After waiting long and hard for a decent netbook to come out, I finally made the plunge with a Lenovo IdeaPad S10.  The one thing that impressed and influenced my decision the most was build quality. Think of a Lenovo S10 as a Lexus and something like an Acer Aspire One as a Toyota. For the most part, the power under the hood is the same, but the build quality is much better. Retail price on an S10 is $429 for the 1GB/160GB configuration, but Lenovo has them for as low as $359.

Specifications:

CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
RAM: 1GB DDR2 667MHz
OS: Windows XP Home (SP3)
Screen: 10.2″ WSVGA AntiGlare TFT with webcam 1024×600 resolution
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM
Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 950
Wireless: 802.11b/g
Connectivity: 4-in-1 media card reader, 1x ExpressCard slot, 2x USB 2.0, 1x VGA, 1x 10/100 Ethernet, headphone/microphone jack
Battery: 3 Cell Lithium-Ion
Dimensions: 9.8″ x 7.2″ x 1.2″ (including feet)
Weight: 2.64 lbs (with 3-cell battery)

Build

Build quality is top notch and is exactly what you should expect from a Lenovo product. The plastics feel very rugged and the laptop does not flex. It feels as solid as a sheet of wood. I was thinking about purchasing an Aspire One, but the price difference was only $50. For me, even though the power under the hood is the same, I still can’t get over having a cheap feeling laptop, especially one I’ll be using every day.

The design and paint make the S10 stand out among the other netbooks. While most netbooks look almost like toys, the S10 looks like a scaled down, modern business laptop. Soft curves and semi-reflective flat black paint gives it a nice, professional look.

Performance

I was greatly surprised by the performance of this little netbook as it was way better than I expected. Windows XP boots up to the desktop in less than a minute and the system is extremely responsive. I thought that I would be waiting for the start menu to come up, waiting for My Computer to open, etc. I was completely wrong! Under normal usage (playing movies/music, browsing web), programs like Firefox and Winamp opened quickly. While not as fast as a beefed up quad core machine, it was fast enough to please somebody as picky as me. Even with multiple programs and multiple tabs open in Firefox, multi-tasking was a breeze and there was little to no lag while switching between programs.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Typing on a netbook keyboard will take some getting used to, regardless of what you get. The same goes for the S10; typing takes some getting used to. It took me a few hours of playing around before I got the hang of things. Three weird things with the keyboard: 1) There’s no tilde (~) key to the left of the 1 key 2) Function (Fn) key where Ctrl should be and 3) F11 and F12 are the same key

Other than that, adjusting is relatively easy. The keyboard requires little force to press a key down and each key feels flat and even meaning you can push the extreme left/right/top/bottom and register a successful key press. Like typical laptop keyboards, the keys are slightly “springy” and spring back into position soft and quietly, but enough to give you tactile feedback.

The touchpad has a grainy feel, but it’s a little smoother than your average touch pad. Sensitivity and responsiveness are great and there are even dedicated horizontal/vertical scrolling areas on the touchpad, which come in handy while browsing the web.

LCD Display

Lenovo S10 compared to 12.1" IBM Thinkpad x41

The 10.2″ LCD screen is nice and bright with great viewing angles. You can easily make out the screen even at an almost completely horizontal/vertical viewing angle. The matte surface on the screen helps readability in direct sunlight, which it does very well. Typically, LCD displays get very washed out in sunlight. If you’ve ever used a laptop with a glossy screen, you know what I’m talking about.

The brightness and contrast are excellent as well. While the screen can get very bright, it doesn’t wash out colors and text like I’ve seen others do. For normal every day use, I’d say that you won’t tell a difference in quality versus a regular LCD monitor. However, I wouldn’t do any work where color reproduction is vital because the small LCD isn’t up for the task, but what did you expect in a sub $400 netbook?

