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"Worst networking mistake ever." on by EndyBajr
Pros: It came in a box., which is recyclable!
Cons: Literally everything else.
Summary: Purchased this for a client who has been having trouble with his cable connection being less-than-reliable. As a backup, we got him DSL service as well, and so I needed an inexpensive dual-WAN router with wireless. I settled on this one. Big mistake. Straight out of the box, the unit would *NOT* renew a DHCP on either WAN port. Period. Went to HawkingTech's site to nab the newest firmware, which, as of this posting, was listed at 1.32 (8/15/2005). Upon installing that, it would get an IP!... kind of. It would not pass DNS information from either WAN port, so in order to go anywhere, we had to navigate by IP alone. Sad. Then, it decided to stop doing even *THAT*. OK, a quick call to tech support yielded some Chinese man who insisted that it was a UPnP setting on the router. A setting that does not even exist in the router, let alone a setting that would even marginally correct any of the issues with the unit. 20 minutes into the call, explaining to him exactly what it isn't doing, he magically pulls a 1.44 firmware out of his ass, and emails it to us. What does *THIS* firmware do, you ask? Nothing. Keep in mind that every time we need to get online, the cable or DSL needs to be unplugged and plugged directly to the computer to allow us to access the net. So, upon plugging this back in after the 1.44 firmware flash, imagine how amazed we were to find that -- it's doing the exact same thing. Not renewing the IP from a perfectly-fine WAN link, or not forwarding the DNS information. Now, you may be thinking MAC issues; the modem might not like being changed around so much. Nope. The only advanced configuration option on the router for either connection is the cloning of a MAC address. Which we both did, and didn't do. PPPoE for the DSL is stored in the modem, so that was set as DHCP. There is no 'release' or 'renew' option within the router, in fact, the firmware setup is, honestly, a joke.
Overall, I'd actually give this router a 0 of 10 rating, but cNet does not allow. And, to top off it's abysmal lack of performance, it's ugly. Looks like a troll bridge! The one in the picture above is not the model we got. Though the model numbers are the same, ours was an ugly, curved thing. Do not waste your money on this piece of... yea. Don't waste your money. -
"I registered just to tell people to stay away from this" on by borchi24
Pros: just in theory
Cons: everything else
Summary: The thing is that it simply doesn't work! Problems all the way, finding the networks, keeping connected, transfer hangs... Just don't buy Hawking product
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"Not ready for prime time" on by dlnordin
Pros: Integrated wireless and hardwired
Cons: Terrible tech support
Summary: I bought this and tried to set it up. Could only get it to work with an open network. As soon as I implemented security it would never work. Called tech support twice, both times they told me that I needed Level II tech support and to send an e-mail and they would call me back. One week later they still haven't called. Don't buy it unless you are a network engineer and never use or need technical assistance.
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"worst router I've ever owned" on by alcedes
Pros: has dual wan feature
Cons: just plain does not work
Summary: Te router didn't work correctly out of the box. I connected the router's setup provided no access to change the wireless settings. I contacted tech support and found out I had to do a firmware update to get to those settings. I did the update and the router seemed to work. but it only works momentarily. I have to frequently reset the router to get connected back to the internet. The wireless transmitter is weak and I have to be in sthe same room in the router to use it.
The so called dual wan feature does not quite work. It is totally unable to detect a connection that has gone dead. -
"They ship product with buggy/non working features and know it!" on by kcblack
Pros: Its a dual wan router
Cons: wifi mac address filtering doesn't work, vonage, P2P ,won't work if you have both WANS active.
Summary: I really needed a dual wan router. However, if I was to buy again, I wouldn't buy Hawking. As sold, limiting wireless access by mac address doesn't work. You have to rely on it working and it doesn't. WEP filtering is buggy.
I only found out when I saw that someone else was stealing my internet connection...probably getting into my home network and causing problems. I really ought to sue them.
Not out of the box and not after 3 firmware updates or even the beta firware they finally sent me solved the problem. I asked them if they even bothered to test it or if they had any quality assurance people... Their response is see if the latest release fixes your problem...not we'll test it and see if works before we send it out to you.
Their load balancing doesn't work hardly at all. QOS has problems (and can't be adjusted). Firmware updates don't have docs with what they fixed.
Poor tech support. Want you to do their testing/QA. I've been in the computer business and worked with many products over the years and I can't for the life of me imagine sending out a product like this.
Stay far away from Hawking!
DUAL WAN WLS G RTR/AP-W/ 4PT 10/100 user reviews
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