Wi-Fire Wireless Wi-Fi Adapter
The Wi-Fire is a wireless Wi-Fi adapter that not only allows for wireless connectivity but extends the range of wireless connects up to three times from conventional notebook adapters.
Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25
Look & Feel: 20/25
Features 23/25
How much I enjoy 23/25
Total: 90/100
The Wi-Fire from hField Technologies is a wireless Wi-Fi adapter and range extender that works very well and is very easy to install and use. You have a few uses from this device in range extender and simple wireless adapter to allow any computer using USB connection to be able to connect to a network using wireless or Wi-Fi technology.
The Wi-Fire is simple and easy to use and comes complete with a USB Wi-Fire adapter, USB cable, CD with drivers and connection manager for connecting your computer to a network. The Wi-Fire can work in three ways if you want to let it; first as a wireless adapter to give any computer wireless connectivity.
You can also use it as a range extender with their included utility which is where the device really excels and is the main focus of the company as well as a regular range extender using Windows networking software. The connection manager does work a little better than windows with not only connecting but giving you more information such as better signal strength.
Installation can be as simple as plugging the device in and you will have drivers automatically install for the device as a USB wireless device in Vista. Simple installation through Windows will give you wireless connection and will not have any problems for simply getting connected to the internet through an available wireless network.
You can install the included Wireless Management utility that connects and gives you further information that Windows does not as well as acts like your connection assistant. The utility works much like parts of the Windows network connection programs but with more in a single place and with better information.
The utility simply gives you the names, strengths of signals and other information like security type so you can see what is out there for you to connect to. I found a few things interesting about using this utility over the Windows ones with the signal strength being in percentile instead of the much more simplified bars.
Another interesting fact from my local network is I can see the various wireless antennas located around my town from the local wireless internet service. My town started a wireless connection system throughout the town so people could subscribe and connect wherever they were in town and I can find the various antennas as well as see them individually.
Now to signal strength that I measured using a Passmark utility to show all available networks and signal strengths measured not even in percentages but in decibels. A little background on wireless signals first; Wi-Fi is actually radio waves that are typically measured in decibels or the magnitude of the signal compared with a reference.
The measurement means that the closer to reference or zero you get the better your signal, a perfect signal at about -10 db is about the best any network adapter will be able to give you while a bad signal is about -100 db. When I receive about -84 db on my network streaming video is useless as it just does not have enough of a continuous signal to receive video much less keep my network connected for any decent length of time.
Going up by seven decibel or to about -77 db I found I could at least maintain a decent connection even if I could not stream video very well. Placing my notebook in my garage with the antenna clipped to my screen at about 65 feet from my router to the notebook gets a signal of about -77 db with the Wi-Fire.
My garage is 50 feet from outer wall to outer wall of my home and my router is about fifteen feet through four walls made of plaster and lathe type construction. The signal strength without the Wi-Fire attached is about -84 db which is not quite enough to even maintain my connection.
When using the Wi-Fire I can get the connection and if I really want to work on the internet without hassles from my garage I can position a secondary router closer to the outside wall and get even better reception. The Wi-Fire does increase the signal strength even through walls and at ranges of 65 feet which is quite apparent from my little test by changing the db from -84 to -77.
The difference between the -84 and the -77 db amounts to a change of 8 percent when converted from db to percentages so it doubles the signal strength when using the Wi-Fire adapter. Using the Windows meter is a different story as my signal was one bar and worded as poor when not using the Wi-Fire and two bars with Fair but what does this really mean.
This changes the bar meter that Windows uses but it is nicer and more informative to use percentages like the Wi-Fire utility does for seeing how much the signal has improved. Having an external antenna that you can aim would also account for much of the improvement as well as being a better designed piece of hardware over common notebook wireless devices.
The Wi-Fire is for use in exactly the situation I describe of wanting better wireless reception from your router at a location that is a bit removed so you can connect to your network. You may ask why I would want better reception in my garage but I can certainly see wanting to stream video for working on my car or instructional how to videos for other things like wood working projects.
Other uses like getting those faint or poor signals in even better for wireless reception of your main signal like that wireless network a city or even local university will really work. The Wi-Fire does bring in many more of the possible signals than Windows alone could achieve with the obvious example of only receiving the one signal from my city wide local wireless.
When I simply plug in the Wi-Fire without even going to the utility I do get a signal boost through the Wi-Fire and do get three or four other wireless networks from my local city wide system. I also get five to ten more local networks from people’s homes or businesses that are just not available using the notebook wireless device in my Hewlett Packard notebook computer.
Windows Vista does a decent job of networking but you have to open other windows to get some things done and gives you little information about available networks that is helpful. I like the fact that the Wi-Fire utility has all the network information using menu pages in a single page instead of opening up different windows.
The Wi-Fire does make a much better connection device with or without the utility program and extends your connection signal to increase the signal strength. This may not get you through walls and structures better but it did help in my testing and does give you more choices for connecting.
The Wi-Fire does work exactly and maybe even better than the company states on their website and does make a great wireless adapter for not only extending range but just connecting to a network. Without the extending benefits just having an external adapter for connecting to a network might be better for using in a home when trying to get a network connection.
The Wi-Fire makes for an affordable external wireless adapter that works well for connecting to wireless networks and extending your range for connection. I highly recommend the Wi-Fire if you need a better connection with more range and the additional choice of more networks to choose from.