Battery Life

With a 3-cell battery, you can almost predict the battery life to be in between 2-3 hours for a netbook. While I have seen battery life results all over the internet, I never found a good, real world usage result, so I decided to do my own. The point of this test was to establish a minimum battery life run time by using performance intensive applications. Basically, the test was performed by playing a movie from my TVersity server in a Firefox window. Here were the conditions:

• LCD brightness at max
• Wireless on
• Streaming video over internet from TVersity server
• Headphones plugged in, mid level volume
• Average of 60% CPU usage over entire test
• No power saving options
• No CPU throttling - CPU always at max 1.6GHz

The battery ended up lasting 1 hour 45 minutes before Windows went into standby mode at 3% battery life. While 1 hour 45 minutes doesn’t sound like much, keep in mind that I was taxing the system quite hard and using up lots of power while doing so. I’d say you can expect close to 3 hours or more with normal internet usage. Be on the lookout for a 6 cell battery to be released soon. In the meantime, here are some tips to increase battery life:

• Decrease LCD brightness
• Throttle CPU to minimum frequency - use power management program that came installed
• Turn Wireless off
• Turn audio off
• Disable unused network adapters

Ports and Features

Here’s where the Lenovo S10 is a little lacking. An extra USB port would help since it only has two USB ports and bluetooth connectivity would be great. However, I wouldn’t base your decision off of port selection because one less USB port is just an inconvenience (not an impossible solution) and bluetooth sounds good in theory, but not so great in practice. The bandwidth limitations of bluetooth make syncing phones, transferring files, or even sharing an internet connection a very slow process compared to using a USB connection. Sure, bluetooth would be nice for something like a bluetooth mouse, but it is not really necessary.

However, the S10 makes up for the missing USB port by introducing an ExpressCard slot. This slot is basically like a PCMCIA slot which lets you install things like network adapters, USB adapters, bluetooth adapters, etc.

Upgrading the hard drive and RAM is very easy. Just remove a cover on the bottom of the laptop and you’ll have access to the hard drive and RAM slots.

Heat and Noise

The heat and noise is not bad, but it’s not good either. The keyboard area gets warm with moderate use, but not hot. For some people, this may be a little uncomfortable, but I find it to be reasonable. Noise isn’t a concern until you do something graphics or CPU intensive. A single internal fan is located within the netbook which only turns on when it’s needed. However, being a small fan spinning at high RPMs, it makes more noise than a fan on a standard sized laptop. Although the fan is loud enough to be clearly heard, it isn’t loud enough to be annoying and I’ve learned to live with it.

Conclusion

Priced at less than $400, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10is a great choice, if not the best choice for a netbook at the time of this post. It has the same processor as most netbooks nowadays (1.6GHz Intel Atom), but it comes with 1GB RAM (some units only have 512MB) and a 160GB hard drive (some come with smaller drives, or solid state drives). Coupled with a 10.2″ LCD and top notch build quality, I sincerely believe the Lenovo S10 is the best overall netbook on the market today.

I ordered an InvisibleSHIELD a week ago and it has finally arrived.  Prior to installing the skin, I swapped out my chrome defective phone with a brand new replacement so that I would have a clean phone with no scratches. 

The InvisibleSHIELD comes nicely packaged and includes the plastic protective skin, a plastic squeegee, and a bottle of “Shield Spray”, which is mostly water.  A perforated plastic sheet holds the many individual skin pieces in place.  Unfortunately, Zagg did not include a legend, so you’re left to figure out what goes where.  Therefore, it would be a good idea to tear out the individual skin pieces and compare them to your phone before you begin so you’ll know what piece goes where. 

Installation is easy, but takes time and patience.  If you rush this process, you will have poor results.  Total time from start to finish was about an hour and 15 minutes to install.  First, you must remove your battery to avoid any shorts due to the water used in the installation.  Then, find which skin piece matches the phone, peel it off the sheet, and spray the Shield Solution on both sides of the skin.  The water in the Shield Solution prevents the skin from sticking to your phone on contact.  That way, you have some time to slide the skin into place.  Apply the skin to the phone and use the squeegee to drive the air bubbles out. 

