Equipment vendor Hawking Technologies Wednesday released a dish-shaped Wi-Fi network adapter that it claims increases range by as much as 300 percent.
The company said in a statement that the adapter is shaped like a tiny satellite dish and includes a high-gain dish antenna. It said it increases range by as much as 300 percent compared to standard embedded adapters.
This is one of the relatively small number of adapters that claim increased range but that don't incorporate some version of multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) smart antenna technology.
"The problem with wireless networks these days is not the speed, it’s the distance," Jason Owen, Hawking's chief manager of marketing and product development, said in a statement. "Regardless of how fast your network is, if you don’t have the distance it simply won't work."
The adapter supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 security and has an estimated street price of under $70.
