Anyone used this?

[bryanmig]

I've noticed a new external USB dish antenna from Hawking. The Hawking model is HWU8DD.

It looks like it has a good idea behind it but im wondering if anyone has used it to know if it lives up to hawkings specs\claims.

More importantly.. does anyone know what kind of chipsets hawking generally uses in their equipment? Specically i am wondering if there are any hacked windows drivers or even standard linux drivers for these things ... otherwise, it would seem that this would only serve me for nothing more than surfing the web from further away. i would want to use it for more than that, heh.

Also, if anyone knows of any similarly priced ($60-$70) similar solutions, please give me a heads up.

Any input is appreciated!

[M/Q]

First USB wireless network adapters, in fact any USB network adapters are not in the same league as PCI or pc card adapters. They have more issues and are not as reliable. IMO. Second Hawkings IMO has great ideas, but lacks the polish that other vendors work hard to acheive. For instance, if you look at the enlarged image of the device you mentioned the word signal is mis-spelled singnal. I am picky but that seems to carry over to their more important hardware and software as well.

http://www.hawkingtech.com/images/product_image/_0.59669300%201134510305

As for aftermarket drivers that is virtually non-existant for USB devices. Most techys feel as I do and really avoid them.

[bryanmig]

I see. Well I am looking for a good hi-gain directional antenna to work with my laptop. I am still on a budget so I cant spend TOO much money, but of course I understand that you get what you pay for. With that said.. Id like something that would allow me to use it both in Windows (in promiscuous mode I believe?) and in Linux. Any suggestions?