Be patient with the air bubbles

Once you’re finished, let the phone dry out for at least a few hours before inserting the battery.  That way, the adhesive has time to set in.  Once cured, the InvisibleSHIELD stays firmly attached to the phone.  No edges are peeling up and I don’t for see that happening anytime soon.  If you have air bubbles, which you are bound to have, don’t worry, just let time do its work.  It typically takes 1-2 days for the bubbles to clear up on their own.  I’m about 20 hours into my new skin and I still can see air bubbles.  However, they are gradually clearing up and it doesn’t look half as bad compared to immediately after the installation. 

The main tip I have is to work slowly.  Make sure the edges line up correctly to avoid overhang.  Also be sure not to stretch the plastic out too much; the skin is manufactured to pretty tight tolerances.  If you stretch the skin, especially while applying it to the chrome siding, you may have to trim a small amount of over hang. 

The skin itself is slightly textured and feels almost tacky because of the soft plastic.  Some people don’t like this tacky feel, but I do because it gives you a nice firm grip on the phone.  Phones like the HTC Touch Pro tend to be a little slick and slip out of your hand easily as a result.  The tacky feel of the skin also helps keep the phone from sliding around, making it much harder to knock off a table.  Touch screen sensitivity remains the same as far as I can tell.  I like the screen protector because it is slightly tacky and makes my finger “stick” to the screen instead of sliding around.  One of the huge annoyances I had with the phone were all of the fingerprints and grease streaks over the screen and chrome.  With the InvisibleSHIELD, fingerprints and grease are almost completely eliminated!

I was impressed by how much surface area the skin covered.  I’d say at least 90% of the phone is covered by the InvisibleSHIELD with the exception of items like the power button, volume controls, USB port, microphone, speaker, reset button, and stylus opening.  The major impact points, like the sides and edges, are completely protected and I’m pretty confident that the phone will survive a fall no ugly scratches or dents.

Finally, here are some pictures of the Touch Pro with the InvisibleSHIELD installed.  These pictures were taken shortly after the installation so you will notice some air bubbles.  Be patient and the air bubbles will clear themselves up.

Update:  If you are looking at getting a set for your device, Zagg is running a site wide 30% off promotion on all their InvisibleSHIELD products until December 31, 2008.  Use the code “sitewide30″ during checkout on their site at http://www.zagg.com .

Being without electricity for a few hours is one thing, being without power for a few days is a completely different story.  After Hurricane Ike took it’s toll on the Gulf, the winds did not stop there.  The 60+ MPH winds came to Louisville, KY and knocked out thousands of power lines leaving over 300,000 people without electricity, and I was one of them.  After a few days of sitting in the dark with no generator (like my neighbors), I needed a solution.  The quick and dirty solution was a  power inverter, but it was impossible to find one locally that wasn’t extravagantly marked up in price.

I took a look around Amazon.com for awhile and found a winner, the Cobra CPI 875 Power Inverter .  At a tad over $50 and supposedly providing 800 watts continuous, I was a little skeptical if the unit could actually perform.  The reviews on the site said nothing of the unit’s performance, however; they were mainly complaining about the product description.  I already had cables and didn’t care if they came with them or not, so I went ahead and purchased the unit.  Luckily, I had Amazon Prime at my disposal and opted for $3.99 next day shipping.

I received the unit the next day, but unfortunately, electricity was still out all over the place.  However, it was also a good thing since it gave me a chance to test out the unit.  It is packaged in a black plastic carrying case and comes with the battery cables needed for the connection.  Being that the unit is rated for 800 watts, you cannot plug this into your standard cigarette lighter because you’ll be likely to blow fuses or overload your car’s wiring.  Instead, you must connect the  unit directly to the car battery via the included battery cable clamps.

