Better replacement for "Wireless Network Connection" dialog?

[Dan <dan27649@xxxxxxxxx>]

Continuing on the wi-fi theme...

I'm wondering if there's a shareware/freeware replacement for the
WinXP-supplied "Wireless Network Connection" thingy.  Here's why.  I would
like to be able to filter out all Security-enabled networks except those
which appear in my "Preferred networks" box.  My home wireless connects
automatically, and that's great.  But when I'm out and about, it would be
nice to just see the unsecured networks.  Nothing nefarious going on here,
people, just trying to do simple lookups like maps, phone numbers.

I would like the "unsecured" list to be sorted by signal strength.

Also, why are some networks that I've connected to added to my "Preferred
networks" box?  I've only explicitly added my home network to this list, but
others appear and I have to remove those.

When I try to connect to a network that's not on my preferred list, I'll
select the network, click the "Connect" button, and the "Wireless Network
Connection" dialog will refresh with "Searching for wireless networks in
range", bringing the selected network to the top, slapping an "Automatic"
label with a star in the corner, and does not connect.  So I select it
again, click "Connect", this time I get a "Please wait while Windows
connects to the zzz network" dialog box.  Since most of these connections
have only one "bar", they normally don't connect.  So, why doesn't it tell
me that, instead of just returning to the "Wireless Network Connection"
screen without telling me that it couldn't connect?

Funny thing is, apparently SP2 delivered a lot of improvements to the
"Wireless Network Connection" dialog.  I'm sure glad I didn't suffer through
earlier versions.

TIA,
Dan