from pillar to post trying to get good connections, and the free zones in denia are just too far for me to nip to every few hours, plus the fact my laptop battery is pretty dire. hence why this thing sounds interesting, if it actually does what i've been told. i'd be happy enough if i was renting for a year, but thats not the case, so i need a quick solution that will last a few months.

I have one of these little widgets. It's key ring sized and has half a dozen LEDs on it denoting received signal strength. It's not very smart and just detects the presence of a wifi signal not wheter it is secured or unsecured.

5Km, no chance as wifi goes nowhere near that distance. Even with a specialised roof mounted unidirectional aerial you'll be lucky to get a couple of Km in free air. More like 100m probably less depending on thickness of walls

If I remember it cost ne less than £10 from Maplins in the UK a couple of years ago.

Alternatively just drive around with your phone's wifi enabled and it will make a noise when it finds a network and also tell you if it's secured or not.

no, thats not it. this is different. seen those wifi finders before. you can pick them up on ebay for about a quid. no, this is apparently something much grander - i assume its a booster of some sort, i would be dubious of the 5km statement, but then i've never needed something like this before, and who knows what theyre making in china these days! jeez, i got myself a great wee antenna for my ipod for £2 which allows me to use it in my car!!

I have Network Stumbler on my laptop which I have used trying to find a signal in Spain whilst on holiday, but it's nothing like as sophisticated as that mentioned by the OP.

I thought all wifi cards auto pick up wifi signals ? lol.

Mine used to pick up about 10 every day, usually Telefonica security enabled, but also blusky and others.

They will but you have to have your notebook pc powered up. Imagine finally finding am unsecured network, just as your battery gasps it's last :-)

Best program I use for the PC is shown below in a video. It pulls up a little radar and shows ALL nearby your location, some green some red.

Too simple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lNqqryPBNU
DSB.