diff -Naur xfce4-wavelan-plugin-0.5.5.old/panel-plugin/wavelan.c xfce4-wavelan-plugin-0.5.5/panel-plugin/wavelan.c
--- xfce4-wavelan-plugin-0.5.5.old/panel-plugin/wavelan.c	2009-10-09 14:42:54.427988584 +0200
+++ xfce4-wavelan-plugin-0.5.5/panel-plugin/wavelan.c	2009-10-09 14:45:24.351280223 +0200
@@ -199,6 +199,14 @@
     if ((wavelan->device = wi_open(wavelan->interface)) != NULL) {
       /* register the update timer */
       TRACE ("Opened device");
+	  /* reduce the default tooltip timeout to be smaller than the update interval otherwise
+	   * we won't see tooltips on GTK 2.16 or newer */
+	  GtkSettings *settings;
+	  settings = gtk_settings_get_default();
+	  if (g_object_class_find_property(G_OBJECT_GET_CLASS(settings), "gtk-tooltip-timeout"))
+		  g_object_set(settings, "gtk-tooltip-timeout",
+					   250 - 10, NULL);
+
       wavelan->timer_id = g_timeout_add(250, wavelan_timer, wavelan);
     }
   }