Customer Reviews

Hawking HiGain Directional 12dBi Window Antenna - HA12W

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

 

 

Granted I didn't use the flimsy suction cups but drilled and attached this directly to a fence post. This, as well as a low-loss cable I had to buy from another site (note to all, Amazon does NOT sell a wire that will go from the back of a standard WiFi router, aka LinkSys, Netgear, et. al.), got the WiFi signal out of the house to a fencepost where I now am shooting 90% signal strength well over 100 yards where before I had 0%. In fact it's shooting that signal through a giant old house between my house and the structure I'm sending the signal to. It's fairly incredible for such a simple set up. The signal even is stronger in the house in general as an added bonus. If you're looking to shoot your WiFi signal over 100 yards to another building with this, and a third-party male to female low-loss wire, you'll be all set and in business.

After all the things I've ordered from Amazon, I am finally returning one. This one! Why design an item that will suction cup to the windows (and be turnable) then put on tiny cups? It fell down every 5 minutes at first, and every 30 seconds after an hour. (No, I'm not joking.) Yes, it comes with a wall mount - but it is NOT turnable! Again, design oversight in my opinion.

The worst part was the performance. I used both the Windows and the Hawking Tech software and only got a max of 35% (swung between 1 and 2 bars) on signal strength. The router is in my house and just under 40 feet away (I have this PC in my shop/garage). When I disconnected it and had the cable only connected to my system, the signal strength went up to 50% (and 3 bars) through the two walls and one floor. When I connected the Hawking HWDN2 Hi-Gain Wireless-150N USB Network Dish Adapter I bought for my daughter PC the signal strength went up to 90% and 5 bars.

Maybe this would work better if I was using it on my router, but I'm not in the mood to fight with it. It's going back and I'll buy the HWDN2 adapter instead.

Main intent of usage is to gain coverage in campsites. Sometimes the source WiFi is on the wrong side of the trailer or too far away for laptop coverage. Part of the solution was to buy a Hawking Smart Repeater. The next part was to be able to put the repeater antenna in a window with favourable coverage... and that all depends on the camp ground. It also provides some directivity to attenuate the MiFi blasters as long as they are on the sides or behind the direction of desired coverage.

Gain? can't argue with the specs. 9+dB over a dipole has got to be an improvement. Will need to see how well it makes up for tree brush. The big advantage is placement.

The RF cable is kinda stuff. It puts strain on both the antenna connection and the repeater connection. Need to train the cable to the desired shape for the required location.

I am beaming wireless internet 650' open air no obstructions from a front house to a back house. Have a linksys E3000 router up front in a window with a hawking HWREN1 range extender in a window at the back house. I was consistently getting 3-4 mbps upload at the back house. Speed tested my connection immediately before the antenna swap and got 2.88 mbps upload. Immediately after the swap I got 9.83 mbps!!! After a little antenna tweaking I was able to get it up to 12.5!

Great results for the money and would recommend to anybody trying to span a distance.

I ended up returning this antenna. It did not perform any better than my 4dbi omni-directional antenna. According to Hawking's technical support the antenna I received was defective (but they also said that about both the wireless range extenders I purchased). So not only do I give this product a poor rating, I also am not very likely to purchase any hawking products in the future. Their technical support was quick, but hard to understand because they all have a foreign accent.

Overall quality was poor. Plastic tabs on the mounts broke and had to put screws in them. Didn't seem to improve my signal strength at my remote area. Not worth the money

I was expecting more signal increase than the one I actually got, but still, it's a nice product that can find networks that I did not see before. It is highly directional, so you gotta point it at the wless signal source for better results.

pluged it into a hi gain repeater and followed the instructions inthe box everthing was fast ans simple

My electronic minded brother installed it, but had no problem. I use it to shoot a signal to the non-connected mother-in-law suite across the yard. It works like a charm.

I purcased one of these to shoot a signal to the back yard so I could use my laptop in the barn behind the house. I found absolutely NO difference between the antenna being hooked up, or not. I tried another antenna port and another wimdow, and again, NO difference. Purcasing an N1 Vision router by Belkin however made a huge difference in yard reception. I can even use my laptop across the street in a camper!! Sorry to say, I'm not sure this thing does anything at all.