Hawking Technology HWPS1UG Wireless-G USB Print Server

by Hawking Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3 x 2.2 x 1 inches ; 1.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001R03XG
• Item model number: HWPS1UG
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 7, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Hawking HWPS1UG combined with the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) lets you easily connect to any printer and print documents by specifying the print server's IP address. With IPP technology, printing over a WAN or the Internet becomes much easier. You can send a print job to a printer in another country just as easily as sending a print job to your home or office printer. IPP eliminates the need for fax communications between offices. Simply print an original document through the HWPS1UG's IPP capabilities and send it from one office to another. The print quality from IPP printing is equal to that of a document printed from your local office. With the HWPS1UG, your printer become a fully functional networked print station.

Product Description

MODEL- HWPS1UG VENDOR- HAWKING TECHNOLOGIES FEATURES- Wireless 802.11G USB Print Server The Hawking HWPS1UG Wireless USB Print Server is apowerful and convenient tool to connect your USB printers to your existing wireless 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network. Through its enhanced functionality the HWPS1UG can support a USB printer on either a wired or wireless802.11b or 802.11g network. The Hawking HWPS1UG combined with the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) lets you easily connect to any printer and print documents by specifying the print servers IP address. With IPP technologyprinting over a WAN or the Internet becomes much easier. You can send a print job to a printer in another country just as easily as sending a print job to your home or office printer. IPP eliminates the need for fax communicationsbetween offices. Simply print an original document through the HWPS1UG's IPP capabilities and send it from one office to another. The print quality from IPP printing is equal to that of a document printed from your local office.With the HWPS1UG your printer become a fully functional networked print station. Includes Wireless Print Server Setup Disk A/C power adapter and Quick installation guide.* 10/100Mbps auto-sensing port Allows you to attach theHWPS1UG to a 10Base-T or 100Base-TX wired network or a 802.11b or 802.11g Wireless network without the need for a dedicated PC print server.* Multiple servers and multiple Protocol Support Capability to print from anywhere from any computer andfrom any application.* Quick and Easy Installation Includes easy Setup Disk and Quick Installation Guide. Instantly adjust the HWPS1UGs settings to your ideal printing environment. -- SPECIFICATIONs------------------------------------INTERFACE/BUS- (1) 10BaseT/100BaseTX/RJ45 port (Auto-MDIX) (1) USB 1.1 port

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars my unit worked, but required patience and a bit of know-how, January 15, 2007

By 

Chris Daida (Mililani, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawking Technology HWPS1UG Wireless-G USB Print Server (Personal Computers)

I found the setup for this print server to be very finicky. However, if your unit is functional and your printer is compatible, the product does indeed do what it's designed to do.

These add-on IP products are really ill-suited for the consumer retail space, as there are too many variables to ensure plug and play, trouble-free installation. If you don't know how to make changes to your router's LAN gateway and DHCP settings (among other things), stay away from this or any add-on print server. Save yourself a massive headache and hours of frustration and buy a router with a built-in print server (and just live with the inconvenience of situating the printer near the router).

If you're still reading and know what you're doing, here's a handful of tips (assuming you've made the necessary gateway and DHCP changes to your router first):

1) Make sure that your router's SSID is being broadcast during the print server installation. During the setup's site survey, the print server seems to think that a non-broadcast SSID is the same as a blank SSID; and when it looks for your router for the first time post-setup, it will be expecting to find a blank SSID (even though you might have entered in manually the SSID). Strangely, however, it seems that you can disable the broadcasting of the router's SSID after installation, because now the print server seems to be looking for a router with a hidden SSID.

2) If you've done #1, and you still can't see your router during the setup utility site survey, ignore the site survey result and just manually enter the SSID and channel number into the utility. Even though my router didn't show up in the site survey results, the print server worked after I input the info manually.

3) If you just can't seem to get the setup utility to work, try getting into the print server via your web browser and use IPP to install the printer as a networked IP printer.

4) If possible, keep the printer/server combo well within range of your wireless router. This thing HATES interference or a weak signal, and seems get thrown offline easily under poor wireless conditions.

5) If your wireless setup just won't work, the print server makes a perfectly fine, if expensive, wired print server.

6) Ditto to the other negative comments on the poor documentation, but here's an added frustration: Hawking's support page for this product does not include a download for the Installation Guide or the User's Manual, SO DON'T LOSE THESE ITEMS. Even though the documentation isn't great, it does include vital info on the defaults settings. When your print server requires the inevitable hard reset, and you neither kept the manuals nor wrote down your setup info, you will cry like a baby.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Poor - Stay Away (buy a better named Print Server), March 4, 2006

By 

Tommy (Baltimore,MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawking Technology HWPS1UG Wireless-G USB Print Server (Personal Computers)

They advertise it as "Carefree" wireless. HA! I'd stay away from this product. I am pretty good with networks and I can't get it to work. The software installation program doesn't find your network then I work around that problem and the print server can't even find my HP7760! Which is PLUGGED right into it.

Try to call Tech support right? Well first attempt and I was on hold waiting for over an hour and gave up. Second time -- Called the number selected the "24 hour" tech support option and it sends me to an extension which kindly tells me "sorry this extension is no longer in use" and then refers me back to the original number I dialed.

So far I have a non-working product and a lot of wasted time.

Oh by the way the average CNET user rating on this thing is 2.4/10 so I'm not the only one. Good Luck!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of time, like everyone says, October 30, 2006

By 

Michael G. Jennings (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hawking Technology HWPS1UG Wireless-G USB Print Server (Personal Computers)

I foolsihly let the Fry's guy sell this to me; I wanted a Mac and PC compatible print server. After I got it home I read that it doesn't support Rendezvous printing and on Mac OS it only supports Postscript printers. When it wouldn't recognize my Canon i9900 (not a multifunction, just a regular inkjet printer) I played silly games upgrading firmware and reviewing their inadequate and inaccurate Web site and documentation. I was eventually forced to call the 24-hour support line where I was told that my printer is not compatible, and that it really needs a postscript printer, and that if I wanted a list of compatible printers I could email someone. I asked why it was not listed on the Web site and he said "the list changes too often and it would be out of date." This silly statement aside, I really take issue with their presentation of this product as "carefree", working with "most printers", and in the System Requirements simply stating "USB Printer". I should also mention that during the 17 minutes that I was on hold (3:30AM PST!) I tried to get the rest of the system working. I'm very experienced with routers and wireless and the setup utility failed to set up the wireless correctly; I was never quite able to get that part working even setting it up manually before I was forced to give up on this product. I tried its Web sever, its wizards and its configuration utility, none of which ever seemed to be in sync with one another. What an awful experience.