Alfa AWUS036NH and AWUS036NEH long range 802.11n wireless USB adapters now in stock

New this month are two long range 802.11n wireless networking products from Alfa Networks, a name many know because of their popular AWUS036H model high powered 802.11g wireless product.

With the AWUS036NH, Alfa brings high output power and great receive sensitivity to wireless-N network.

The AWUS036NH comes in a palm style form factor just like the AWUS036H wireless-G model. It features a Ralink chipset. It is a single band 150 mbps 802.11n product.

For those on a budget, Alfa brings us the AWUS036NEH which also has high output power, though not as high as the AWUS036NH. It comes in a smaller form factor and connects directly to the USB port on your computer.

For those planning to upgrade their networks to 802.11n standard this year, give the Alfa models a serious look. You won't be disappointed. Please see the item description of each product on our web page for more details and specifications.

Beware of fake/phony Alfa products

In the past month we have confirmed with Alfa the removal of five online marketplace listings that were for fake Alfa AWUS036H wireless USB adapters. Some of those had in excess of fifty sales. A phony Alfa adapter is not like a pirated song or movie. A fake Alfa product only looks very similar on the outside. On the inside the hardware is inferior, the performance is sub-par, and there is no warranty from Alfa. Here are some tips to help ensure you are buying a genuine Alfa product, and to help keep the market clear of pirated products.

1. Always be sure to purchase from an authorized reseller of Alfa products. Authorized resellers have passed a multi-faceted test with Alfa to ensure they give the best customer service and support, and it also confirms they buy the products directly from Alfa to ensure they are 100% genuine. Alfa will be launching a reseller verification page very soon, but in the meantime you can confirm if a seller is authorized by contacting Alfa directly via their web site (http://www.alfa.com.tw).

2. Be cautious of killer deals. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. All of the removed listings mentioned in paragraph one were selling well below the regular market price. Sellers of pirated items can sell them very cheap because they are not quality items and cost very little to make.

3. If you are buying for resale, check to make sure the distributor you are buying from is an authorized reseller, or obtained them from an authorized reseller. A proportion of pirated sales comes from reputable and honest online shops who did not investigate their purchasing source.

4. When in doubt, contact Alfa directly with a link to the advertisement or web page of the seller. If you have already received a product and want to make sure it is genuine, email Alfa with the name of the place where you purchased the item, the date of the sale, the serial number, and MAC address of the item you received.

When fake items are sold, we all pay the penalty. Reputable businesses lose sales, Alfa loses sales (which means less money to invest in developing more great products), and perhaps most importantly, the people who unknowingly buy the fake units get an item of inferior quality and performance.

How to manually install your Alfa AWUS036H 1000mW or 500mW USB adapter on Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)

If you have or plan to get an Alfa AWUS036H wireless USB adapter, which uses the Realtek RTL8187 chipset, the adapter is compatible with Windows 7. We have purchased a number of Windows 7 systems for our technicians and found in most cases the device was actually auto-installed by Windows 7 when we had the driver CD in the computer. However with some systems this did not happen, and we were able to successfully get the item working on Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit editions by manually installing the Windows Vista drivers from the Alfa installation CD.

We created this PDF guide that provides a step by step walk-through to do a manual install. If you have any questions, please remember that blog comments are not regularly monitored by Rokland staff, so please contact us through our web site Rokland.com.

Christmas week shipping schedule

Merry Christmas and happy Festivus to all!

We will be operating on a short week beginning Monday, December 21st, and will be closed Thursday December 24th, and Friday December 25th, so that our employees may enjoy the holiday with their families.

We generally ship orders the next business day after they are placed/paid. All eBay orders paid for by Wednesday night (12/23) at 11:59 PM EST will be shipped out on Thursday morning, even though the rest of our offices will be closed. Purchases made through eBay on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or Saturday and Sunday (12/26 and 12/27) will be shipped on Monday December 28th.

A special note for our web site customers, UPS will not be picking up packages on Christmas Eve. Therefore orders placed on or after Wednesday 12/23 will not be shipped until Monday 12/28. This means if you place an order on 12/23 with Next Day Air shipping, it will ship on 12/28 and arrive on 12/29.

If you are a web customer, please note at this time our web site only supports UPS shipping options. If you would like to make a purchase and select a US Postal option, you can do so by calling us (click on Contact Us link on the right hand side of our web site for our sales and support phone number). Thank you for making this a great year at Rokland, and we wish you the best this holiday season and a happy new year as well!

BearExtender.com: the ultimate Wi-Fi experience for Macs

Readers may be familiar with our efforts to develop long range (and affordable) Wi-Fi solutions for Apple Macintosh users. We have had some great successes with the RokAir and RokN wireless USB adapters. We were also the first to launch a Snow Leopard compatible wireless USB adapter for Macs. Today we are excited to announce the launch of BearExtender.com, a project that has been in the works for a long time.

BearExtender.com is the only place you can purchase our newest product, BearExtender n3. BearExtender n3 is the result of a joint venture between our product development team and Roland Saekow, a product design major and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Together we built off of our well-reviewed n3 wireless USB adapter for Macs to put together a kit that is geared toward mobile Mac users and college students.

