How to scan for wifi hotspots?

[Colin Brace]

Hi all,

How does one get online via public wireless access points in cafés and 
so on an ad hoc basis? My laptop is running Core 2; iwconfig and 
system-config-network recognize the wireless card, but I don't know how 
to obtain the SSID and so forth at a given location. Mac and Win users 
seem to have software which automatically detects a hotspot and brings 
up a connection; is anything with comparable functionality available for 
Linux?

KDE WiFi Manager looks like it might offer something along these lines, 
  but the last Red Hat RPM is from April 2003 for RH8 and obviously 
doesn't install under Fedora. See: 
http://sourceforge.net/project/show...?group_id=52104
I tried compiling it from source but got error messages.

The GNOME Wireless Applet also looks promising but the project web page 
hasn't been updated for two years, so it looks like it is in deep 
hibernation: http://gwifiapplet.sourceforge.net/

Thanks your time.