Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor

Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor is a sidebar gadget that displays the surrounding Wi-Fi networks along with other useful information such as their action range.

This tiny tool features a very pleasant interface and can be placed in the Windows sidebar to run all the time, showing a wide range of information regarding the available Wi-Fi networks.

Of course, if you're already connected to a Wi-Fi network, it displays data such as connection status, IP address and MAC, adapter and even current and past signal strength. Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor reveals the security level, the network type and the vendor for every single surrounding Wi-Fi.

Although it's just a Windows gadget, the program looks pretty good and, additionally, it also boasts a large configuration screen to let you set up some of its features, as well as its appearance.

You can thus pick the adapter you wish to use (Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor supports multiple adapters), the display units, the RSSI, sweep type (sonar or radar), locate sound, polling interval and skin.

There are nine skins included in the pack, but the standard one looks pretty good and perfectly integrates with the default Windows sidebar design.

Of course, since it's developed to work with Windows sidebar, Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor can work on both Windows Vista and Windows 7, with an almost unnoticeable footprint on computer resources.

Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor is one of the most useful Windows gadgets out there, providing a surprising amount of details regarding Wi-Fi networks.