Hawking H-AI6SIP Hi-Gain Antenna

Right, before I start, this is my situation, I live with my student chumbs and we wirelessly share the internet and a printer this is great except for the fact that we live in a big house with lots of electrical items in it. So as you can imagine wireless signal penetration isn't great. For me it became awful - so i bought this device and its works very well.

It is huge and as such picks up more signal, it has improved my network connection ...
...an aerial, installation is easy, you just plug it in and theres no software to install at all. You literally plug it in and it works. Its omnidirectional (ie it improves signal strength in all directions) and is designed for indoor use only (but it wouldn't be damaged by rain, lightening on the other hand...).

There is one warning I have for you though. The aerial itself improves signal strength by 6dB/decade (just a technical term ... more

Right, before I start, this is my situation, I live with my student chumbs and we wirelessly share the internet and a printer this is great except for the fact that we live in a big house with lots of electrical items in it. So as you can imagine wireless signal penetration isn't great. For me it became awful - so i bought this device and its works very well.

It is huge and as such picks up more signal, it has improved my network connection from 18mbps to about 54/48mbps. Obviously since this is just an aerial, installation is easy, you just plug it in and theres no software to install at all. You literally plug it in and it works. Its omnidirectional (ie it improves signal strength in all directions) and is designed for indoor use only (but it wouldn't be damaged by rain, lightening on the other hand...).

There is one warning I have for you though. The aerial itself improves signal strength by 6dB/decade (just a technical term - don't worry, its a good number though) but the cable used to connect the device looses 3dB/decades of signal strength to noise per meter. You only get 50cm of cable with it so loose about 1.5dB/decade to extra noise but this does cut down the improvement. (Hence why a long cable is a disadvantage)

This means that you have to weigh up its usefulness to you. Where within 50cm of your wireless card can the device be placed to best improve signal and if it can't be placed easily within 50cm's how much extra cable (and therefore extra signal loss) will you need to get it somewhere useful? In theory any improvement to your signal is good but to play it safe you should probably go for an extra signal gain of 3dB/decade. So you've only got 1m of cable to play with before you start to loose out. Furthermore if you've got a longer cable you will want to avoid draping it near substantial noise sources. (ie Power cables, speaker connections, mains wiring, lightening storms, that sort of thing)

In essence, this is a great device, simple and easy - but it must be used under the right conditions and in the right circumstances. So it may not be right for you. 

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