Hawking HWREN1 Hi-Gain Wireless-300N Range Extender
by Hawking Technology
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Hawking HWREN1 Hi-Gain Wireless-300N Range Extender
Customer Review: For what it's worth, pure awesomeness!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this thinking it's going to be childs play...and well, it was....
We'll just stick to the highlights of the show and any questions you may have I can answer later.
I bought mine from tiger direct because they were having a screaming deal during the best shopping time of the year. Shipping was cheap and always reliable.
1st open the package, you should get..
-quick setup guide
-quick setup cd
-warranty card
-power cable
-the repeater itself
-2 antennas
-short length cat 5 cable
You can use the quick guides for dummies, but here's the easy way if you don't have a problem doing this.
-Once you plug in the unit, it will transit an SSID of Hawking_300N_Repeater (or something close to that)
-Connect the unit into your access point (your router)
-Once you're connected it'll say that you'll have limited access to the repeater but you'll still have access to the internet from your router
a)this is bogus ;), on your wireless device, type in the ip address of 192.168.1.240
*a popup screen will come up, enter in the login info, admin, then 1234*
For most internet users who need this type of repeater commonly have at least one laptop or something that is wireless in their house to access the internet.
Immediately go to the Advanced User Setup page, and click on the Setup Utility button. Enable DCHP, to turn the repeater into a massive hotspot. Your Default Gateway's IP address is going to be defaulted at 0.0.0.0. Change that to the IP address of the router. You can do this, by easily using your wireless device ***that is connected to the router, mind you, we haven't connected to the repeater yet***
For starters, look under internet details. This is located in Network and Sharing Center>click on view status>click on details. For Vista/7. For Mac it's under "internet options."
Everything is listed there. But lets keep this simple. ;)
Back to the GUI Hawking web page for Utility setup.
-Enable DCHP
-Change the Gateway IP of the repeater to that of the router's default IP gateway under details.
If you are confused, you can always log on to your router and it should give you a lot of information depending on what model you have. And yes, you should be able to log on to your router's GUI page. You can switch between the router and the repeater at the same time. Cool huh? ;)
For most of the routers of the market for household use you will run into a default IP address starting with 192.168.1.X (X is the last number, your router could be different from the other guy's router, so I just assume it's X to save face)
Next step, change the DCHP's IP address to the same address you entered in the default IP category. Again, this default IP category is listed above DNS server category.
The subnet address should look like this ***255.255.255.0*** DO NOT deviate away from this! It makes things more complicated and we want easy, remember?
Your repeater address should be 192.168.1.X. The "X" represents any number that is not the same number as your router. The repeater address entry block is the first block on the page. It is self titled, "IP ADDRESS."
OK! One more block to fill in! Your DNS server IP address. Under your internet details that shows more than a handful of IP addresses, you should see DNS server IP address. For most common household routers, your DNS IP address is going to be the same as the default gateway address. Enter it! **If your log on IP address to get to the GUI page is 192.168.1.5, this is considered your DNS server. ;)**
Your starting and ending IP addresses should look like this *192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.200*
The repeater will act as a server, and anyone who connects to it will receive an IP address that is similar to 192.168.1.X. X is equal to 1 - 200. Yes, you could potentially have 200 people on your repeater.
OK! Lets go ahead and click on Apply. Please remember to do this or all the information you entered will be lost and you will have to re-enter it. The next page will have *Continue* and *Apply.* Click on *Continue.*
You want to change the the security settings to make your repeater secure. Go to the Security page, then click on Wireless Security. Scroll down. DISABLE your SSID being broadcasted. This will stop broadcasting your repeaters ID, but the messed up thing is all wireless devices still broadcast their MAC address. Click on Apply under Wireless Security, then click Continue. Not done yet...
MAC address security will be done last.
Go to "Basic Setup"
Go to the name of the SSID, change it to something short and sweet. Click apply...then click Continue...
Go back to Security Settings. If you did this correctly the name of the repeater should have changed from "Hawking_300N_Repeater" to what you entered. If you were smart from the get go you would already have wireless secure access to your router that is WPA-TPIK-Personal protected.
Under security settings select WPA pre-shared password "TPIK." Enter the SAME password as your router. ;) Click apply, click APPLY one more time. The router will reset itself to the settings you entered.
