Vb.net – Connect to an available wireless network using VB.NET

Managed Wifi API should work.

This might not be ideal - you have XP, which is good, but you would have to deploy a hotfix. I'd go for it, because all the wifi code I've dealt with (for the Compact Framework) is hideous. This code is as simple as could be.

Their sample code doesn't include reading the signal strength, though, and I'm not sure if the Native wifi API provides that. I have written C# code that gets the wireless signal strength, but it did this by PInvoking into a manufacturer-specific DLL available only on their devices. It may be that you'll have to do something similar to get the wireless strength from your PC's wireless card (and that may be why that functionality is not available in an all-purpose API).

You might find this project interesting. It is just a .NET wrapper on the native API. You should be able to call this from PowerShell without too much trouble:

http://managedwifi.codeplex.com/