Hawking HWU8DD Dish any good for extending WIFI range ?

I am interested in a way to extend my laptop range so that I can
connect to WIFI networks that are farther away. Perhaps when I am at
my mother's house and I might want to hook into some neighbors WIFI or
when I am camping. I stay at a campground in Maine and I have to be
close to the main building to get the WIFI, but if I had better range
I could stay at one the nicer sites in the back. This hawking unit
seems to have some good reviews though I guess it's a bit delicate,
any recommendations on this or similar units ?


http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-Techno.../dp/B000DINCIQ

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I am interested in a way to extend my laptop range so that I can
> connect to WIFI networks that are farther away. Perhaps when I am at
> my mother's house and I might want to hook into some neighbors WIFI or
> when I am camping. I stay at a campground in Maine and I have to be
> close to the main building to get the WIFI, but if I had better range
> I could stay at one the nicer sites in the back.

If you don't have a clear line of sight, nothing is going to work more
than a hundred feet or so. If you put it on a plastic box and extend the
USB cable to the roof, it might work.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I am interested in a way to extend my laptop range so that I can
> connect to WIFI networks that are farther away. Perhaps when I am at
> my mother's house and I might want to hook into some neighbors WIFI or
> when I am camping. I stay at a campground in Maine and I have to be
> close to the main building to get the WIFI, but if I had better range
> I could stay at one the nicer sites in the back. This hawking unit
> seems to have some good reviews though I guess it's a bit delicate,
> any recommendations on this or similar units ?
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-Techno.../dp/B000DINCIQ
>
I bought one but it has never worked well for me. It shows a boosted
signal, yet is intermittent. Usually I use the MN-510.
LZ

"Lone Haranguer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> I am interested in a way to extend my laptop range so that I can
>> connect to WIFI networks that are farther away. Perhaps when I am at
>> my mother's house and I might want to hook into some neighbors WIFI or
>> when I am camping. I stay at a campground in Maine and I have to be
>> close to the main building to get the WIFI, but if I had better range
>> I could stay at one the nicer sites in the back. This hawking unit
>> seems to have some good reviews though I guess it's a bit delicate,
>> any recommendations on this or similar units ?
>>
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-Techno.../dp/B000DINCIQ
>>
> I bought one but it has never worked well for me. It shows a boosted
> signal, yet is intermittent. Usually I use the MN-510.
> LZ

I bought one a year ago and swear by it. Here's my early review on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1SROFR...cm_cr_rdp_perm

I continue to like it so well that I put in in my Amazon store connected to
my RV travel blog, along with other books, magazines, and camera that I
personally recommend because they were helpful to me.
http://astore.amazon.com/prmorvsere-...ng=UTF8&node=8

Camille

I am slightly confused by the many varying reviews, some bad, many
good.

Can people be more specific what works and doesn't ? I use my laptop
for various web surfing, watching youtube, connecting to work via VPN.

As for 100 feet limitation mentioned in one of the posts - at this
very moment I am connected to my neighbors WIFI which is going through
2 walls of our house a small pine forest and the distance must be 250
feet or more to their house and I am getting a decent signal using the
built in WIFI on my HP laptop, though the strength does seem seems to
vary sometimes, it's usually plenty adequate.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> As for 100 feet limitation mentioned in one of the posts - at this
> very moment I am connected to my neighbors WIFI which is going through
> 2 walls of our house a small pine forest and the distance must be 250
> feet or more to their house and I am getting a decent signal using the
> built in WIFI on my HP laptop, though the strength does seem seems to
> vary sometimes, it's usually plenty adequate.

It might work well weel with a clear line of site.

If you are fine with "seem to vary at time" and "usually" plenty of
signal, then may work for you.

"(E-Mail Removed)" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>I am interested in a way to extend my laptop range so that I can
>connect to WIFI networks that are farther away.

Does your laptop have an external antenna connector? How do you feel
about adding one?
<http://repair4laptop.org/wireless_lan_antennae.html>
You might find it useful to disclose the maker and model number of
your laptop.

>Perhaps when I am at
>my mother's house and I might want to hook into some neighbors WIFI or
>when I am camping.

Sure, as long as you have permission from the owner.