If you did everything correctly utilize the same cable that was hooked up to the router. Plug that into your PC/MAC. Wait for it to connect. You should still have limited access, because we have to hook up more thing, we have to make the router and repeater talk to each other.
After you are connected to the repeater with your CAT 5 log on to the repeater, admin, 1234, and then go back to basic setup. Go scroll down to Root SSID AP. Click. Another popup should come up and show the SSID of your router. If you hid the SSID of your router, your MAC addy is being broadcasted. Check to make sure you know which MAC address it is. Everyone and their neighbor has wireless internet these days.
If your SSID isn't showing up because you hid it, type it in correctly. DO NOT mispell your router's SSID. If you didn't hide your router's SSID then you have no worries because it should have showed up immediately after you clicked on the radio button and clicked connected.
Click apply, click apply one more time. Router will reset. If you did everything correctly unplug your repeater to soft reset it, then replug it back in. IF you know how to do an ipconfig /release, /renew. Do it now!
Now connect to your repeater. Wah-LAH, all done. If you hid the SSID you have to go into Manage wireless network and add the SSID manually.
IF you are worried about mac address security you can enter all the mac id's of your wireless devices so only they will connect to your wireless network and nothing else...remember to apply, and apply. All done...have a good day!
Customer Review: Performs well, but don't look to the instructions for best configuration
Summary: 4 Stars
I tried the Hawking HWREN1 WiFi repeater at the urging of a helpful, knowledgeable, non-troll clerk (!) at the superstore whose name begins with F and rhymes with "dies", which is what my three previous Linksys WRE54G repeaters did-- those were total junk. I'd had some previous experience with Hawking's products via a printer server several years ago. That was a somewhat entry-level device, and support and documentation had been pretty pathetic, but it had mostly worked, so while I wouldn't have placed Hawking at the top of my preferred-vendor list, they didn't seem awful. I'd done some googling on this item and the reviews were mixed, but so they were for all its competition. So: shrug, decided to try it.
Setup requires connecting the Hawking and your PC to your router with Ethernet cables, one of which is supplied with the Hawking. This might be a problem if your router has only one Ethernet port, and it won't work at all if your router is wireless-only.
With my PC and the Hawking cabled to my router, the (Windows-only) CD setup wizard and poster-sized quick-setup guide resulted in a working system in about five minutes, but with a separate SSID that would have confused and annoyed my family as they roam about our house with their laptops. That's kind of a silly result; after all, you'd think most purchasers shopping for a WiFi network extender would want to extend their WiFi network, not set up a second one.
A bit of googling suggested that others had had good luck with setting the SSID and channel the same as their main wireless access point/router. So I tried that, using the device's browser-based configuration page, and it worked. Hm. But I remembered a bad experience when I'd bought a new WiFi router and set it up but forgot to unplug the old router it was replacing; the battling SSIDs on the same channel brought my network to its knees until I figured out what was happening, so I decided to try setting the Hawking's channel to a different one than the main router. That didn't work at all, although googling revealed that others had set things up similarly with good results. Worse, after several tries, something went sour in the Hawking, and it took some real effort over a couple of hours to restore it to a state where it wouldn't crash my network. Eventually, after many hard-resets and more than a bit of cursing, I got it back to where I'd had it: same SSID and channel as my router.
My experience underscores a perennial frustration in wireless networking: what works for my setup might not be optimal--or even work--for yours. In my case, my router uses a late-model Atheros chipset. Whatever is inside the Hawking seems to want to connect to my router in a particular way; with your router it might be different. Another lesson: If it's working well, don't touch it!
Setup hassles aside, the net result is a happy one: my WiFi network now extends strongly throughout my house and into my patio, where I'd previously had no connectivity at all. Practical throughput is unimpeded, though there's usually a theoretical throughput hit for this type of repeater (not that most folks would notice, as the net WiFi speed would still far exceed even the best broadband connection's capabilities). In my case, maybe that theoretical throughput hit is avoided by the fact that the Hawking seems to connect to my router via 802.11n whereas my computing devices utilize 802.11g? (I say "seems to" because my router's client log shows a MAC address one digit different from the MAC address documented for the Hawking device in its browser-based configuration page, which shows the same MAC address for both its WAN and LAN interfaces. I suspect this is a bug in the Hawking's browser utility; the two MAC addresses have got to differ.)