BearExtender n3 features a 700mW 802.11n USB wireless adapter that is compatible with Mac OS 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and even 10.6 Snow Leopard (32-bit only). Instead of including drivers on a CD-ROM that will end up in a landfill, BearExtender n3 comes with software on a reusable flash drive. Once you are done installing the device, you can drag and drop the contents of the drive to some place on your Mac (for future use if needed) and then use the flash drive for other purposes.

BearExtender n3 also comes with a special metal flex cable allowing the unit to stand freely in the air, with no need for a surface on which to set it down (great for use in coffee shops or crowded desks where surface space is at a premium). The unit also has a clip on the back for easy attachment to the back of your laptop.

BearExtender n3 is the ultimate portable Wi-Fi device for Mac users, and it is also 802.11n compatible. Check out the press release here, and be the first to get one at the low introductory price here.

Our holiday promises to you...

1. We promise to get your order shipped out on time and as advertised.

2. We promise excellent customer service before and after the sale.

3. We promise not to make any video advertisements set to the tune of well known Christmas songs. That may have been neat the first time it happened, but who gets a laugh these days when
"Deck the Halls..." and "Jingle Bells" are rewritten about everything from hardware to kitchen appliances?

Black Friday Deal: 802.11n Wireless USB adapter only $9.00 with free shipping...

To celebrate 9 years in business, this Friday and Saturday only (November 27th and 28th) we will have a "Black Friday" deal of our own at Rokland.com:

A wireless 802.11n mini USB adapter with 300 mbps max speed for just $9 including shipping (limit 4 per customer- the deal price will not appear on the web site until Friday November 27th).

You won't find a better Black Friday deal unless it involves one of those "wait 10 weeks for a rebate" programs.

This Friday or Saturday, just add the item to the cart, checkout, and your card is charged $9 and the item is mailed to you. Best. Deal. Ever?

Well, okay, Wal-Mart and Best Buy have a $197 laptop and that is a pretty sweet deal, but it is limited to something like 5 per store, and you have to get there at 3AM. You can buy your $9 wireless 802.11n adapter from Rokland.com any time Friday or Saturday at this link (the $9.00 sale price will not be shown on the site until Friday November 27th).

We are not going to advertise this deal anywhere but here on our blog, and via a Twitter post. We want to see just how effective Twitter searches and tweets will be in getting the word out about this deal. So please help us by tweeting about this deal, or retweeting our tweet. We are @rokland

We hope you enjoy the deal, and happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving week shipping schedule

Happy Thanksgiving! This week we are on a short week, and will be closed Thursday November 26th for Thanksgiving Day, with limited hours on Friday November 27th so that our employees may enjoy the holiday with their families.

We generally ship orders the next business day after they are placed/paid. All orders paid for by Tuesday night at 11:59 PM EST will be shipped on Wednesday November 25th. Purchases made through eBay on Wednesday and Thursday of this week with a US Postal shipping method such as First Class or Priority Mail will be shipped Friday November 27th.

A special note for our web site customers, and eBay or phone customers who select UPS shipping. UPS will not be in operation from Thursday until Monday of next week. Therefore any UPS shipment paid for after 11:59 EST on Tuesday November 24th will not be shipped out until Monday November 30th. Please keep this in mind especially if purchasing an expedited UPS shipping method such as Next Day Air. Next Day Air orders paid for on Wednesday will not ship until next Monday and thus will be delivered Tuesday.

If you are a web customer, please note at this time our web site only supports UPS shipping options. If you would like to make a purchase and select a US Postal option, you can do so by calling us (click on Contact Us link on the right hand side of our web site for our sales and support phone number).

Using your Alfa AWUS036H or Rok500 wireless USB adapter with Windows 7

(Note: this article applies to the AWUS036H 500mW and 1000mW wireless USB adapters from Alfa, the Rok500 500mW USB adapter from Rokland, and other devices that have a Realtek RTL8187L chipset.)

If you have an Alfa AWUS036H or are considering buying one and want to know if it will work with Windows 7, the technical answer is yes. If you are not that familiar with computers though, please note the installation process may be a bit more involved than a normal WiFi adapter installation.

We have found in some cases you can just put the Alfa drivers CD in the CD drive and connect the adapter to the computer, and then Windows will automatically set it up for you. In many cases though (primarily with Windows 7 64-bit), nothing will happen when you connect the device, or Windows will report that it was not able to find a driver.

The Alfa AWUS036H works great in Windows 7 using the Vista driver. If your computer does not install the driver for you, at the time this article was published you cannot use the Setup program on the CD, as a message will come up saying it is not compatible with Windows 7 (the setup program is only for use with Windows Vista or earlier). What you have to do is manually install the Vista X86 (for 32-bit) or X64 (for 64-bit) driver from the Alfa CD by going to the Device Manager, right clicking on the device, and selecting Update Driver (or Properties > Update Driver). Then proceed through the wizard, browsing to the driver location on the Alfa CD.

If you have not done a manual driver installation in Windows XP or Vista before, or get lost in the process, we will have some video and picture guides available to assist you within the next week.

Happy Halloween from Rokland