Customer Reviews

Wi-Fire 500mW High-Gain Wireless G USB Adapter W/ built in powerful 10.4 dBi antenna

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I had a lengthy discussion with a salesman at Microcenter who just so happened to have designed wireless systems in his previous career, and he informed me that a few customers had tested everything and Wi-Fire had come out tops. I bought it that week and am really satisfied. Right now I have it plugged into my desktop machine. It is currently feeding the signal at 96% capacity and 54 MBPS. Before the Wi-Fire, I was using a Netgear USB adapter. The Wi-Fire is easily three times faster. Highly recommended!

My overall impression:
I'm not sure there is anything particularly special about this card. From my experience, I would rate its performance compared to most other wireless cards somewhere in the mediocre to dismal range.


What I like:
The software was clearly designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. It is mindlessly easy to install, use, and (most important) uninstall. It does not leave troublesome pieces of itself behind when removed. My grandmother could operate this thing with no help from me.

What I don't like:
I bought this to replace a desktop wireless nic that has been connecting somewhat less than perfectly. I don't want to move the computer and the old card is more than six years old, so I thought that a new, powerful, directional device would be the way to go.

Unfortunately the Wi-Fire wouldn't connect at all. I hooked it up to my laptop in the same location, with the same result. I also tried connecting to other networks from that location and still couldn't connect. I was only able to get the Wi-Fire to work at about the same level as the old card's usual connection after moving my laptop 30 feet (and a fair amount of brick) closer to the router.

I also tried connecting the Wi-Fire to some other devices, like an old access point I hadn't used in years, with varied results.

In the end it all comes down to this: I bought this device to have a powerful directional antenna that (I hoped) would give me a good connection to a relatively distant router. The old omnidirectional device I wanted to replace gives me a much better connection.


Other thoughts:
My impression is that this device was designed for areas that are relatively free from interfering signals. I live in a very crowded area in which most of my omnidirectional wireless cards detect quite a few networks. My laptop lists close to twenty in some parts of my house.

In most of the locations that I tried the Wi-Fire, the networks listed changed every time the list refreshed. I wouldn't mention this if it was only the number of networks that changed, but at these locations no single network remained in the list for a long period of time.

Rotating the antenna made very little difference to the signal quality listed, but given that the number was usually close to 10% I don't know that it matters. The only time I saw a high percentage was when I set the Wi-Fire about six feet away from an old access point I plugged in just to see how things looked.

The self-winding usb thing is more annoying than convenient. You could buy a new cable if it is really troublesome.

I tested the Wi-Fire in a number of situations and found that it was no better than the built in antenna in my laptop. If I could connect with my built in, the Wi-Fire would also connect with the same transmission speed. If I couldn't connect with my built in, the Wi-Fire would not connect either. Working with Hfield customer support produced no improvement. I returned the Wi-Fire to get my money back.Wi-Fire 500mW High-Gain Wireless G USB Adapter W/ built in powerful 10.4 dBi antenna

I have a Fujitsu P7120 laptop. I bought this antenna to try to extend the wifi range. I did a test in my driveway, the HField Wi-Fire vs. the laptop's built in antenna. I could see the access point antenna from where I was. I aimed the HField as carefully as I could, try as I might the best it could do was -54 dbm, which is pretty week. The built in antenna in the P7120 did -40 dbm. I sent the Wi-Fire back.

I use my motor home a lot now that I'm retired and most all of the camp grounds have wifi. Unfortunately the
range is in the vicinity of the front desk. Now that I have the Wi-Fire booster, I noticed that I now have a minimum of 74%, up to 96% reception. Also, at home I see a lot more of the neighbors on my "found wifi profiles"
window. It seems to work pretty good and the software was easy to install.

I see I'm not alone! A couple years ago I bought a Wi-Fire that did manage to improve the signal a little bit from my wireless router 300 feet away. Amazon's product description here above should say: "Suffering from dropped packets and spotty connections? You must be using a Wi-fire!" I wish I had a dollar for every reinstall of the buggy WiFire drivers I had to do to get the thing even to work somewhat reliably. Technical support was very poor, delaying an entire month with slow email runaround excuses before finally and begrudgingly replacing the dead-on-arrival unit I received.
But now the good news: I discovered the Alfa "USB 500mW WiFI b/g Adapter" on Amazon and decided to try one. My network signal strength went from the Wi-Fire's 15-20% to over 50% immediately (double the number of bars) and it didn't drop the connection. Data transfer was much better and even other APs in the area are now visible that didn't appear before. So, like many others' experience here, I, too, suggest you ignore the rather obviously manufacturer-written testimonials elsewhere on the net, save yourself some money and buy the much less expensive and more stable--both electronically and mechanically--Alfa wireless adapters. Don't waste money on the bigger Alfa antenna, though, because the small one it comes with works just as good, I learned unfortunately. I realize this sounds like an advertisement but I'd like to add my two cents' worth about how crappy this Wi-Fire thing is, now that there are alternatives. In fact, if someone knows of an even better and cheaper unit than the Alfa, please let me know!

I think the above reviewers might be part of the scam; this product does not at all work. I purchased this to use at a vacation house where internet was available from a local provider, but reception is weak. This product claimed to increase wireless reception and boost signal strength.

This is a 100% complete lie. In fact, this product receives worse reception than my built-in Airport card. I will be seeking a refund.

