Hawking Hi-Speed 54M Wireless G Router (HWR54G)

by Hawking Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.7 x 2 x 0.6 inches ; 2.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000DIESL
• Item model number: HWR54G
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,303 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 24, 2003

Product Description

Hawking Technologies HWUN1 Wireless N USB Network Adapter extends your wireless network 4 times and boosts your data throughput 12 times! It is capable of transferring data at up to 300Mbps.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leo, PA, computer professional, January 25, 2005

By 

Leo (PA, not far from Phila) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawking Hi-Speed 54M Wireless G Router (HWR54G) (Personal Computers)

I got this one as a replacement for a wireless D-Link DI-784 router that was glitchy and could not be programmed at all. And this was quite a change! While this router is not too sophisticated in terms of either available wireless security protocols or some other features, it has everything one needs to create a home network, and more.

Namely, compared to similar wireless routers from better known brands (DLink, NetGear, Linksys) this one:
1. Is PROGRAMMABLE. That is, it does not stop working or deos not develop glitshes when you change modes and parameters. (Many others present you with a whole spectrum of glitches when you start changing default settings.)
2. Supports any Internet connections, not only cable/DLS. You CAN use it with a leased line, you CAN connect it to another router with a static address, etc.
3. You CAN assign it a static IP address, and it works. (MOST others don't.)
4. It does support opening additional ports for your special applications (such as IP telephony - see below), and it works. (Many others don't do it properly.)
5. You can switch the DHCP feature off, and the router still works. (Many others don't.)
6. VPN pass-through works, and one can really connect to your work networks from home without glitches.

SUMMARY: I have successfully set the router up so that it currently supports 3 wired computers, 1 wireless, and a Vonage IP phone router. I couldn't do it with other routers from manufacturers mentioned above, because all of them were glitchy and actually could not work with static IP addresses and/or other routers and/or DHCP off, etc.

All wireless features work fine, and the speed/range are acceptable. One can use a long WEP key (26 Hexadecimal characters), and communication is fast and stable.

For those who are interested in configuring IP telephony: Vonage offers great phone plans, but it currently sends you a regular Linksys router of of its own with 3 RJ45 ports and 2 phone ports. So IF you have more than 3 computers and/or computers using wireless, you need to set up TWO routers to work together. And I succeeded in doing this with the Hawking one. Namely, I have connected the Hawking HWR54G to the cable modem, and it is the "primary" router with DHCP enabled. All 3 wired computers are connected to it as well as the wireless laptop.

The "secondary" Vonage router is connected to the primary one using a STATIC IP address (outside of the range used by DHCP). That way you can guarantee that it will always have the same address irrespective of the number of reboots. This configuration makes it possible to MAKE calls, but not receive them, because the system (primary router) doesn't know where to send incoming call data packets, and also blocks some of the ports by default (firewall function).

So I opened the IP telephony ports on the Hawking router and set up re-routing of these data packets to the Vonage Linksys router at its static IP address. Also, I had to open port ranges used by Vonage by adding these to the list of custom applications. Ports to be opened on the router/firewall:
69-69 (Vonage 1)
5060-5063 (Vonage 2)
10000-20000 (Vonage 3)
All three apps should be checked.
That way the phone works both ways, i.e. you can receive calls as well!

On the negative side, the only thing that I noticed was as follows: from time to time (once a day if you work intensively for the whole day) the router can "hang", and wireless networking stops working. As soon as you unplug it and then plug it in again, it reboots, and everything works fine. Nothing else is needed (no computer reboots). Generally speaking, this is quite a good result compared to some other models, and I can live with it. Recommended.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't be happier, January 18, 2005

By 

Neil (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawking Hi-Speed 54M Wireless G Router (HWR54G) (Personal Computers)

I found this for $20 after rebate [...]. I had been paying Time Warner $5/month for wireless access, so I wanted a wireless access point that would pay for itself quickly, while also giving good performance. I had used Hawking products before (switches and wireless cards specifically), and their reputation is for being cheap and good-performing.

This router is no exception. I get great speed and connectivity throughout my apartment. (I should note that I live in a studio, so I'm not sure how its signal would carry through a large house.) And notably for me, it's IPSec tunneling works great, so I can log into my office VPN from home.

There was a slight hassle setting it up to only permit certain MAC addresses. I also had to be careful to log out of the web interface, otherwise when I attempted to log in from another computer, it would say "192.168.not.mine is administering the router." But these are nit picks. For such a great price, I couldn't be happier.

And Hawking does fulfill their warranties: I had a switch that died after 1 year, and they replaced it with no hassle.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use with a solid connection (so far), November 27, 2005

By 

Mr. Sparkles (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawking Hi-Speed 54M Wireless G Router (HWR54G) (Personal Computers)

I've been running the router for over 72 hours without a dropped connection. Setup is very easy. I didn;t use the wizard, but set it up manually instead. I am using the WPA-PSK feature which makes protecting my system much easier and more secure than typing a 32 character WEP HEX code. The throughput is very good and the router is much better than my old Belkin 802.11b, which would lose packets all the time when I played HALO or ran SSH/SCP, regardless of DMZ, application gateways or virtual servers.

*People who get dropped connections with this router Pay attention*

One caveat: I did notice that if I let WinXP control my WiFi adapters then I do get frequent connection drops. Perhaps this is why everyone here has dropping problems? Try letting the manufacturer's software control your card. Two of my computer ran the manufacturer's software and they got no drops, another ran WinXP control configs and drop frequently. When I removed WinXP's WiFi control of this 3rd system the dropping abated.