The Cobra CPI 875 features two 120v AC power connections and an additional 5v USB port.  Among the first electronic items I tested were my 50″ Plasma TV, a DVR, and an Xbox 360.  The TV came on just fine, but let out a loud buzzing sound coming from the power supply area.  This is because the power inverter outputs a modified sine wave which can induce noise.  The DVR and Xbox 360 all ran perfectly as well, no buzzing from these components.  I got fed up with the buzzing from the TV and switched to an LCD monitor.  This time, the buzzing was much quieter, but it was still there.  I ran the LCD monitor, Xbox 360, and my laptop off of the inverter for a combined total of over 12 hours in 2 days.

The inverter held up fantastically and did not drain my 2 batteries as much as I thought it would.  I was able to run an LCD, Xbox 360, and laptop for over 5 hours before my battery voltage got too low for my liking (11.5v).  I could’ve gone longer, but I did not want to risk dead batteries in the morning when I needed to leave.  The Cobra CPI 875 did not heat up much either, in fact, it was cool to the touch throughout its usage.  As far as the performance goes, I can’t say much more because it performed when I needed it to and that’s what counts to me.  I don’t have any doubts that it will last and I look forward to using it more.

Cobra CPI 875 Power Inverter

After dealing with the numerous issues of my previous AMD Geode carputer motherboard, I decided to upgrade.  Some of the problems I had were hanging at POST, bluescreens due to driver issues, and overall weird behavior.  I also wanted more features, such as the ability to boot from a USB drive.  Not only that, but the board ran pretty hot in my glove box and lacked performance that I wanted.

Alas, the Intel D945GCLF2, based on the Intel Atom, is finally released.  One of the key features that caught my eye was the dual core Atom processor.  Not only is it dual core, but its power usage is outstanding.  It’s estimated to use 4 watts under load while consuming milliwatts (thousandths of a watt) when idle.  Being in a carputer, power consumption is a vital specification because you need to figure out how large of a power supply you will need.  The power consumption spec can also give you an idea of how much heat will be disappated, because after all, the power not  used for computing will dissipate into heat.

Intel D945GCLF2 Dual Core Atom Motherboard

The power supply I am using is an Opus 120.  It’s rated for 120 watts and has powered my previous build just fine.  I ran into one snag that I didn’t expect, however.  The motherboard uses a 12v P4 ATX connector (see pic below) as well as the standard 20-24pin ATX connector.   The power supply I have (and most that I’ve seen) do not have this connector incorporated into their harness.

P4 ATX Connector

To solve this problem, you can either purchase a molex to P4 adapter, or you can mod your existing wiring harness and add the P4 connector.  I chose to mod my existing wiring harness and add the P4 connector to one of the existing molex connectors.  Basically, I cut off the P4 connector from a regular ATX power supply, stripped the wires, and crammed them into an existing molex connection.  See the pictures below to see what I mean.

Closeup of P4 Connection

Closeup of P4 to Molex Connection

Molex to P4 Adapter

After everything was setup, I installed the full Windows XP Pro with SP3.  I opted not to use TinyXP because I felt that it could cause issues down the road with all the drivers it has stripped out.  After the installation, I installed the usual Winamp, VLC media player, SpeedFan, iGuidance, Centrafuse, and finally the drivers.  Instead of configuring Windows to hibernate after the car was shut off, I chose to shutdown completely because I’ve had lots of issues with hibernation such as it not resuming correctly.

With 1GB of RAM and a 2.5″ 80GB 4200RPM hard drive, the performance isn’t too bad.  You would think that a 4200RPM hard drive would be kind of sluggish, but I can hardly notice it.  Windows starts up from a cold boot quickly and so do all of the programs I use.  I’m never left waiting for the next song to load or a program to open.

