Hawking Hi-Gain USB Wireless-300N Access Point/Bridge (White) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)There aren't a lot of wireless bridges on the market. I had tried a DLink DAP1522 and it basically didn't work at all (see my review). This Hawking model had better reviews, so I tried it. Ultimately, it did work, but there are some problems you should be aware of.
The set-up wizard provided on the CD did not work at all, so I went with the web client set up. The process is persnickity (you have to set up a static IP address to connect to the web client etc) but it is at least well explained in the manual. It was a quick set up, and the product appeared to work at first.
After a day I started losing my connection. It turned out that the reason is you MUST set your wireless router to use a single channel, not to change channels automatically. Anytime the router changes channels, the Hawking loses its connection. TO make matters worse, the "site survey" function in the Hawking is buggy - when you try to restablish a connection, your wireless network often doesn't seem to show up at all! THis means you have to do a hard reset of the Hawking device and start all over. And of course every time you want to access the web client you have to reset your IP address etc. It's quite annoying after a while.
The second thing I noticed was that I was only getting a "G" connection despite the fact that I have a 2.4GHz N router (the DLink DIR655). The ONLY way I was able to get the Hawking to connect in N mode was to set the DLink to ONLY function in N mode. Even if I told the Hawking to only use N, when I switched the DLink back to mixed G/N mode (to acommodate legacy devices in my home), the Hawking would revert to G mode! So, I basically have a G Bridge, not an N Bridge....assuming I want to have any N devices on my network. VERY ANNOYING! And enough for me to rate the product only two stars.
The final thing I'd point out is that the bridge gives you very little status information on strength of connection, whether it has successfully connected, etc. It also doesn't say if it is connecting in N or G mode--I had to go to the Dlink to find that out.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Hawking Hi-Gain USB Wireless-300N Access Point/Bridge (White)

Get 8% OFF

Click here for more information about Hawking Hi-Gain USB Wireless-300N Access Point/Bridge (White)