Customer Reviews

Hawking Wi-Fi 2.4GHZ 802.11B/G Locator (HWL1)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

When it works, it's great. The problem is that almost every time I use it, I have to remove the two batteries, reinsert them and reinsert the battery cover. After I use it once or twice, it stops working until I repeat the above maneuver. I am not sure if it is a problem with the battery compartment design, or perhaps I am "resetting" the device by removing and reinserting the batteries.

I tried calling tech support for assistance, but as usual, leaving a message resulted in no reply.

I think Hawkings is a high quality company, and I don't understand why they don't want to give better support to this product. Until this is fixed, it is so annoying that I strongly recommend not purchasing it at this time.

This thing is pathetic. I tried 2 as I thought the first was defective. It looks like something that you would buy @ the dollar store. You'll get better performance by licking your finger and checking out the wind direction. Stay away from this thing.

Looks cool but...
The battery compartment was designed for failure. The button cells have trouble making contact when it's closed. If I press on the battery compartment door it works. I don't think it's a problem with just my HWL1 but a design flaw. Maybe Hawking will fix it. Until then avoid the HWL1.

Just get your money back.
I'm not exactly sure what the company was thinking when they put this product out on the market. They might as well just put a toy flip phone out and call it a "WiFi" detector instead this junky thing.
Outstanding problems:
1. 20 tries (or 20 hands) and you'll finally get both batteries in.
2. The flip-top part does not stay shut, even in a world where flip-top technology has finally been mastered. My shampoo bottle has dispenser has a better mechanism than this.
3. The power light flickers, giving you that warm feeling that it's 'sort of' working.
4. It stops working when you carry it around with you, defeating the whole purpose of 'portability.'

I recently purchased a HWL-1 WiFi locator. Having researched several brands I selected this product as being advertised as "The signal filters on the HWL1, filter through all unwanted 2.4 GHz signals, such as BlueTooth, cordless phones and microwaves, providing a reliable and accurate reading each and every time."

I quickly found that the unit showed hot spots everywhere except in the remote wilderness. At home, I shut down my network and still had full signal strength indicated. I shut down my cordless phone and the meter dropped to near zero.

Conclusion: The unit does not filter out unwanted signals from phones. 2.4 GHz phones are everywhere, which makes this product completely useless.

I also had to fool around with the battery compartment repeatedly to get it to work at all. I finally managed to get them installed reliably, but I'm an electronics technician. A lot of people might never get this thing even powered up. The LED displays light up with unequal brightness, in bright lighting you can't tell how many are lit without shading it with your other hand.

I had been very interested in Hawking's product line, but after this experience, I am very skeptical if any of their products even begin to approach their advertised claims.

TS

I could not get this device to work.

Contacted the manufacturer and no response.

Perhaps the batteries were duds.

Piece of junk. Save your money.

Pros: It was inexpensive ($[...]), it comes with its own batteries, it's directional and compact.

Cons: It won't indentify encrypted wifi signals.

I'm a computer jockey on the weekends. When I stumbled across this little tool it made me snicker because I thought it looked a lot like a cell phone and kinda "gimmicky". However, the point of the tool is to identify wifi signal strength... nothing else. And I used it for exactly just that. I did a recent wifi install for a friend and used this tool to validate placement of the wifi pc.

I don't know why the other reviewers are so hard on this product. It does what it says it'll do. You have to keep you finger on the button to use it but this way it won't eat through the batteries. If you want something nicer with more features.. spend more than $[...]! :)

Great tool - good for anyone that does computer work/troubleshooting.

I've used this for a few months. It's junk. It eats batteries, it's flimsy, and it has the worst design for battery replacement I've ever seen. I thought about giving it to someone but I can't think of anyone I dislike that much. So in the trash it goes along with any possibility that I'd ever buy another Hawking product.

I have had no trouble with this unit, it works as advertised. The battery compartment design however, is a little weird but works okay for me. Like most LED read outs, it can be hard to see in direct sunlight but I use it all hours of the day. The directional feature is very handy for finding hotspots quickly.