My Hawking HWREN1 came running firmware 1.50, the current version per Hawking's website. Its hardware is rev. A.
Performance testing via VisualWare's superb MySpeed facility (http://myspeed.visualware.com/) shows:
o Broadband Internet throughput, both up and down, is identical to my pre-extended network's performance, even though I'm now sitting in a former dead zone. Conclusion: the Hawking repeater imposes no bandwidth penalty for Internet usage.
o Quality of service (QOS) and latencies are also identical to before. Conclusion: the Hawking repeater does not degrade the responsiveness or consistency that are important for Internet streaming, VOIP and gaming applications.
o I'm an Internet security nut, and the extender fully supports my WPA2 encryption and my router's dual firewalls. It also offers MAC filtering and supports WPA Radius authentication and WPS, though I am not using these features.
o My router, the superb D-Link DIR-655 (highly, highly recommended) seems happy with the extender.
o My corporate VPN tunnels right through it with no problem.
So far, only the configuration hassles keep me from giving it five stars. I've only had it a short while, so those memories will fade, and if this device proves stable and reliable then my overall-positive estimation will only go up. Its connectivity has already survived much microwave-oven activity in the nearby kitchen.
Certainly, compared to Linksys' WRE54G competitor, the Hawking repeater is light-years better. Another alternative would be to purchase a second access point that supports a repeater mode; D-Link has a few of these, and this would have been my first choice after giving up on the Linksys unit and the salesman convinced me to give this a try. So far, no big regrets, and it's working well.
Customer Review: It works...Sort of
Summary: 2 Stars
It works--Sort of?
I purchased this product to correct a "dead" zone located in the living room of my 2 story townhome. I researched this unit and was aware of the setup problems encountered but thought I could work through these issues. I am experienced with computers but I would say I have a novice skill level. My townhome is a complex of 4 different residences with each residence having a wireless network. When I use the scan function on my D-Link DGL-4600 `N" router I have 10 different wireless networks that are available for use in my home including my own! There are 4 different computers that need to connect to my network using both `G' standard and `N' standard. These include a HP-Mini, Dell 1330 XPS, and Toshiba Satellite laptop computer. There is a combination of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 on these units. My primary concern was providing a better wireless signal for my Dell 1330 XPS computer as this unit is located downstairs at the north end which is the furthest distance from my D-Link router located upstairs on the 2nd floor south end of my unit.
Problems:
--Setup:
The enclosed setup CD did not "play nice" with my existing home network as other reviewers have shared. Please review Boris K. Arloff "Boris" comments about setting up this device in your network. I experienced WINDOWS XP network issues due to same IP address being used by (2) different devices which would lock up the entire network including my D-Link router! After much frustration and calling the Hawking technical support line I was told this is a "normal" error code during setup using the CD? I recommend using the web based interface for configuring this device per "Boris" recommendations!
My settings:
IP address: I used a designated address "inside" my network such as 192.168.0.XXX replacing the XXX with your designated address. Additionally I reserved this address on my D-Link DGL-4500 router using the reserve IP address function.
Channel #: I used channel #9 since in my environment this was the least used channel.
Security: HAD to use WPA-shared key (TKIP only). This was the only way the extender would connect to my router.
MAC address: Please REMEMBER that the ACTUAL MAC address for the extender is (1) digit greater than the MAC address listed on the range extender. See Benjamin Mercier comments. This is NOT listed in any of the Hawking technical documentation.
