Hawking Technology Hi-Gain Outdoor Wireless-300N Dual Radio Smart Repeater (HOW2R1)

I bought this hoping to expand wireless coverage at my church. We currently have a single Netopia 3347 DSL modem that has okay range. I was looking for a product that would provide much more range and coverage and work with the existing setup.After opening the package and following the quick-start instructions, I was able to get the Hawking Smart Repeater to "see" the existing wifi connection. It was able to connect quite easily. This is where things got tricky ... the Hawking Smart Repeater then proceeded to create its own separate wifi connection with a different SSID, a different encryption method, and a different subnet.The end result was that my laptop would see two different wifi SSID connections - the original connection to the Internet, and the repeated one. This configuration technically worked, but it wasn't what I wanted. What I wanted was one seamless area of strong wifi coverage.So on the Hawking device, I tried changing the SSID and encryption of the repeated wireless connection to match the original connection. And that's where things got really ugly. The Hawking Smart Repeater still tried to act as a DHCP host on its own subnet. I tried disabling the DHCP, activating bridge mode, and putting it on the same subnet. The Hawking Smart Repeater then failed to connect to the Internet. It could still see the original wifi network, but was unable to access the Internet. I tried making a few more changes, and all of them were unsuccessful. Most frustrating however, was that after activating bridge mode, it became nearly impossible to access the web configuration page. Nearly all attempts to access it via the repeater's local ip address ended in errors, but it would sporadically let me see the page. This would get my hopes up that I could make changes, but when I clicked the 'submit' button, it would disappear again.Even worse, because it was built for the outdoors, there was NO Reset button. The instruction manual said a hard reset could be performed by holding the reset button down for 10 seconds, but doesn't indicate where this button may be located. I think they used the same instruction manual from an indoor version of the smart repeater.Anyway, I gave up and decided to send it back to Amazon.Pros:-STRONG wireless antennae. While I had the internet connection working with two separate SSIDs, my laptop could see and communicate with the box from good distances and through walls.-Tough exterior box. It says it's built for the Outdoors and it's true. The housing seems to be pretty robust.Cons:-Creates a separate wifi network. Attempts to make one seamless network were unsuccessful.-Expensive.-NO RESET Button. VERY FRUSTRATING.I can see this device working well if two neighbors wanted to share one internet connection. One neighbor would host the internet connection, and the second one could use this device to pick up the signal and create his own separate network.The back of the box also showed other possible uses: sharing/rebroadcasting an internet connection at an RV park, and also for sharing/rebroadcasting internet for boats in a harbor.For those situations, this device would be great. If you're trying to expand the coverage of your current network and have the same settings across, this is not the device to buy.

My opinion;Sturdy construction, easy installation and setup. NOW, if it only worked... it would be a 5-Star rating.Unlike other raters, I did not call tech support and fumble around with settings.This is a brand new device, out of the box that was designed for one specific purpose; repeating a wifi signal to a destination.If a new product is unable to perform the ONLY function that it is intended for adequately, then what good is it?Disclaimer is it did connect up to the WiFi hotspot and it did allow me to connect to the HotSpot through the Repeater, but the latency was terrible.Current product in place:* (1) 50mb EnGenious Bridge* (1) 150mb EnGenious API got sick of having to reset 2 devices when the network became unstable, so I decided to shop for a single unit solution. This product was ~$100 less than the EnGenious product I was looking at and boasted a high 11db primary antenna. Don't need MiMo for the primary so I thought to jump ship and try a different brand.During un-boxing, I was eager to install this Clean, Industrial looking Hawking Smart-Repeater. It does look quit robust. I set up the repeater in the old location of the 50 mb EnGenious Bridge which is about dead center of the span (150' from HotSpot and 150' from proposed coverage area), A quick swap-out of the Ethernet injector and I am ready to start configuration. I got 70% signal strength on both ends. Configuration using the Web page was quick and easy.I am ready for internet usage test. Go to Google.com for a quick test because it has very little graphics and it took a considerable amount of time to complete loading the page. "That's not right?", so I decide to try Youtube which took an indeterminate amount of time because I gave up on it."OK, maybe the device is having issues NATing the connect?", I decided to try the passthrough mode where the repeater just facilitates the connection and does zero handling. Well, that was no better."Well, lets reduce the throughput and vary the transmitting power.", also a bust.At this point I said, "Screw this!" and started the RMA process, which Amazon gets a big thumbs up! Was super easy and painlessThis whole process took less than 3 hours.I reinstalled my OLD EnGenious products and my network is back in business.In the end I am glad I tried the Hawking Product and even happier to return it.I am not sure why there is such a huge disparity of the ratings of the reviewers. I can only assume that Hawking's Quality Assurance department needs to increase the sample size of this product and test the products connection's latency and reliability.There are just too many negative reviews to believe that the poor performance of the product I received is an exception.I would advise shoppers to steer clear of this product due to the poor connection reliability.And again; This is this products ONLY function, to be a repeater. If it cannot do this well out-of-the-box there is something wrong with the product line. Reinstalling the old devices restores functionality so it is not environmental, the issue is the product.

Item works better than expected. Pickup several wi-fi in the area. We use it in our RV to try and get a decent signal. Boosting most signals to 86% which is solid, many are at 100%, but can pick those up without the booster. Booster also allows a manual firewall for a little extra security when using an open wifi. Installation was very easy. Cons are it comes with only a 3 foot coax which is only good for the setup in my opinion. Other con is there is no simple shortcut you can put on your desktop to open it up to local wifi. Have to go to setup each time to scan for local signals. Very similar to entering router setups. Also does not show which signal you are connected to or the strength on the desktop, when a signal goes bad it still shows a strong connection to the repeater, but not the other WiFi. It really needs some type of desktop software for simplicity. Have to go into setup to check that. I would do 5 stars for quality, but I had to return the first unit because it was missing parts. I will say amazon and hawking was very quick with a replacement unit and the customer service was very good. Little difficult to do a good review as the park we are in has lousy WiFi service, unfortunately the repeater can not boost the speed of lousy service of too many people online.