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Provides me with a means of wireless access from my garage to my home network. A bit pricey for my liking but it does do the job for me. Also would be nice if it came with a longer cable as it is you either need to make your own extension cable or purchase one ready made online.
I couldn't be happier with it. I couldn't even pick up a signal before, now I have nearly full signal. Like the previous poster, I too live in an apartment within line of sight of a public wifi but lacked the ability (or determination) to build my own so I bought this one instead. It was easy to set up and works like a charm.
Its fine tuned to work at optimal performance.Highly Recommended. The included Super Cantenna tripod is cheese but that doesn't matter much as the Super Cantenna has a camera mounting screw like standard cameras have. I live in an apartment surrounded by other 3 story apartments and just pointing this thing toward the window and down toward the local coffee shop, I was pulling in a useable signal strength and getting public access wifi. I connect the super Cantenna to the USB adapter and my USB adapter to my laptop and i'm good to go. Unscrew one of your router aerials and connect the pigtail to your router. This will boost the signal thru the Super Cantenna the direction you want it to go. I'm writing this review right now while connected to it. This adapter is one of the only good USB adapters that has an external antenna connection.
There are plenty of cool tripods out there for cheap. If you don't want to make a cheap "pringles" type cantenna or build one yourself, GET THIS. The Super Cantenna is awsome. I bought this with the Hawking Wireless G USB Network Adapter. Also works great for your own network.
The free Netstumbler is virtually un-useable. Some of the equipment works poorly with Windows Vista. Look for something else. Tripod dosn't work. Requires extra 40$ in equipment. Virtually no imporvement in signal or in finding networks if your are not in a hotspot center.
Cantenna gave me 13dBi. I bought $15 in parts, I made my own with a better can from the super market and my signal strength was better. That is a 9dBi increase and remember that every 3 dBi is a doubling in strength.Now, if I want to, I can break down my can and use the same parts on/in another setup. The Cantenna is OK but high priced and poor in performance compared to what you can make on your own. Just Google 'cantenna' and read, read, read. My home made job gave me 20dBi.
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