--Security:
Decide if you will use this device inside or outside your existing network! Hawking technical support recommended a specific IP addresses for setting this device up OUTSIDE my current home network. The address they recommended was the SAME address that my existing D-Link router uses! I still wonder about that... This leaves you with a device that ONLY has a (4) digit security code for access to the web based interface. Not a good idea in my opinion. I changed the IP addresses and put this INSIDE my local network and recommend using the MAC address filter as explained by the Benjamin Mercier review of this product. This device DOES NOT support the advanced wireless encryption standards that are available! You will have to use a lower wireless encryption standard to have the extender stay connected. Physically the unit MUST be placed HALF-WAY between the wireless source in order to maximize performance and maintain connection
--Performance:
Yes it does work but with lower network throughput. There is NO automatic channel scanning that MOST new routers have built in. My calls to Hawking technical support have not resolved this key performance issue. You have to designate a specific channel which causes somewhat of a problem in my situation. Everyone in my townhome complex has used channels #1, #6, or #11 with good signal strength! My D-Link router can "scan" and use the best channel available but the Hawking extender cannot! This provides problems when trying to maximize network performance and balancing network security. Keep your Hawking extender network settings document handy as you WILL need these along with the network cable to re-enter the settings if case of power outages per other reviewers. Or put the device on a UPS to prevent these troubles as other reviewers have suggested.
Recommendations: I WOULD NOT purchase again!
Would I recommend this product? The short answer is NO after 30 days of ownership! If you have a mixed environment and can accept some degradation of network throughput, security, love being able to research technical problems, like being on the phone to technical support, then YES!
To correct my original problem and provide better signal coverage for the Dell 1330 XPS computer I removed the Dell 1395 WLAN mini-PCI card and replaced it with an Intel 4965AGN WLAN card. Signal went from 3 bars or less to 4.5/5.0 bars in the same "dead" zone. Along with NO degradation is network throughput! There may be a "better" solution than trying to use a range extender.
Customer Review: Configuration shouldn't be this hard!
Summary: 4 Stars
Nice product, but it looks like they left the manual to be written by the engineers. It assumes a lot of technical knowledge and doesn't alert you to issues that you're likely to encounter. This thing should have been a *lot* easier to set up. Since reading some of the reviews here saved me time, effort, and frustration, I thought I'd throw in a review with what I learned in the several hours it took me to finally get configured.
I have a D-Link DGL-4300 gaming router. I love it because I can prioritize traffic based on IP -- so when my wife decides to Farmville, she doesn't squash my XBOX connection and lag me out on Halo. :)
But in our new house, the router sits in a room at the front and my home office is in the garage out back. I didn't want to go to the hassle of running cable out there, and the Hawking in the back den has provided a nice solution now that it's finally configured.
Here's my advice:
- If you've got your router configured with advanced security options like MAC address filtering and a hidden SSID, turn that stuff off before you run the setup utility. First order of business is just getting a connection.
- Also -- here's the one that tripped me up for the longest time -- the channel that your router is broadcasting on must match the channel that the range extender uses. This can be deceptive because the setup utility automatically matches the channel of your router -- but if your router is set to autoscan channels when it boots, chances are it's going to switch to a different channel at some point, either after you've changed settings and rebooted or after a simple power-down and restart. Suddenly your range extender won't be able to connect and you won't know why. Points off because the range extender doesn't have the ability to find and match the channel dynamically. Save yourself the hassle and turn off autoscan channels on your router BEFORE you run the setup utility.
- Now if you've properly prepared your router as described above, you should be able to use the setup utility on the CD (it's also downloadable at the [...] site) to connect the range extender to your network. I'd recommend setting up the range extender's SSID (it's "ESSID" in the interface) to something different from your main wireless network, that way you'll always know if you're connecting directly to your router or through the range extender. I use WPA2 with AES encryption without a problem, just make sure your pre-shared key is the same on the range extender as it is for your router.
- By the way, I'd skip all that stuff in the manual about configuring the properties of the LAN connection in Windows. Didn't need to do it in WinXP or Win7 to access the control panel on the range extender.
- Another big tip -- as soon as you get a wireless connection from the range extender to the router, UNPLUG THE ETHERNET CABLE from the range extender. Otherwise you're going to get all kinds of wonkiness.
- Now you can start putting security back in. I'm running firmware v1.52, but as older reviews advise, you still have to +1 to the MAC address that the range extender reports to get the right one for MAC filtering and other options like DHCP reservations. If you're confused, check the status of the wireless connections in your router's control panel and you should be able to get the true MAC address for the range extender.
- Here's something weird: I have my router configured to reserve an IP for the range extender, but you can use the range extender's control panel to set a *different* IP to get to the control panel. This can cause confusion too and could happen to you by accident, so just be aware. If you use your router to force an IP on the range extender, it will happen, but you'll still have to use the IP that was obtained during setup to actually reach the range extender's control panel.
