By Evan Ackerman
I cannot tolerate flaky wireless internet. Without 100% connectivity, I wouldn’t be able to bring you the (ahem) reliably high quality gadget news that I do here at OhGizmo. I have a Linksys WiFi PCMCIA card in my laptop, and it strains to pick up signals from a router 30 feet away through a wall… I’ve been looking into some kind of antenna to boost the signal, and this USB dish antenna from Hawking sure looks like it would fit the bill. The 8dBi directional dish antenna (most wireless antennas are omnidirectional at about 2dBi) is supposed to boost reception by up to 300%, as long as you’re pointing it in the right direction… The built-in LED signal strength indicator should help you with that. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do if the router you use is down below you somewhere, but with a USB interface and for only about $60, it gives other high quality external wireless solutions some competition when it comes to price and performance, if not size.
[ Hawking HWU8DD ] VIA [ GadgetGrid ]
Dude, you can do the exact same thing by making a dish out of cardboard and covering it with foil.
Once complete you attach it to your rubber coated antenna and do a little point adjustment. You can find how to’s on this very gadget just by doing a simple search, which is what you do most of the time anyway.
Cost: approx $0.10 and I will bet it works as well as the fancy knick knack above.
I have this very dish. I use it for “borrowing” internet from others in my building. I really helps to make a week connection stable. I do not have one of the cards that have a fancy attached antena so the above DIY wouldn’t work for me. This does the trick! It makes a handy snack dish too while surfing at late hours.
The Hawking dish has a stronger wi fi transmitter for communicating with the router.
Other Can antennas will frequently detect but not be able to communicate with distant routers because although you can increase the incoming signal it does
not boost your outgoing signal.