The low power consumption of the board is also very noticeable.  With my old board, the CPU temperature would always be at least 45C upon boot, and rise to a little over 60C after being used for awhile.  On a cold morning, at about 55F, The Intel Atom managed to boot up at 30C and after 20 minutes, it had only risen to 35C!  Now, when I open my glove box, there’s no more hot air oozing out.  The air inside the glove box is almost the same temperature as the air in the cabin!  However, the temperatures will differ based on the ambient temperature inside the cabin, so the CPU will run hotter on a warmer day.  On an 80F day, the CPU boots at 30C and rises to about 55-60C, still not bad on a very warm day.

All in all, the Intel D945GCLF2 is a great buy.  At only $89.99 from Mini-box.com, you get tons of features, and best of all, a dual core processor.  With low power consumption, low temperatures, and high performance it seems as if the board was made explicitly for carputer usage, in which it excels.

Full Carputer Setup in Glovebox

Caputer without Fan Showing P4 Connection

A few weeks ago, I ordered a Daniel Defense Omega free float rail for my midlength 14.5″ AR-15.  I didn’t like the stock handguards because they heat up too quickly, and because I wanted to mount accessories to the rails (vertical foregrip, flashlight, etc).

After doing my research and looking at free float rails from Troy, YHM, LaRue, and Knights Armament, and Daniel Defense, I came to the conclusion that Daniel Defense had the rail for me.  This was because of the price, ease of installation, and good reviews that I had read.  Most free float rails from the other manufacturers required that the delta nut assembly be removed.  To remove the assembly, you’ll probably have to use a dremel and cut it off, which is something that I did not want to do.  Also, while the other manufacturers come close in price, they are not as easy to install nor are they proven to perform as well as the Daniel Defense Omega.

Installation of the Omega rails was a breeze which took me all of 5 minutes, literally.  All you have to do is take off your stock handguards, attach the Omega rails in the handguard’s place, and tighten a few screws and allen set screws.  The flat head set screws attach the two parts of the rail to each other and the allen head set screws attaches the rail to the delta ring (far left in the picture).

The way the Omega rail attaches to the rifle had me worried until I took it to the range.  This is because the only thing attaching the rail to the rifle are 4 allen head set screws at the base of the delta ring (far left in the picture above).  This gives support to the lower portion of the rail, but there is nothing holding the rail to the upper part of the delta ring (far right in the picture above).  You would think that you could shove the rail around at the upper base, but the rail stays installed firmly.  It doesn’t move unless you give it some strong force.

After going to the range and firing a few hundred rounds, I can finally say that I strongly approve of the Daniel Defense Omega rail.  It held up great and didn’t rotate or come loose.  The rail also dissapated heat much faster and much better than the stock handguards.  I should also mention that the finish on the rail is top notch and did not scratch or mar after mounting and unmounting various accessories.

After using a bluetooth TomTom GPS receiver for months on end, I got fed up with the slow satellite acquisition and slow bluetooth pairing every time I turned the device on.  I mainly used the bluetooth GPS receiver with my carputer and iGuidance 4 for GPS navigation.  However, it gets annoying when the receiver only connects half the time and waiting for satellites can take minutes, not seconds.

It was time to look for a new receiver that could acquire satellites quickly and require no user intervention to turn the receiver on and off.  A USB GPS receiver was the solution for me since it’s A) powered by the computer, B) turns on/off based on if the carputer is on/off, C) SiRF III chipset, D) waterproof.  I ordered a Globsat BU-353 USB receiver and I was wondering why I didn’t purchase one from the start.

Installation was extremely easy and iGuidance 4 reconized the receiver right away.  Being waterproof, the Globsat BU-353 can be externally mounted.  This is a plus because if externally mounted, the receiver has a better line of sight to the sky, which results in faster satellite acquisitions.  It also has a magnetic base so you could attach it to anything metal on your car (roof, door, hood, etc).  I chose to mount it externally, right outside the windshield where it meets the hood.

