We’re living in a portable community where our laptops, PDAs and even our mobile phones can access the Internet. WiFi is the way forward as it will enable you to browse the web, check email and even chat with friends, from most locations, particularly large cities. There’s one snag: in most circumstances you’ll need to pay for a WiFi connection and, as there are a few competing providers, you might even need access to more than one network.

There are free WiFi networks available as some users forget to shut off their network to other users. It’s been proved in the UK that it’s illegal to access and utilise the bandwidth of another persons wireless network, without their permission. If you do manage to obtain their permission, that’s another matter entirely.

Whisher is a free tool that will enable you to share your WiFi network and find free networks that other users are sharing, with their permission, for you to use free-of-charge. By using Whisher to locate, find and connect to a WiFi network, you know you’re doing so with the permission of the person offering the network (via Whisher).

Whisher isn’t just a tool to connect and share a WiFi network. It will also enable you to connect to your friends, chat and communicate across different IM networks. You can use it to share and swap files and so much more.

Whisher is, at the moment, Windows XP only. There is no Vista version. There is a Mac OS X version due soon.

This is Whisher 3, a major new release. This version enables you to find and use commercial WiFi networks around the world.