Hawking Technology Wireless-300N USB Dish Adapter review

Will this make you even more wireless?

6 June 2008 9:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

"Wireless will free you from your desk" is the promise and for the most part it does, so why would you need a USB Dish Adapter for your Apple Mac? We get connected to find out.

The premise of the Hawking Technology Wireless-300N USB Dish Adapter is simple: to allow you to sit further away from your (or any) wireless network yet still connect.

Why would you need it? Well if you are thinking of moving into the garden shed to enjoy the summer sun this will be ideal if you can’t currently see your home wireless network.

As for the how, the dish looks like something that the Rebel Alliance would use. You get a mini directional (up, down, left, and right) satellite dish that connects to a spare USB port on your computer. It’s white, plain and has no buttons. It is foldable, but still large.

Software comes in the box and once connected away you go. To use it you have to turn off the AirPort card in your computer and tell you network settings to work off the new dish instead. It’s all incredibly easy with the manual straightforward enough to understand without too much complication.

In use and the USB Dish Adapter clearly makes a difference in detecting wireless networks, although for best results you do have to point the dish in the direction of the wireless network you want, with the signal strength monitor being your only guide.

Without it, sitting in the office we are able to see just three wireless networks on our MacBook Pro. With it, the number of networks we could see jumped to 10 with networks around 50 metres away offering us 30% connectivity rating all thanks to the built-in antenna that concentrates wireless signals for extended wireless range of up to 600% according to the makers.

The software is simple, but then you don’t really need to do much from it, giving you network streaming data such as the connection speed and data rate you are getting.

Verdict

While the Hawking Technology Wireless-300N USB Dish Adapter is anything from portable it will boost your laptop’s ability to connect to a wireless network that is further away than you can currently see with your AirPort card. But due to its size, just don’t expect to travel with it.

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Review Recap

Made by: Hawking
Price as reviewed: £75
Latest price: Compare prices
The good: Boosts your ability to see wireless networks
The bad: Large, not completely foldable
Quick verdict: It will give you better range to your wireless hub, but don’t expect it to easily fit in your bag
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