I purchase the Hawking HW2R1 repeater in an attempt to extend wi-fi coverage to areas in my home that my Netgear WNDR3700 could not reach. Setup was easy with the Hawking CD and I initially placed the repeater between my computer and router. The computer at that point was close enough to the router that internet speed was 25mb/s from the router wi-fi but dropped to 3mb/s when connected to the repeater. Hawking tech support suggested resetting the router and repeater to channels 1, 6, 9, or 11 to see if the internet speed would improve. None of these channels improved the speed. Tech Support suggested waiting a couple of weeks to see if it improves. I did not think that would work so I looked for a better solution. It appeared that the repeater could not pick up the routers wi-fi signal as well as my laptop so I decided to hardwire the repeater to the router. This worked good. When hardwired to the router the repeaters wi-fi signal would provide internet speeds of about 20mb/s. The speed at the connection going into the repeater averaged 23mb/s so I am happy with this setup. The repeater and router are now located at opposite ends of the house and each provide adequate wi-fi for half of the house. I am disappointed that I had to hardwire the repeater to get it to pick up an adequate signal. I think Hawking should provide a better antenna without having to purchase an upgrade but am happy overall with the solution to my problem. Hawking tech support also could have been more knowledgeable.
Update: Another problem that I didn't notice when I first wrote the review is that computers in my house will not connect to the internet after reboot until I unplug and restart the repeater each time. The computers will connect to the repeater but not the internet. If I disconnect the repeater then the same computers will work fine when accessing the internet directly through the Netgear router so I know the problem is in the Hawking repeater. I have tried to resolve the problem for a couple of weeks and am having a very difficult time contacting the second level of tech support at Hawking. When transferred to 2nd level support I end up being left on hold for 15 minutes and then being forced to leave a message for a return call. I have not been able to get them to call me back so I am looking for another access point to replace the Hawking HW2R1. Hawking Hi-Gain Wireless-N Dual Radio Smart Repeater
Bought two of these repeaters (and higain antennas) for a wireless setup to stretch from a 3rd floor apt to a 1st floor apt. Returned both two weeks later.
1) After setting up the first unit, took the second downstairs to set it up as a repeater. Used the "quick wizard". After that setup was able to see the router's signal in a wifi scanner, but couldn't connect to the router. Reboot didn't work. Reset to factory didn't work. Power cycle didn't work. Power cycle followed by reset to factory didn't work. It took me 45 seconds using the "quick wizard" to turn the thing into a brick. Returned it to Amazon.com for replacement. Then:
2) Got a repeating setup to work. Great signal strength (due to the two directional higain antennas, no doubt). Latency and throughput were horrible. Unusable. Asked a wireless expert at work and got the suggestion to reduce the "fragmentation packet size" and to turn on CTS. That worked - latency and throughput went to a reasonable (but not great) level. Don't know why that wasn't the default, but it wasn't. The out-of-the-box values gave terrible performance. (Naturally, there was nothing about these parameters in the user manual.)
But the killer, and the reason I returned the whole kit, was:
3) During a period of 4 days of operation both boxes locked up and needed to be rebooted twice a day, at a minimum. These units were completely unreliable. Yes, I was running the latest software release (they came with the latest release installed).
It's a shame. Repeaters are hard to find - in fact, I haven't found any others currently made that I can use. I just bought a Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N for a local setup and noticed that in its manual it has a repeater mode. But if you want to use that mode you can't use WPA or WPA2 - only the badly broken WEP. The Hawking specs are great: dual radios for the repeater for throughput, separate local and distance antenna sockets provided, designed for repeater use, able to use WPA2 when repeating, a weatherproof model designed for outdoor installation if you need that, etc. Too bad they don't work for longer than a few hours at a time.
I should have known better than to try this product as the reviews are decidedly mixed - a bad sign. But I really really wanted a repeater setup, rather than a second internet connection + VPN between my two locations. So I gave it a try because I relied on Amazon.com's great return policy. Thank you Amazon.com for making this experiment possible! - Hawking - Wireless N Range Extender - Range Expander - Repeater'
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