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| Kensington Wi-Fi Finder | |
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It’s an exciting time for any attorney or legal assistant who has recently purchased a Wi-Fi-ready laptop or similar device. More than ever, establishments — 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 spots can be accessed by walking into your favorite establishment and connecting, sometimes for free or for a small fee. The problem, however, lies in finding these spots. Hot spots are not well advertised and most don’t have identifying symbols to help you scout them out. McDonalds uses a sign with a large “M” to tell its customers, “Come in here for Wi-Fi,” while a T-Mobile sign in a small corner of a Starbucks window signals a hot spot in the coffee shop. For the most part though, you just have to play search and seek to find Wi-Fi locations. To try and take some of the guess work out of this search mission, Kensington has come up with a device called the Wi-Fi Finder, which runs about $19.99. This little device is seemingly handy for finding hot spots without taking out your laptop and powering up to see if you can connect. But when put to the test, it seems Kensington needs a few more hours of development in its schedule to make this thing give proper results. The unit is roughly the size of a credit card, making it easy to carry. It has a silver finish, a button and three lights. When you press the button, the device is supposed to detect the presence of a Wi-Fi spot within 100 to 200 feet of where you are. When the hot spot is found, the lights turn green: One, two or three, depending on the signal strength of the spot. Likewise, if no spot is detected, one red light glows to notify you, and you can move on in your hot spot quest. I attempted to put the Kensington unit to the test in a Starbucks location half a mile away from my office. I consistently pressed the button and waited for a result. To my amazement the unit glowed red. Why was I amazed? Well, a peek into the shop showed people inside, sipping their lattes and typing away wirelessly on their laptops. And, oh yes, a sign in the corner indicated this store was indeed a T-Mobile hot spot. I proceeded to three other Starbucks facilities to try the device again and receive the same result. I went into each store, ordered, opened my Hewlett-Packard tablet computer and connected to the wireless network, but my Kensington Wi-Fi Finder gave me only red lights. In one instance, I got one glowing green light, even though I already was on a wireless network. Next, I moved to my doctor’s office to test his wireless network. Afterward, I tested the unit in my office. In both instances, I got only a red light or an intermittent green light 20 feet away from the transmitters — not 100 to 200 feet as advertised. Only when I got on top of the transmitters in each office did the Wi-Fi finder give me a detection signal of a good glowing quality and indicated there was a Wi-Fi network. It’s upsetting to me that a fine company like Kensington, which I have admired in the past for its product line, would let this device slip through its fingers. I think Kensington really needs to do more testing and updating of the product, and perhaps release another version to help bring its image, when it comes to Wi-Fi finding devices, back to an acceptable status in the marketplace. I really can’t recommend the Kensington Wi-Fi Finder to any readers at this point, as it was a disappointment to me. The device didn’t find the networks that most laptops would have located in a matter of moments. |
Kensington Technology Group Price: $19.99. Reviewed by Alan Pearlman, an attorney and computer consultant in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. In addition to his 31 years of active trial practice, Pearlman writes “The Electronic Lawyer,” a nationally syndicated column. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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