engadget.com— "A new Pennsylvania-based startup, hField Technologies, has just gotten FCC approval for their new supercharged WiFi antenna, the Wi-Fire."
Sep 2, 2006View in Crawl 4
"The USB antenna boosts reception of faint WiFi signals, extending the range of existing networks up to 1,000 feet."I'd say it can... It seems to not only send out strong signals, but is able to pick up the signals of that normal WiFi 1000 feet away and make it useable.
Oh please. The Inspiron 9300 uses an IPW2200 card which doesn't even support packet injection. I slapped an Atheros 5212 based Mini-PCI card in my Inspiron 1300 and built some patched madwifi drivers, and now I have full monitor mode, hostapd support and packet injection capabilities. And the range is great too. I can pick up the wireless network from the car dealership 200 meters away.
1000 feet? WOW, that's about as much as my Hawking Hi-Gain directional adapter does, and it cost me about $55 bucks two years ago. I surf my own router from across a big parking lot and around a corner from my apartment. That's about 800 feet, and I get about a 40 percent signal (around a corner, not line-of-sight). Of course, if I had Hawking's newer parabolic adapter, then I could get usable signals from about two blocks away. Is that a thousand feet?Point is, this is a problem that's been solved a long time ago, if you don't mind plugging in an external USB adapter. What I'm wondering is, where are the internal MIMO adapters for notebooks?
"Also I don't like Dell, but don't blame them for the battery explosions, Macs have that problem too. Blame Sony, they're the one's who made the batteries."Don't blame anybody at all. I'm not saying that Sony shouldn't double check their product testing department, but they're not the only company to have a recall.Ultimately, they found a problem, made it public and offered a recall (actually I don't know if Sony is taking the fall for this, since so far there isn't a recall on batteries used in their own laptops). These types of things can happen even if extensive checking is done, and it's not as if you're walking down the street and seeing laptops exploding left and right. There have been reports of overheating, but less than 10 reports of actual explosions. That's not few or anything, but the situation is being handled. Companies are still run by human beings, you can't possibly expect every product to be perfect.And I'm sorry for posting another off-topic comment, just thought it was important to get this in.
slashriffsSep 2, 2006
With the intel card in my dell 9300 i can pick up wireless from about 450 feet away. And thats even through 2 walls.
bob042Sep 2, 2006
"The USB antenna boosts reception of faint WiFi signals, extending the range of existing networks up to 1,000 feet."I'd say it can... It seems to not only send out strong signals, but is able to pick up the signals of that normal WiFi 1000 feet away and make it useable.
rolotomasiSep 2, 2006
Oh please. The Inspiron 9300 uses an IPW2200 card which doesn't even support packet injection. I slapped an Atheros 5212 based Mini-PCI card in my Inspiron 1300 and built some patched madwifi drivers, and now I have full monitor mode, hostapd support and packet injection capabilities. And the range is great too. I can pick up the wireless network from the car dealership 200 meters away.
kob0724Sep 2, 2006
@rolotomasi"built some patched madwifi drivers"Cause thats something easy for the average lay-person to do...
rolotomasiSep 2, 2006
That's cool, but most Mini-PCI cards have aux connectors for a second antenna, so you can easily add an antenna connector to your laptop: <a class="user" href="http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270073731/">http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270073731/</a>Less bulk and you can use your laptop normally without the external antenna if you need to.
tim04Sep 3, 2006
10 bucks that this'll make your jewels glow green
jimbo92107Sep 3, 2006
1000 feet? WOW, that's about as much as my Hawking Hi-Gain directional adapter does, and it cost me about $55 bucks two years ago. I surf my own router from across a big parking lot and around a corner from my apartment. That's about 800 feet, and I get about a 40 percent signal (around a corner, not line-of-sight). Of course, if I had Hawking's newer parabolic adapter, then I could get usable signals from about two blocks away. Is that a thousand feet?Point is, this is a problem that's been solved a long time ago, if you don't mind plugging in an external USB adapter. What I'm wondering is, where are the internal MIMO adapters for notebooks?
marshalrustySep 3, 2006
"Also I don't like Dell, but don't blame them for the battery explosions, Macs have that problem too. Blame Sony, they're the one's who made the batteries."Don't blame anybody at all. I'm not saying that Sony shouldn't double check their product testing department, but they're not the only company to have a recall.Ultimately, they found a problem, made it public and offered a recall (actually I don't know if Sony is taking the fall for this, since so far there isn't a recall on batteries used in their own laptops). These types of things can happen even if extensive checking is done, and it's not as if you're walking down the street and seeing laptops exploding left and right. There have been reports of overheating, but less than 10 reports of actual explosions. That's not few or anything, but the situation is being handled. Companies are still run by human beings, you can't possibly expect every product to be perfect.And I'm sorry for posting another off-topic comment, just thought it was important to get this in.