hField Technologies intros revamped Wi-Fire long-range WiFi adapter
By Darren Murph 
posted July 28th 2009 8:04AM
posted July 28th 2009 8:04AM
[Via HotHardware]
posted July 28th 2009 8:04AM
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What's that little thing attached to the bottom of that giant antenna?
A USB cable.
A friggin' Dell!
good god cover your nads when you whip that thing out.
I visited a business incubator in Bethlehem, PA during college and these guys were there showing us the early version of the wi-fire. Glad to see they've got it goin. They've shrunk the actuall object quite a bit since then.
Wi-Fi from a 1,000 feet away? Damn you could steal all kinds of internet with that
I wonder how well it works, through walls and stuff like that though. In a apartment complex, you could probably get away with never having to pay for internet, and just mooch off unsecured networks with something like this (If you can't already, I should say).
I wonder if it will support BackTrack :) and if it can capture/send packets. That would be a wi-fi hackers dream. if so count me in
Does anybody knows whether this adapter is compatible with Backtrack? Would be interesting to use it for wardriving, I reckon. =)
I really hope this works on leopard. I need this in Europe and Asia where they use stone walls and Wifi range is half what it is here in the US where our walls are wifi and tornado friendly
i hope that was a joke...I'd rather get hit by a piece of dry wall then a piece of stone in a storm....either way a tornado is going to tear it down.
What good is an hField if you have no eField to go with it? SCNR...
I had the first version, is a good product but my notebook's internal antenna was enough for free Intenet.
I would love to see the faces of the smugs at Starbucks when someone uses this.
And I bet the battery would die so fast that I won't even be able to compl...
With a range like that, you could sit in one Starbucks and get wifi from at least 4 surrounding Starbucks.
Does this model work? I read the reviews and the previous one wasn't so good.
I need something like this, and would need to get a weak far away signal (300 ft through a few walls) in a sea of other people's wifi routers on all different channels.
I am more than willing to swap my dignity for connectivity. As a matter of fact, whenever my internet goes boink, I immediately throw up and pass out.
I have the previous generation and it doesn't work for me. I wanted to use my personal laptop (unibody MacBook) in my office and there is a strong signal I can access about 50 feet away down a somewhat winding hallway. My laptop can sometimes detect the network when I am in my office, but if I try to actually log on, it's never strong enough for me to use. The Wi-Fire seemed perfect for this, so I bought one a few months ago (from a place that didn't offer refunds/returns - my mistake), but, no matter what way I pointed it (it's a directional antenna), the signal was still detectable but unusable. So, it seems no better than an internal MacBook antenna.
I bought one about eighteen months ago for a friend. The Leopard driver was supposedly in the works but it never materialized and the device was useless to both of us. I tried it out on my Windows partition and had a similar experience, i.e. I saw all kinds of networks (including my own from the other end of the apartment) but couldn't get onto to any of them. I think I wasted about $90 on it. I did more research (after the fact) and all the "good reviews" were basically the same recycled press release. I'd much rather have spent twice as much on something that actually worked. Total POS. The new model is cheaper and better looking but I'm not giving this company any more of my money.
But a problem with this would be that you would also have to have a wireless router that could SEND data that distance as well.
No, you would not. A directional antenna delivers its gain when transmitting and also when receiving.
It helps a lot if you boost your signal from the router (to 'legal' FCC levels of course ;) ), but there is some benefit to having a good directional receiving antenna to pick up a weak signal as well.
I would make very good use of this.
http://thegadget411.com/2009/08/twitter-giveaway/
http://thegadget411.com/2009/08/twitter-giveaway/
1000 feet or about 0.3 kilometer is meh.
.3 kilometers isn't bad at all. Standard g has a maximum range of 140m.
FAIL! 0.14 m = 14 cm = 5.5 in
time to go shopping for a new wifi router,
0.14 km is more like it....
DOUBLE FAIL! a spot on my laptop screen made me read 140m as .140m.
TRIPLE FAIL: responding to my own post (especially since this might show up twice!).
@tmarks
+1 for catching you own mistake. I saw your post and my fingers began to burn... ah well, guess I must search elsewhere for my afternoon pwn.
I have never understood why laptops don't have an extendable antenna that retracts into the side of the monitor to extend range in bad signal situations.
Even a negligible external antenna can provide massive wifi range and throughput enhancements.
I don't know why they don't do this for cellphones anymore either. Once they made cellphones 'good enough' to not need an extending antenna in everyday use, every carrier should have a selection of phones with extending antennas for the frequently reception-challenged.
What? No.
Antennaes are rated by gain. Adding more length doesnt work, you need a better or directional design. The wavelengths are only so long, so just adding cabling is going to help.
Your laptop most likely has a long square antenna around the LCD. If you need more than that then you need to move to directional like this:
http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=58&ProdID=307
Sure, you'll get more db but you'll need to carry a little dish around. Even then, if the signal is marginal to begin with or is experiencing a lot of interference, then it might not help.
The antennas in laptops are a pretty good compromise. You shouldnt be so quick to whine.
Score! I love Engadget readers for being more surprised at the ancient laptop than the giant wifi antenna. You go, readers of the tech!
People have been making DIY directional wireless usb antennas for years now.
This isn't anything interesting...
so i have a PCMIA card that will do 200mw with grunty directional antenas i could easily break the max ESR allowed for this band and get several miles assuming LOS
You'll get caught up in the... Wi-Fire! Wi-Fire! Wi-Fiiiiiirreeee!
I have the older Wi-Fire. I used it to connect to my school's wireless network from my house which is a few blocks away (b/c i'm too cheap to pay the monthly fees!). Now that I live in a city, I use it to connect to all of the Muni WiFi signals around.
It works great for me on a Mac with Leopard, although it's not the most attractive thing to put on top of my laptop. I like the looks of this one better...thinking of upgrading to the HFWFG200. Love all the free WIFi I get with my Wi-Fire!
Check out the giveaway of this product http://thegadget411.com/2009/08/twitter-giveaway/
very ghetto