Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few years, you know that wireless Internet is everywhere -- in hotels, coffee shops, airport lounges, and even at the park.

Along with the proliferation of wireless comes a whole host of new technologies to make it easier to find and set up a wireless connection. There's no longer any need to decipher hieroglyphic warchalking marks.

Linksys has simplified the matter with its new Wireless-G USB Adapter that has a built-in Wi-Fi finder to help you locate and connect to any public Wi-Fi hotspot.

Look and Feel

With a supersized thumb-drive form factor, you can slip the device in to any bag or pants pocket. A lanyard comes included for looping it around your neck for those days when you want to be uber-geek chic.

A small, but easy to read, black-and-white LCD on one side of the device displays useful information on all the Wi-Fi networks around you.

Features

The dual-function Linksys WUSBF54G combines a wireless network scanner with a Wireless-G USB adapter. Just push a button on the easy-to-use Wi-Fi finder to begin the Wi-Fi network search. After several seconds, pertinent information will pop up on the small screen.

In order of signal strength, the device offers the network name, channel, 802.11 mode, signal strength, and whether the connection is locked or not. However, it does not provide information on the type of security encryption (WPA or WEP) protecting a network.

Once you locate an access point, you simply plug in the device to your notebook's USB port to use it as an 802.11b/g USB adaptor. You will need to have the included software loaded, but with all the features of a typical wireless card, including DHCP and security options, the adapter will get you up and running on the Internet in no time.

Moreover, the device charges itself over the USB connection, so you don't have to carry around a separate, clunky power adaptor.