This is a waste of money. It doesn't work any better as they claim.
I am an electronics engineer, BSEE, and have in-depth knowledge in the field.
I personally tested the transmitting signal strength and the receiving signal's sensitivity of this product in my lab - I was disappointed, the results were no where near to what they are claiming in their marketing pitch. This is nothing but a big scam, as i read in one of the other reviews. I agree with that reviewer, where he said "...

1.0 out of 5 stars This product is a scam, May 23, 2009
By Matthew Ingram "Panhandle" (SF, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
I think the above reviewers might be part of the scam; this product does not at all work. I purchased this to use at a vacation house where internet was available from a local provider, but reception is weak. This product claimed to increase wireless reception and boost signal strength.

This is a 100% complete lie. In fact, this product receives worse reception than my built-in Airport card. I will be seeking a refund.

The other problem is that you will not be able to get your money back, because they do not accept opened products without a hefty 30%+ re-stocking charge!!! I should have listened to his comments and could have spent the $70 elsewhere.

Summary: I tried using this on my Macbook Pro and Mac Mini and had very poor results. I think the particular unit I received may have been defective, but given the ineffective customer support, incomplete documentation, and the flakiness of the provided software, I decided to just send this unit back for a refund, rather than try another unit.

The trouble started with installing the software which did not complete successfully. The install disk contains a folder provided for OS X 10.5, 10.4, etc. and I selected the one for my version of the operating system. The installation seemed to proceed OK, prompting for the administrator password, but failed on the last step. I tried running it again and noticed that while I used the installer in the 10.5 folder, the installer itself said it was for 10.4. I contacted customer support via e-mail, describing exactly what happened and the 10.4 installer in the 10.5 folder. They said that 10.4 was the proper installer to use for 10.5 and asked if the software been installed using the administrator account. No mention of this requirement in the installation notes or the site FAQ file. Logged in as the administrator the install worked. (Lots of Mac software installs fine from a normal account, prompting for the Administrator password if necessary, as this installer did. But I believe there was a mistake in their install script that stopped this from working properly unless you actually were logged in as the admin.)

With the software installed I setup the Wi-Fire and was very disappointed in its performance. As a basis of comparison, at the same test location I have a Buffalo Technology AirStation Turbo G High Power Wireless Ethernet Converter (WLI-TX4-G54HP) with their optional 6dBi high gain directional antenna (WLE-AT-DACB). With the Buffalo unit, I can see 6-8 base stations with the number of stations seen, and the signal strength varying, depending upon how I orient its directional antenna. The size of the Buffalo and Wi-Fire antenna are also very close in physical size.

In contrast, when I tested the Wi-Fire, it consistently saw only two base stations, and the signal strength percentage levels displayed never changed regardless of how the antenna was oriented.

My testing procedure was the same for both units, i.e. scan for base stations, turn the antenna about 30 degrees, and re-scan.

If I had seen different % levels for the two stations seen after each scan, I would have assumed that that was simply the normal performance level of the unit. But the fact that I saw absolutely no differences with any change in antenna orientation makes me wonder if the unit I received may be defective.

As an additional data point, I had the software hang my computer (mouse frozen, no keyboard response) 3 times with the only recourse being a cold reboot using the Mini's power button. This happened twice with the auto startup of the software, and once when I initiated a rescan. The machine being used is an Intel Mini with the latest version of OS X with all the current updates.

The customer support response to these issues:

"As for the slowing of the computer, we've found this can more easily be
avoided if the unit is unplugged during a active scan, or while it's
actively trying to connect."

I didn't say the machine was slow -- it was hung! No cursor response for
several *minutes*, requiring a hard boot.

"Also, when making comparisons, please keep in mind that the Wi-Fire is a
long range WiFi network adapter, (as opposed to an access point/ router like
the other device you mentioned, which connects through an Ethernet cable,
and requires a wall power outlet). The Wi-Fire is a fully self contained
package, intended as a mobile solution for WiFi needs."

Totally ignores the issue that repositioning the supposedly highly directional antenna made no difference in signal strength. And as for the wall outlet for the Buffalo -- it's a small low current wall wart, so I doubt that the Buffalo has a significantly unfair advantage in my comparisons.

Finally, I found that with the device *unplugged*, the software caused very long delays when bringing the Mac out of sleep. The driver software, you see, is always loaded at boot time and it is actually a wish list item in the company's own FAQ file that this be configurable. But even when I manually quit the setup program that starts up every time at login (an annoyance), the problem persists. When I uninstalled the software, this problem immediately went away. (Oh, and the uninstall software says it is *installing* software in the user messages. One more bit of sloppiness which I think speaks to the entire kit being amateurish.)

All in all, a waste of time and money. Even if the unit had worked as expected, the irksome software, and poorly designed mounting system, would have made the unit a nuisance to use.

We live in a house in the woods in Great falls,Va. Comcast wanted $5000 to lay cable down our driveway, there's too many trees for satellite and we're not exactly a high priority neighborhood for fiber optic. So, if not for the wifire we'd be using dialup. Our closest neighbor is almost an eighth of a mile away but they gave us their wireless password and we use one computer with the wifire to connect to it and turn on Internet sharing over airport so everyone else in the house can connect. Were so glad we found it! It's a total lifesaver.