Day: November 18, 2008

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WiFi Search from an iPhone or iPod Touch

Keeping with the recent WiFi stumbling posts, I ran across this software for finding WiFi access points from an iPhone or iPod Touch:

WiFinder

It’s a simple and convenient way to analyze wireless networks. It shows you if there is wireless encryption, what kind of wireless encryption is used, the name, signal strength and network channel of the wireless networks. It can be set to automatically rescan and beep when a new network SSID (wireless network name) is found. If you see an open network, you can even connect to it from the WiFinder app. It’s a useful tool for network admins or “wardrivers” who want to see what networks are around.

Currently the WiFinder app is free in the App Store.

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Removing Duplicates in MS Outlook

A recent Arlington, Virginia, client found herself with duplicate contacts in Outlook. Microsoft Outlook can easily get duplicate emails, contacts, or calender records if you have a problem with importing, exporting, or syncing.

First Backup Your Outlook

Before doing anything, you should be sure to backup your Outlook file in case you mess anything up. You can find your outlook.pst file usually in the folder such as:
C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Copy the .pst files to another directory for you to put back there in case you destroy the original files.

Then Remove Your Duplicates

Duplicate Remover For Outlook was the software that we used to remove the thousands of duplicates that were in the Outlook file. It costs $24 for a single account. They have a free 30-day trial that will only delete 10 dups, but it shows you how the program works. It can remove duplicate contacts, notes, tasks, journals and calendar items.  It also has multiple options for how to handle duplicates: deleting to the deleted folder, deleting permanently, flagging, copying, and moving the duplicate items.

If you find that you have lots of duplicates in Outlook, the $24 will be well spent on the Duplicate Remover software.

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WiFi Finder Software for Windows

inSSIDer: Wi-Fi network scanner is free open source software for finding WiFi networks from a Windows XP or Vista computer. It is great for testing wireless network signal strengths, doing WiFi security checks for open access points, and determining what might be a good free channel to choose for your WiFi to have less interference.

Typically people have used software called NetStumbler. Unfortunately NetStumbler hasn’t been updated lately. Thankfully the folks at MetaGeek decided to make and give us inSSIDer for free.

The term inSSIDer is a play on words, with “SSID” being the term for the name of a WiFi network. If you need to find or analyze WiFi signals, inSIDDer is a great free tool.