That's it for the most part. If you have some idea of what you're doing and are aware of these pitfalls, you should be able to get set up relatively painlessly.
PROS: The range extender can hide its SSID, and works with the router hiding its SSID -- so no part of my network is broadcasting. Also, the range extender has MAC filtering, so you can be secure throughout your network.
CONS: Terrible documentation when it comes to configuration, and I'm stuck with one configured broadcasting channel instead of being able to autoscan for the cleanest option.
Hopefully some of this stuff will help others save time and sanity. Shame on Hawking -- seems like they have a good product here but they're surely losing customers who can't get configured and give up. Good luck!
Customer Review: If your range isn't enough, FORGET THIS - I switched to an Airport Extreme Base Station with Airport Express
Summary: 2 Stars
I work with my wife and we own our own business (actually, she's the sole owner). We have about 5 employees and 24 consulting instructors. We provide consulting services in portfolio / project management, program management, and systems engineering, as well as training in all of the above as well. Our clients include Northrop Grumman, Joint Forces Command, the USCG, and many more. As a result, we rely heavily on our computers and our network.
My office is currently downstairs near the router, and hers is upstairs (our building is 4600 sq ft). We needed more range, so after researching what I thought was the best router, I bought a new D-Link Wireless N Gigabit Router DIR-655 - Wireless router + 4-port switch - EN, Fast EN, Gigabit EN, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n (draft), and Hawking HWREN1 Hi-Gain USB Wireless 300N Range Extender (White). Still didn't have great coverage, so I tried even replacing one of the 3 antennas on the back of the DLINK DIR 655 with the D-Link ANT24-0700 2.4 GHz Omni-Directional 7 dBi Indoor Antenna.
Still didn't help. And to top it off, every time I lost power, the Hawking and the DIR655 wouldn't work together. Hawking tech support in India (nice people, by the way) told me it was because they got stuck on different IP addresses. So the last guy I spoke with set them both to be on a static IP address together, which, while that worked, it seemed to slow my network speed, although I never verified that. I spent MANY HOURS solving connectivity problems between the Hawking and the DIR 655. And it even got to the point where, when using my iPhone 3GS in the house, I would skip the Hawking network connection when I had a choice between that and directly connecting to the DIR 655 because the Hawking always seemed to slow or fail with my connection.
Anyhow, after seeing an article about Apple Time Capsule MB765LL/A 1TB, I decided that since I'm running a Windows machine I couldn't use the features of that (Time Machine), but I could try Apple's Apple MB763LL/A AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station because it had multiple advantages over the DIR655, such as having a "Guest Network" where we could allow our guests (sometimes employees) to use our network when visiting but not have access to our systems. It also has a USB port to plug in a hard drive, and we could share that for easy large file transfer, etc. And, I could easily extend the network by adding an Apple AirPort Express with Air Tunes (M9470LL/A) - all one has to do is when setting it up, check a box that says "Extend my network". IMAGINE THAT! DESIGNED TO WORK TOGETHER! No more IP address conflicts! WOW! I have been amazed ever since how easy my network has become! And, I'm getting much better range. And if you have a need to extend the network in a different direction, you can simply add another Airport Express.
So, what has all of this done for me? Well, for one, I love my iPhone 3GS, and now I also love my Airport Extreme Base Station / Airport Express combination, so much so, that I decided to switch my PC to an Apple MacBook Pro! About 6 days ago, I ordered a Apple 17 MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz, 4GBRAM, 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, NVIDIA GeForce". And, it will be here today! What about my customers that use MS Office products? Well, my new MacBook Pro comes with Office 2008 for Mac, and, it also comes with Windows Vista Ultimate so I can still run the same software as before.
Couldn't arrive at a better time too. Yesterday morning, my HP Pavilion DV6675US 15.4-inch Entertainment Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250, 4 GB RAM, 250 Hard Drive, Vista Ultimate)laptop had a Blue Screen of Death......
So, bottom line - if you're needing more network range, and haven't invested too much in your current setup, I would highly suggest you consider the Airport Extreme / Airport Express combination instead. So much easier to set up, doesn't fail, better range, and for me, you save yourself a lot of time. And when you're in your own business, as the old saying goes, time is money.