Wi-Fire USB long range Wi-Fi adaptor simply rocks
Whether you’re a businessperson, budget-minded student or on-the-go soccer dad, this is a must-have add-on device that quickly and easily improves Wi-Fi reception and makes its super easy to set up your Mac as a wireless repeater/router.
When it comes to product marketing claims —”Now, 10 times brighter!” — we’re always prepared to be disappointed. That is, companies are always playing with definitions and mincing words to inflate the perceived potency of the stuff they sell.
Here’s a case, however, where product performance actually matches or exceeds the hype — the hField Technologies Wi-Fire USB long range Wi-Fi adaptor ($59*). Whereas I don’t have a way to physically test the company’s claim that it increases 802.11g reception range from 460 (140m) to 1,000 feet (300m), the greatly improved reception and the large number of discoverable hotspots gives a sense of empowerment.
Bet’cha didn’t know you had so many neighbors?
Features include:
• 802.11 b/g
• 27 dBm+ Power
• Palm-size
• Windows, Mac, Linux
• 2.8 oz. (80 grams)
• Greater than 1,000 feet (300 m) range
• Ready to use right out of the box
* Free review unit provided by hField Technologies
Wi-Fire is super easy to set up and use. Simply install the bundled software, restart and then connect the small black antenna via USB. Although there isn’t a corresponding System Preference Pane, an icon will be added to your Finder menu bar when Wi-Fire plugged in that provides you with quick access to a listing of available hotspots and the Wi-Fire Connection Manager.
Thereupon, I found that hotspots with a signal strength of 10 percent generally weren’t usable, though simply knowing that an open router is nearby is very, very helpful. Further, because each hotspot listed includes signal strength information, it’s quite easy to track newly discovered routers down.
Share and share alike
Perhaps the coolest feature of this product isn’t even listed in the marketing or specs — you can pull in a signal via the USB-based Wi-Fire adapter and then share the same signal back out again via Airport. No, you don’t need any additional software and there’s no command line magic to perform either.
Set up this feature in System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing
Lastly, hField claims that Wi-Fire uses “very little power” and my own experience is that using it shaved perhaps 10 minutes off a full 3 ~ 4 hour charge on my Early 2008 MacBook — no big deal.
At $59, Wi-Fire is affordable, though not cheap, while costing only one-third to half as much as other vendors’ range extenders (good deal!). Because the antenna is small, light (2.8oz) and durable, stuffing it in your existing laptop bag or backpack isn’t going to be a problem.
Two big thumbs up for the hField Technologies Wi-Fire USB long range Wi-Fi adaptor…
What’s your take?
Related Posts:
February 3rd, 2010
If you don’t need the extended reception can you revert to native Wifi on your Mac?
February 4th, 2010
Yup, Airport is still there and because it’s a separate network port that, as noted above, can be set up to share the Wi-Fire’s incoming wireless connection. Sweet!