>I stay at a campground in Maine and I have to be
>close to the main building to get the WIFI, but if I had better range
>I could stay at one the nicer sites in the back. This hawking unit
>seems to have some good reviews though I guess it's a bit delicate,
>any recommendations on this or similar units ?
>http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-Techno.../dp/B000DINCIQ

Well, let's make some assumption and play with the numbers. The range
of a typical USB device, with a built in 0dBi or worse antenna, is
somewhat worse than what you would get with a typical MiniPCI laptop
using diversity antennas at the top of the LCD frame. The only real
benifit to USB is that you can relocate it and its antenna to a more
favorable location.

For the sake of guesswork, let's assume that the tx power outpuit of
the USB adapter is about the same as the MiniPCI card in your
unspecified laptop. If I assume a 0dBi antenna gain for the laptop,
and 8dBi for the dish thing, then the range improvement will be:
10^(8dBi / 20) = 2.5 times
That's probably worth the effort.

Incidentally, I ran the numbers on the Hawking dish and a flat panel
equivalent and found that it really does have almost 8dBi gain:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas/HawkDish08/index.html>
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas/FullWavePlateReflector/index.html>

However, I wouldn't do it that way. Methinks you will probably need a
bigger gain antenna, with perhaps 12 to 14dBi gain. That will yield 4
to 5 times improvement in speed. You can do it with your existing
MiniPCI card by adding an external antenna, or using a PCMCIA card, or
USB device with an external antenna connector.

USB radio with connector:
<http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=16186&cat=0&page=1>
Higher gain panel antennas:
<http://www.fab-corp.com/home.php?cat=255>

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

DTC wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> As for 100 feet limitation mentioned in one of the posts - at this
>> very moment I am connected to my neighbors WIFI which is going through
>> 2 walls of our house a small pine forest and the distance must be 250
>> feet or more to their house and I am getting a decent signal using the
>> built in WIFI on my HP laptop, though the strength does seem seems to
>> vary sometimes, it's usually plenty adequate.
>
> It might work well weel with a clear line of site.
>
> If you are fine with "seem to vary at time" and "usually" plenty of
> signal, then may work for you.

Even tech support at Hawking couldn't solve my problem. Device Manager
shows the hardware to be working. It shows a 47% signal but refuses to
connect. I can connect to the same signal with my Microsoft MN-510 from
the same location. Any solutions? Otherwise it will continue to
collect dust in the closet.
LZ

>
> >I am interested in a way to extend my laptop range so that I can
> >connect to WIFI networks that are farther away.
>
> Does your laptop have an external antenna connector? How do you feel
> about adding one?
> <http://repair4laptop.org/wireless_lan_antennae.html>

Ok, I'll look into that when I have some time.

> You might find it useful to disclose the maker and model number of
> your laptop.
>

HP Pavilion dv 1000, which I purchased in May of 2006

> >Perhaps when I am at
> >my mother's house and I might want to hook into some neighbors WIFI or
> >when I am camping.
>
> Sure, as long as you have permission from the owner.
>

That's an interesting one ... for one, it depends on how often I
would want to use the network at various places. My sister suggesting
asking the people, but they might say no ..
I do feel funny about it, but what is the legality ? That seems to be
a murky question and from searching the web you get conflicting views,
some saying it's illegal, others saying it's perfectly legal. My
suspicion is that tens of thousands of people are borrowing other
people's WIFI without permission, and I've scarcely heard of any legal
action except a few cases. Perhaps the manufacturers in the future
will make that harder to do, or who knows ?





Thanks also for the many technical details, I will have to look into
that as well when I have time

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:29:42 -0800 (PST), "(E-Mail Removed)"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> That's an interesting one ... for one, it depends on how often I
>would want to use the network at various places. My sister suggesting
>asking the people, but they might say no ..
>I do feel funny about it, but what is the legality ? That seems to be
>a murky question and from searching the web you get conflicting views,
>some saying it's illegal, others saying it's perfectly legal. My
>suspicion is that tens of thousands of people are borrowing other
>people's WIFI without permission, and I've scarcely heard of any legal
>action except a few cases. Perhaps the manufacturers in the future
>will make that harder to do, or who knows ?

Guess if you ignore any legal aspects (which probably vary state by
state) it comes down to a moral issue...if you are so inclined. The
other individual has paid to have the service, you have not. Just
because the individual is not educated thoroughly in how to secure the
system does that mean it is "free game" for anyone who wants to use it?
I suspect that since you have such a cavalier attitude (or call it
scofflaw attitude) toward this situation probably are not completely
honest in other situations!

-

Pegleg
U.S. Navy Retired
Support Our Troops,
Question The Policy!

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Sir Winston Churchill