Hawking HWL2A Hi-Gain WiFi Locator for Apple Users (White)

by Hawking Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.6 x 2.2 x 1 inches ; 11.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009WA8II
• Item model number: HWL2A
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

Hawking Technologies WiFi 2.4GHz 802.11b/g Locator Professional Model with Directional Antenna and USB NIC Apple Version.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad experience with the Mac edition HWL2A, December 12, 2005

By 

M. Moreau "Matt" (Hopkinton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawking HWL2A Hi-Gain WiFi Locator for Apple Users (White) (Personal Computers)

I bought the Mac version of this product (HWL2A) for use with my home network. I tried it on two macs, a dual g4 (OS 10.2.8) that was not airport extreme compatible and a newer g5 tower (OS 10.3). The g4 had kernel panics almost immediately. The g5 seemed to work for a while. I was able to pick up a wi-fi signal from a nearby house that was 50-100 feet away at about 30% signal strength. This network did not appear from that distance in locator mode, the lights remained dark. The device had to be aligned just so for the network to even appear and even when pointed in the proper direction, the neighboring network was dropped repeatedly.

-More problematic, the device would disappear from my mac, while plugged in, so that I could not access the Hawking settings at all. When this happened, a restart was usually required to make the device appear again. Kernel panics eventually happened on the g5 as well, even after updating to the latest firmware. (Another note, the firmware update did not mention compatibility with anything under Mac OS 10.3, while the original product documentation says anything over 10.2 should work).

I should be clear that these problems were not a once in a while kind of thing. During the week that I was using this device we were probably connected to the internet a total of 10 minutes.

Using the device as a locator I was able to detect a few hotspots, but I had to be within 50 feet of the signal to get results.

This was my first experience with Wi-fi, so I thought the signal problems might be due to the distance, however my landlord was able to detect and connect to more signals, with greater consistency, using his laptop in the same room (the laptop had a PC wi-fi card with no antenna).

I eventually traded this in for a standard airport extreme card and a $20 dollar antenna, which has no problem detecting the nearby network, or a wi-fi router on the other side of the house. I share the internet connection from the airport equipped mac with an older mac via ethernet.

-to be fair, I have not tried tech support for this product.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars PROBLEMS AND MORE PROBLEMS, January 4, 2006

By 

Paul A. Peterson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawking HWL2A Hi-Gain WiFi Locator for Apple Users (White) (Personal Computers)

I tried to get this to work with my G4 running 10.4.3 it would read out a strong signal but was unable to connect to the web.According to tech support, they " don't know anything about Macs." I think it is a software driver problem and will check back later. I was told by the manager of COMP-USA that all that have been sold have been returned. Don't waste your time!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely TERRIBLE, April 30, 2006

By 

Vanick M. Moradian (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawking HWL2A Hi-Gain WiFi Locator for Apple Users (White) (Personal Computers)

The Hawking HWL2A is one of the worst products I have ever bought. To begin with, the installation did not work right. It took two restarts and a physical disconnection and connection of the device for my computer to see it. The installation manual mentioned an uninstaller file on the CD that was not there at all. The device was very unstable and failed to recognize a wireless router that was IN THE SAME ROOM. Tech support was non-existent. After being kept on hold for nearly an hour, I gave up.

I wasted a lot of time trying to make this device work. Please don't waste yours and stay away from it.