设计圈

超远无线网卡
Wi-Fire Review

hField科技声称他们所生产的应用标准Wi-Fi技术的无线网卡Wi-Fire拥有1000英尺的接收距离。这是真的吗？

答案是肯定的，只要使用方法正确，他的确可以做到。最大的部件就是夹在笔记本电脑上的单向天线了，你必须将他指向你的无线路由器。虽然有些麻烦，但效果绝对不错。而在其他方面他堪称完美。

他通过USB供电，看起来不会对电脑电池寿命和工作带来影响。我家的面积有800平方英尺，我在家中任何地方离无线路由器的距离都不会超过100英尺，但我想测试一下他的最大有效距离。于是我离开房子，径直穿过大街，我惊讶的发现他仍然没有丢失信号。要知道我家前面的街道可是四车道的。而当我注意到信号强度掉到一半的时候我仍然可以上网、查看邮件。当然这一切的前提是天线与无线网卡所在的窗口之间没有阻碍物。接着我决定试下我的地下车库里会不会有信号。如我所料，没有信号。不过这不能怪他，所有的信号都被实体遮挡住了。

我唯一的不满就是他的外观了，他恐怖的尺寸让我轻巧的白色苹果机看起来怪怪的。他的夹子是塑料的。我在使用他的几个星期内不断地检查我的屏幕是否有损坏，最后我开心地告诉大家没有任何损害。

我认为hField科技绝对能够把他做的更小巧一些，但我估计可能是他们在功能性和造型上更看重前者一些的原因。他的功能表现无可挑剔。而他80美圆的价格可能有些人接受不了。如果你住在超过1000平方英尺的房子里，使用无线信号中继器的话，中继器的价格恐怕和Wi-Fire差不多，而且没有Wi-Fire能提供的机动性。鉴于以上，他的确是个可靠的无线连接解决方案，我慎重推荐。

还是希望hField动手把他改进得更小一点吧！

1,000 feet you say? That’s the claim made by hField Technologies, makers of the Wi-Fire; a wireless device that extends the reach of a standard Wi-Fi signal. Big question is does it work?

In a nutshell yes, it really works but with a few caveats. The biggest one being it’s a uni-directional antenna - that big square thing you see clamped to the laptop. You have to turn it towards the location of your wireless hub. The good news is that’s about as hard as it gets. Everything else seems to work flawlessly.

The unit is USB powered and doesn’t seem to affect battery life or performance on my Macbook. My apartment is 800 sqft. and I’m only about 100 sqft. from my wireless hub at any point in time but I wanted to test the extremities and see how far I can move away before the signal dropped. To my surprise I was able to leave my apartment and go all the way across the street. Mind you the street in front of my apartment has a total of 4 lanes. It was only then that I noticed my signal had dropped below half but I was still surfing the net, checking email, and IM’ing. Of course this is with the antenna having a clear line of sight of my bedroom window which is where my wireless hub sits. I then decided to test the signal from my parking garage which is underground. As expected it could find no signal but not to the fault of the Wi-Fire. All wireless signals dramatically fade when concrete is in the way.

My only big gripe is the design. It’s hideous and makes my pristine white Macbook look like a Borg assimilation. It comes with a plastic clamp which securely holds it to my screen but I found myself constantly checking if it had marred my casing. After a few weeks of use I’m glad to report no damage was found.

Although the Wi-Fire is small, it’s by no means compact. I’m sure hField Technologies could have created a sleeker unit but I suspect they were more concerned about function than form. The good news is it works and rather well too. It’s compatible with both Macs and PCs via a simple driver install but the $80 price tag may drive some people away. If you live in a home larger than a 1,000 sqft. a wireless repeater can be had for the same price but then again you wouldn’t have the mobility afforded by the Wi-Fire. With that being said it’s a solid deal and gets a recommendation from me.