Five Snow Leopard Tips in Five Days: Tip 4 - AirPort Networks

Discover more about nearby AirPort networks.

When you click the AirPort icon in the menu bar to view nearby wireless networks, Snow Leopard gives you more information about them: a lock icon to indicate whether the network requires a password (a feature introduced in Leopard) and the network's signal strength.

If you hold the Option key when clicking the AirPort menu bar icon, you're treated to still more information, not just for the network to which you're already connected, but also for other networks. A yellow tooltip appears with data such as which channel the network is using (that’s helpful if you're trying to avoid interference with other devices) and what type of security is being used (to stay away from easily-hacked WEP networks).