No one has a clue? I'd appreciate it.

Hello there, I have a problem dealing with the Wireless Networks in my area and i'd like help from someone as i've tried many many ways and i havent been able to solve it. Around the place where i usually go on vacation there are a number of Free Hotspots for free internet that one can connect to in order to have internet access. My question is, usually at my house i can see for sure with 3rd party apps that there are many (4+) wireless networks all named the same (e.g. Free_Hotspot_Internet), and the wireless manager on windows 7 only shows one, i assume it's the one that has the strongest signal, well that doesn't suit me, as i'd like to be able to select any of the 4 or more available and connect to the one i want to, not the one windows finds has the stronger signal, i've tried many, inumerous 3rd party apps but none of them seems to work, from Netstumbler, to Easy Wifi Radar, none of them is compatible with windows 7, even using the compatibility feature. Can anyone help me with this? Is there a way to view ALL of the networks and not just oen and select the one i really want to connect to? Cheers

I understand what you're asking, but I don't think it's possible. You must understand that when you connect, you're connecting to a network and not a particular access point. If all the access points have the same SSID then as far as the OS is concerned (Windows, OSX, Linux) they're all on the same network and it's always going to connect to the one with the strongest signal. Think cellular phones for a moment - let's say you have T-Mobile service and are in range of three of their towers. You can't pick which tower your phone connects to, it'll always connect the the one with the best signal. Now, if these access points are really on different networks, and it sounds like you think they are, your best bet is to convince the owner of the access point to change their SSID to something more unique and identifiable. Good luck with that...

well, i know for a fact they are different networks cause they're associated with the "main" network of each person's router, kinda like, its turned on by default at the router to have that secondary wireless network sharing a bit of that person's internet to whoever connects to that hotspot, thing is there are lots of hotspots here and i would like to connect to a diff one just because the one that has the strongest signal is the most unstable one =/

Dowload and run Netstumbler . It will show all networks in your area including those that do not broadcast SSIDs which would prevent them from showing up under windows. Not that some free wireless networks are honeypots and can be dangerous to hook up to. Jerry