Option-Click AirPort Menu for Network Details
If you hold down the Option key while clicking the AirPort menu in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you'll see not just the names of nearby Wi-Fi networks, but additional details about the selected network. Details include the MAC address of the network, the channel used by the base station, the signal strength (a negative number; the closer to zero it is, the stronger the signal), and the transmit rate in megabits per second showing actual network throughput. If you hover the cursor over the name of a network to which you're not connected, a little yellow pop-up shows the signal strength and type of encryption.
Written by
Adam C. Engst
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Chuck Shotton Resurrecting MacHTTP
Chuck Shotton Resurrecting MacHTTP -- Chuck Shotton, the man who created the first Web server for the Macintosh, is resurrecting that early program, MacHTTP, and is once again making it available to the Macintosh community. As the Internet's popularity grew, Chuck built on his experience with MacHTTP and was responsible for large parts of StarNine's WebSTAR (now owned by 4D). He left StarNine some time ago to focus on his own company, BIAP Systems, whose flagship product is the automated information retrieval program GOtrieve. Now, however, he has posted a minor update to MacHTTP, addressing a few performance issues and redoing the license to allow for free non-commercial use. MacHTTP isn't a high-performance Web server and it lacks the high-end features from products like WebSTAR and Tenon's WebTen. But hey, it's free, most people don't need serious performance, and it's great to have an old friend that once won Apple's Cool Tools award rejoining the community. Chuck is even considering making MacHTTP open source. You can download a copy of MacHTTP 2.3 (498K) at the MacHTTP.Org Web site. [ACE]
<http://www.machttp.org/>
<http://www.webstar.com/>
<http://www.biap.com/>
<http://www.tenon.com/products/webten/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/01799>
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