WiFi Scanner

Uses extreme amounts of CPU!

This app is currently using over 97% CPU and making my computer's fans race, and it hit 101% a minute ago. WiFi Explorer uses less than 10% to perform the same scan functions, usually under 3%.

WiFi Scanner is vey similar to WiFi Explorer, but I prefer the latter.
The only advantage I see to WiFi Scanner is that it allows me to join the different signals it finds (passwords still needed for secured networks).

WiFi Explorer finds them, but you must use Airport to switch to them. That's a real problems for places like hotels that have many signals under one network name.
They’re often on different channels and some will be stronger than others, depending on your location in the building.
Airport doesn't allow me to switch to another SSID for the same network, it just joins the strongest one or the one it finds first.

WiFi Scanner lets me join any of them as long as the signal is strong enough.

Gotta knock off a star for the critical CPU problem.

Alright folks, help me out here. If all I’m really wanting is something to help deconflict from other Wi-Fi networks in the area, wouldn’t Apple’s included Wireless Diagnostics tool work just fine? And save me 15 bucks to boot now that the Wi-Fi Scanner developer has decided to start charging to put a pretty wrapper on something Apple already provides for free? Before I get flamed, of course I know Wi-Fi Scanner does other things but I’m just interested in identifying the local Wi-Fi networks, their channels and some basic signal strength metrics. Do a spotlight search on “Wireless Diagnostics” and open it up. Click on “Scan Now” in the lower right and voila, Apple’s cool little app finds all the 2.4 and 5GHz networks within range and the first column on the left makes suggestions on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels which are least used (Best choices if you don’t want to let Apple automatically select an appropriate channel). Plus if you pull down the Wireless Diagnostics “Window” menu, there’s other cool things in the app’s toolbox like a sniffer function.

Decent app but there are so many apps that do this. $10 is a deal breaker, a dollar would be more reasonable based on what it does.

I hate it when an app is listed here as free but when you get to the crApp Store you discover that it's not, and in this case costs $1.99 instead. Not sure who's to blame for wasting my time, but until it's clear I'll heap it on the developer.

This is not a free app.

Only works with Airport, as most of your scanners do except Kismac. I believe this is an APPLE thing and they've limited such products so you can only scan using airport and not whatever you want, like a USB wifi adapter, which would be a helpful feature to have especially if that's what you rely on to get distant signals. But it's not really your computer or device so they tell you what you can and can't do with it.

THIS APP CALLS OUT 5 TIMES IN THE FIRST MINUTE OF USE! IF YOU BLOCK A CALLOUT (with Little Snitch, for example) IT QUITS!!! THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM -- no freeware app should need to call out so frequently, nor should it quit if it is not allowed to do so -- BECAUSE THAT IS SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR. Though it may simply be calling out to Google for version checking, why would it need to do so 5 times in the first minute and many more times while in use? I ADVISE PEOPLE NOT TO DOWNLOAD AND USE THIS APP OR ANY OTHER THAT REQUIRES SO MANY CALLOUTS. I appreciate developers who offer apps for free, but that does not give them license to abuse our trust by gathering and transmitting information, no matter what info, and no matter where it's sending it. BY NOW, JUST ABOUT EVERYONE IS AWARE THAT CORPORATIONS, INDIVIDUALS AND EVEN GOVERNMENTS ARE WHITTLING AWAY AT OUR PRIVACY. NOW WE MUST ACT TO STOP IT.

Download link is broken. "Sorry, but the page you were looking for was not found."

It does what it's supposed to do and it works for me. I had previously used iStumbler, but doesn't work with Snow Leopard and the developer hasn't fixed it. AFAIK, this application is the only free wifi scanner and connection manager. Many thanks to the developer for filling the gap when iStumbler became broken with SN.

PPC/Intel and OS 10.6 minimum is mutually exclusive - 10.6 won't run on no PPC. Sad.