Hawking HWU8DD Hi-Gain USB Wireless-G Dish Adapter

List Price: $99.00 Discount Price: $45.99

Features:

• Designed to connect your desktop computer or laptop easily to any Wireless-B or Wireless-G network via a USB connection
• Hawking's award winning Hi-Gain¿ Antenna technology extends wireless connection distances by up to 300%.
• Equipped with a new 8dBi Directional Dish antenna that provides more distance and better speeds than other wireless adapters on the market
• The only wireless adapter to integrate the distance benefits of wireless Dish Technology with WiFi networking
• The built-in LED signal strength indicators provide network signal information to pinpoint the strongest signal available within your area

Customer Reviews:

Helped quite a bit! [Posted on 2008-09-09]
It didn't increase our signal as much as it said it would, but it still worked for what we needed. The one thing you have to watch for though is the disk that comes with it to set it up with doesn't work with vista. We had to track it down online to download stuff that would help it work. It took a good bit of time but we figured it out. Overall we are happy with out purchase, can't think of anything that would have been at our price range that would work as well as it has for what we need.

Did Not Work [Posted on 2008-09-11]
The wireless adapter did not work....still could not receive signal to remote computer from router...finally used adapter through electrical outlet works great.

hawking high gain wireless antena [Posted on 2008-09-16]
Had hard time setting unit up, but 24/7 tech help, got me up & running in a short time. Tech had a hard time speaking english. Unit worked fine, with a very low wireless signal. Was what I needed on this vacation trip.

Be aware [Posted on 2008-09-20]
Installing the Hawking software disabled my internal wifi antenna on my Dell D-600. Without using the Hawking antenna, the Dell could receive ZERO wifi signals (so if I wanted to go elsewhere to a wifi hotspot w/o the Hawking antenna, my wifi was totally disabled). Tech support (incomprehensible accents) said I needed to uninstall their software each time I went to a different hotspot w/o the antenna (ridiculous!!). When I ultimately threw the blasted device away and uninstalled ALL their software, my Dell's wifi capability is STILL completely broken...ZERO reception....my Dell's wifi worked fine for 5 years before installing this device...this device has ruined my laptop's ability to connect via Wifi.

9-20-08 Update: Astoundingly, Hawking tech support & website are CLUELESS on this issue: after significant digging around, I found what actually happens is the Hawking installation completely disables the internal wifi card "radio". To fix it, you need to go into Control Pannel/wifi card and RE-ENABLE the radio. It is an easy fix. No one at Hawking knows about it. I called and told them. I doubt it will sink in. Too bad their stupidity is damaging their reputation & sales - but they don't seem to care. Recommendation: use a wifi PC Card that takes an external stick antenna.

right box, wrong dish but still works [Posted on 2008-09-30]
I ordered the HWU8DD and that's the box I got. But when I opened it, the dish inside was the HWU8DDA, which is the white one that is supposed to be for Macs. I decided to try it anyway. I downloaded the driver for the HWU8DD rev B and it works. This is good since my husband has a Mac he can use it too. It gets 3 bars when the internal wireless card on my PC only gets 1 and it never drops the signal.

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