Globalsat BU-353 @ Amazon.com

The performance of the receiver is simply amazing.  By the time my carputer boots into Windows and iGuidance is launched, the receiver already has a lock of at least 8 satellites.  So far, I’ve never had to wait for the receiver to lock onto satellites, it is always instant.  I’ve never had it lose it’s lock on the satellites and I haven’t had any problems with it thus far.  Simply said, this is an amazing GPS receiver that I’d be happy to recommend to anybody.  The downside is that the receiver is USB, so it can only be used with a computer, not cell phones.

I bought my receiver at Amazon.com for $36.95, which is the best price I could find; even better than eBay.

I recently had the pleasure of using Amazon Prime free for one month.  Amazon Prime is a new feature, original, and  exclusive to Amazon.com.  With Amazon Prime, anything you buy from Amazon will receive free 2-day shipping. You can also elect to upgrade to next-day shipping for only $3.99.  The items include only merchandise sold by Amazon.com, not by their 3rd party merchants who have their own shipping charges.  Also, there is no minimum order .  You get free 2-day shipping on anything whether it costs 10 cents or 10 dollars.

Amazon Prime Link

I snagged the free trial last month and it’s been fantastic.  Free 2-day shipping makes shopping online even better than ever.  If I ever needed little items that local stores mark up, like HDMI cables or certain electronics, I first check Amazon because I love the free 2-day shipping.  Part of the downside to shopping online is the wait between when your order is placed and when it arrives at your door.  Amazon Prime virtually eliminates that wait.

Just last week, Hurricane Ike winds came through Louisville, KY and left over 300,000 people without electricity, including me.  After 3 days, I got fed up with no electricity and looked for a solution.  I ended up ordering an 800 watt power inverter that I could hook up to my car and power the basic entertainment needs (LCD monitor, laptop, Xbox 360, etc).  Knowing that I had Amazon Prime at my disposal, I chose the upgraded next-day shipping for $3.99.  The next day, I came home and found the inverter at my doorstep.  Having Prime was a godsend because there were no local places with generators, and every local electronics store had power inverters which were massively marked up.  The Prime membership saved my sanity!

Use the link below to sign up for a free 1 month trial. The deadline to grab your free trial is October 31st .  Also, make sure to disable the auto-renew if you don’t want to continue your Prime membership after the trial period has ended.  This keeps you from being billed the $79 annual fee.

Amazon Prime Link

I recently go a hold of some of the new Magpul polymer magazines dubbed “PMags”.  These magazines are made out of an extremely lightweight, yet strong polymer and holds 30 rounds.  PMags were designed to be mass produced quickly without leaving quality behind.

One of the first things you’ll notice about a PMag is the shape and texture.  These magazines have slightly less curvature than their G.I. issue counterparts and are textured differently as well.  The strength is unbelievable; there’s no way I’m breaking one of these.  One person on YouTube has actually ran over a fully loaded PMag with a Chevy truck, then loaded the magazine, and fired every round without a hitch.  That’s got to say something about its strength.

Hand loading rounds into the magazine is much easier than with standard G.I. issue mags.  You don’t have to put nearly as much pressure on the spring to get it to compress.  With the G.I. mags, the spring is fairly strong and it can get tiresome or annoying after loading hundreds of rounds.  I also like the base of the magazine; it makes it easier to get a good grasp for removal/reloading purposes.

I haven’t fired any rounds out of these new PMags since I haven’t been to the range yet.  However, I beleive they perform flawlessly, at least that’s what many other people in the AR 15 community have observed as well.  With an internet price of about $13-15, PMags are fairly cheap to stock up on and a definite buy.

UPDATE: I have been to the range a few times and have tested these magazines.  Out of the 5 I received, all have worked flawlessly.  Due to the prices of .223, I haven’t put a ton of rounds through each magazine, but there’s still a good 300 rounds that have been fed by each magazine.

After seeing a deal posted on Slickdeals.net for the 24″ Soyo Pearl LCD monitor for $229, I immediately ran out to Office Max. They had this monitor in stock, so I picked up two.

