Hawking HWRN1A Hi-Gain USB Wireless 300N Router (White)

by Hawking Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9 x 3 x 11 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001DMB3AA
• Item model number: HWRN1A
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,145 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 31, 2008

Product Description

Hawking HWRN1A hi-gain wireless-300N router is the best solution for sharing a single broadband internet connection between the computers in your home or office. Using state-of-the-art wireless-300N technology, Hawking delivers the fastest and furthest possible wireless networking experience. At a high speed of 300Mbps, transferring data files, audio, and even video has never been more enjoyable. In large homes and offices, wireless deadspots are easily eliminated with the Wi-Fi range extending capabilities of the HWRN1A. Along with wireless connectivity, the HWRN1A has 4 wired 300Mbps Ethernet ports for connecting your computers that do not have wireless access. Package contents include one hi-gain wireless-300N router, one power adapter, one CD, includes Mac and PC setup wizard and user's manual, one RJ-45 Ethernet cable, and installation guide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Problems, Problems, Problems, then magic, April 26, 2009

By 

ROBERT QUARG (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hawking HWRN1A Hi-Gain USB Wireless 300N Router (White) (Personal Computers)

Hawking disappointed me!!! In a nutshell, all my wireless and wired devices connected without a problem. The problem occurred when connecting to my broadband provider.

I spent hours (about 8 in all) doing everything I could to get this thing connected. Over the years I've had many routers, and some gave me more trouble than others, but I've always been able to get connected, mostly by my own wits. This one just refused. I finally resorted to calling their support line expecting to talk to India with a "tech" reading a script (India does not bother me, it is the dedication to the script that does).

The tech support number did not disappoint. I described my problem to the tech and the usual script was read. An hour and a half later no solution and no clue. In fairness we could not conduct the modem connection test directly (my computer is on the other side of the house), however I was able to connect to the internet via my old router repeatedly while in conversation with the tech, but the tech refused to put two and two together. The conversation ended with him telling me the modem is a "complex" piece of equipment (more like yelling) before I hung up. Simply, their script does not recognize anything other than connecting the processor of interest directly to the (in my case) cable modem - they don't get that any device that gets connected (even through another manufactures router) strongly suggests the modem is working as expected. So, with that incident over I purchased and set up another wireless router.

In short, my experience with this router was quite negative considering the customer support. Oh, just as an aside, I did download and apply the latest and greatest firmware to ensure the simple fix of a firmware upgrade was not the problem. Same issues.

On the positive side, the signal strength was very good, wired connections worked well, wireless encryption worked as expected for WEP, WPA, and WPA2 (what can I say, I tried everything I could think of, even things I thought unrelated to the problem at hand) and I would even say the customer support was ok (by today's standards) as long as your problem stays on script. Even the user interface for the router was straight forward, I would even say better than most (even though in IE the menus overlapped a little and in one case was hard to read).

All of that said, I still could not connect to my broadband provider. Customer service needed to go off script but did not, and now all I have is another router because I can't connect to the internet (sending it back will cost more in time and money then it is worth.) Perhaps another firmware upgrade will do the trick, once new firmware becomes available - I don't know.

From my vantage, a few bugs still need to be worked out from both a hardware and customer support perspective and a little more feedback needs to be gathered before I'd give this manufacture (at least for the router) another try.

One final note: I also purchased the extender by the same manufacture which so far has worked flawlessly with both Linksys (my old router), and D-link (my new).

So, my rating for "almost" doing what they promised is two stars. My advice is to wait for a few more intrepid soles to give feedback before purchasing the router, and perhaps for another firmware upgrade...or two.

UPDATE ****** UPDATE ***** UPDATE 5/25/2009

I elected to try this little guy again before sending it back (stupidity, what can I say.) Initially the same problems sited above remained - the device simply refused to connect to my broadband modem. By sheer accident I need to take a quick run leaving the router on and connected to my network and modem planning to disconnect when I returned. When I returned I found everything working. I could not believe it!!

Checking the router configuration, sure enough the router recognized my modem (I was connected via the internet, so OF COURSE, the router recognized the modem.) It has now been three weeks leaving the router up and running with very good results.

I can't explain the time delay in the router recognizing my modem (it took at least 10 or 15 minutes). Since the modem has been recognized I've started, stopped, and powered down the modem for extended periods at least a dozen times (just tweaking changes, fooling around with other settings to get things the way I want) over the last several weeks without problem. Ever since the initial issue the router was recognized within seconds. I can't explain it.

As of this writing things are working fine. If I were able I would change my star rating from the current two to 4 stars. So, before throwing in the towel my current suggestion is to just leave everything connected for a little while. I don't know why you would need to do this, but it serendipitously worked for me.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works Great, but takes a little skill to set up, December 27, 2008

By 

SeaWolf's Home Workshop Blog "http://www.seaw... (Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hawking HWRN1A Hi-Gain USB Wireless 300N Router (White) (Personal Computers)

I bought this product to upgrade and replace the house Wifi setup that had quit working. Since I already had a router, I was looking for just a wireless access point that could accept a range extender if necessary. One of the product descriptions, I read, said the HWRN1A could be used in this manner. Unfortunately the installation instructions made no mention of it.

A search of Hawking's support website gave me the answer and after a couple of set up tries I got the HWRN1A properly configured. I do feel that if the HWRN1A was used as both a router and wireless access point, setup would be relatively easy.

The HWRN1A has been superb. I now have a secure wireless network with excellent performance. The coverage is much greater than my old system and a range extender is no longer necessary. The network supports a Slingbox Pro (through a wireless adapter) and several laptops. Should I need to increase my coverage in the future, Hawking offers a range extender designed for the HWRN1A.

Overall I highly recommend this product.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great product!, August 26, 2009

By 

L. Neese (Beaufort, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hawking HWRN1A Hi-Gain USB Wireless 300N Router (White) (Personal Computers)

I am very pleased with this product. I purchased this router because I share internet with my neighbor across the street. The router is at her house and I can go anywhere in my house and have an excellent signal. It was easy to install and works great.