Open)Justin Williams reviews WiFind, the Mac OS X hack that makes your Airport status menu infinitely more useful.
Several days a week, I find myself lingering outside of a Starbucks, Panera Bread or other wireless Internet hotspot needing to grab a quick connection to check something. Usually I don't want to get out of the car and try to connect to the wireless source from within my car. If I am able to park close enough, this usually isn't an issue, but a lot of times I find it's a crap-shoot whether I will get a successful connection, and if I do, will it be strong enough to be useful?
The problem with knowing these details is that Apple's Airport status menu doesn't give you much information about a wireless access point aside from it's name. Just from looking at it, I can't tell how close the signal is and whether or not it's an open connection.
For several years there have been third-party solutions such as iStumbler I could launch to test a signal, but for many situations, the data provided by iStumbler is overkill. I just need to know the signal strength and whether or not it's an open connection.
I recently found a solution to my plight from a small company known as TastyApps. TastyApps specializes in small utilities that make simple tasks in our lives much easier. For example, they have a Safari plug-in called Red Snapper that takes screenshots of a Web page you are viewing. They also offer the ability to save embedded flash video to your Mac with their FLVR application.
The Tasty application I was most interested in enjoy was WiFind. WiFind that allows you to see whether a wireless connection is locked or unlocked as well as it's signal strength before you try connecting to it. WiFind, like several of the other Tasty applications, uses SIMBL, a system hack that allows developers to write plugins for Cocoa application that do not have a plugin architecture. SIMBL was originally developed by Mike Solomon for use in his Safari ad blocking plugin, Pithhelmet.
Usage
Installation of WiFind is as simple as running the application's installer. The installer installs the SIMBL bundle if you don't have the latest version and the WiFind bundle in your /Library folder. I'm personally not a fan of having system-modifying plugins insering themselves in the user experience of all the accounts on my Mac. I tried moving the WiFind bundle to my home directory's Library folder and restarting, but was unsuccessful at getting WiFind to work.
After installation is complete, you probably won't notice much different about your Mac. The Airport menu still looks the same. Clicking on the menu, however, reveals the changes that WiFind implements to the menu as you can see in the screenshot below.
Each visible WiFi hotspot appears just like before but to the left is an indicator that let's you know how strong the signal is as well as a lock icon. A red icon means that the access point is not open and requires a password. A green icon means it's open for public consumption.
System placement gripe aside, WiFind is a nice supplement to my Mac. It makes Apple's Airport status menu infinitely more useful and eliminates the mind numbing task of click and pray when it comes to trying to access remote WiFi connections. If you are against system hacks such as InputMangers, SIMBL or APE, WiFind is probably not a solution you are looking for. If, however, you don't mind a little code injection in your diet, be sure to give WiFind a try. It's definitely worth the $8 price tag if you are a road warrior like myself.
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (5)
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#1) On June 9, 2007 7:49 AM
As Justin suggested, I found this utility useful. Not more clicking on each wireless icon hoping to connect to an unprotected network and praying that the connection was robust.
#2) On June 10, 2007 5:43 PM
Just a question. When you say open and public, you mean the site hasn’t purposely enabled passwords right? Because there’s been stories out of Illinois and Michigan about people getting convicted of crimes for using unprotected wifi networks. Something to consider.
#3) On June 10, 2007 7:51 PM
Open and public = Unprotected and visible. Whether you use them or not is at your discretion.
#4) On June 14, 2007 2:25 AM
WiFind is great - I just bought it.
#5) On February 12, 2010 4:52 PM
Seems like a nice app!