At first, both monitors had one stuck pixel each. After about a week, some random pixels (hundreds of them) started to “spaz” out and only flash a teal color. I ended up exchanging those two monitors for another two monitors, hoping that I won’t have this same problem again.

I got home and immediately hooked them up via DVI cable. The Soyo’s ended up being perfect. No dead or stuck pixels anywhere, although one of them has a small amount of back light bleeding at the bottom of the screen, but it is not apparent unless the screen is completely black.

For the price I paid, I cannot complain at all. The colors are absolutely beautiful once you adjust the color settings. Both monitors were a little too bright out of the box, so I turned down the birghtness about 5-10 notches. Another thing I noticed was that both monitors (and the previous two I returned) had too much red in the picture, so I had to turn down the red about 10-15 notches. Once the adjustments were made, the quality blows my old Westinghouse 22″ LCD monitor out of the water. Not only is the response time noticeably quicker, but the colors are not as dull. Oranges are extremely vibrant while the greens have a much “deeper” look. The Soyo 24″ has an advertised 2ms response time, which I believe is true. When playing Call of Duty 4, the difference between 8ms (my old Westinghouse 22″) and 2ms (the new Soyo 24″) is so noticeable, it took me a few days of getting used to and it has improved my game play by a slight bit.

Having two 24″ LCD monitors helps out productivity immensely. Rather than having one monitor and trying to put two windows side by side, use two monitors which will allow you to view both windows in their full size. One caveat of trying to view multiple windows with one monitor is that the resolution is too low. You’ll find your screen getting cramped and even if you do have a large LCD, such as a 22″ which displays 1680 x 1050 resolution, you still won’t be able to view multiple items without cramping the windows and therefore, messing up the formatting (such as web pages).

Now, even though the Soyo sports a TN panel, I wouldn’t shy away from it just because of that. My Westinghouse 22″ LCD also used a TN panel and with the continuing development of technology, it’s blatantly apparent that the TN panel has improved. I’ve seen top quality Dell MVA and IPS panels and I have to say, the TN panel in the Soyo comes extremely close. With the fact that the Soyo is about 50% cheaper, the choice is clear.

The Alfa 500mw wireless USB adapter is known to many war drivers. At 500mw, the Alfa has 20 more Tx/Rx power than the Linksys WPC11 (25mw), 2.5 times more power than the Senao’s 200mw, and 1.67 times more power than the Zcomax 300mW and Ubiquiti 300mW. In addition to its high power, the Alfa contains the RTL8187L Realktek chipset, which is known to be great for capturing and injecting wireless packets via Aircrack.

Alfa 500mw Wireless Adapter at Amazon.com

Here’s a little test I did comparing a Zonet ZEW 2500p USB wireless adapter vs the Alfa 500mw USB wireless adapter. I couldn’t find the power rating on the Zonet, but I’m pretty sure its not more than 50mw. First, here’s a scan using airodump in channel hop mode.

The location was indoors on the first floor close to a backyard window. It didn’t surprise me that the Zonet ZEW2500p didn’t pick up much. Although it can capture and inject packets, this little wireless card just doesn’t have the range.

Up next is the Alfa AWUS036H 500mw USB wireless adapter results. This is with the included 2db antenna with the adapter sitting in the same spot as the Zonet.

Not bad, but not as good as expected. The strength to the unamed AP increased and one other AP was picked up. Let’s see what happens when we use a larger antenna. I had a Fontenna laying around, so I decided to try it out. The Fontenna is a 7db directional atenna made by Fon to pair with their La Fonera. However, the Fontenna uses an RP-SMA connector, so you can just about use the antenna with any other device that has the same connector. I then used double sided adhesive to attach it to the top of my window and connected it to the Alfa via RP-SMA connectors. Here are the results:

As you can see, I picked up a lot more APs than expected. I was even able to fake authenticate and associate with one of the APs that I couldn’t even see with the Zonet ZEW2500p. However, I recommend that you swap the stock 2db antenna with something a little stronger.