Review on 📶 Hawking Technology HW7ACW: Wireless-AC Multi-function Range Extender, Access Point, Bridge - Wall Plug by Jeremy Meyer

I bought this hotspot for my home not knowing exactly what to expect. The specs seemed decent and the price was great compared to other wireless AC access points that offered VLAN and PoE support. As soon as the device arrived, I immediately plugged it into an open ethernet jack in my bonus room and went through the setup process. The installation itself is pretty easy (I used a browser-based setup instead of installing their software on my computer). The access point supports multiple SSIDs (each with its own VLAN if you wish) as well as wireless client isolation per client or per SSID. Otherwise, you can configure other settings that you would configure with any access point, e.g. B. turning the radio on and off or selecting channel numbers and widths. With all said and done, I restarted the hotspot and was able to connect immediately with no issues. Bandwidth and coverage compared to my old AP (an Asus RT-66U that I switched to AP mode) was excellent. After turning off my old hotspot, I still had coverage throughout the house. In fact, I've only had two small issues with this device so far: 1. If you update the firmware, you'll lose all your settings (at least I did). So after you plug it in, I would recommend updating the firmware first to save time. Although I haven't noticed this with later firmware updates, it could have been an accident.2. It does not support 3x3 AC wireless transport, so the theoretical transfer rate to/from each client is slightly lower. For the price, however, it's untouchable, and unless you have gigabit internet access and need a few hundred megabits per second to/from a single wireless client, you won't notice a difference. Please note that this is an access point only, not a router. Most "non-technicians" don't install them at home. They are more commonly found in commercial settings. Unless you're specifically looking for an access point to add to an existing home network that already has a router, you don't need this product.* Updated November 2, 2015 *Upgrading my rating from four to five stars. Did the product suddenly get better? No, actually I had a little problem with it. However, it did give me the opportunity to chat with Hawking Technical Support and they were excellent. I ran into an edge access issue that most people probably don't notice or care about (the access point advertised itself as a DNS server for the wireless clients connected to it and forwarded DNS queries on their behalf, instead of talking to the wireless clients). directly) customers). query the DNS server provided by my DHCP server). However, my particular network configuration (multiple VLANs and subnets) did not work correctly with this setting (wireless clients connected to a different VLAN than the VLAN for the AP LAN interface could not perform DNS queries). So about a week ago I sent an email. Hawking Technology Technical Support, a detailed description of my discovery and how to contact me for help. I wasn't expecting much, but the next business day I received a response from someone whose native language was clearly English and who really understood the issue. After a few quick confirmation emails I was told that they could reproduce the issue themselves and that a firmware update would be available in a week. In fact, as promised, this morning I received an email with the firmware update attached. While most companies *should* do business this way, very few do. While this AP may not have the flashiest specs printed on the side of the box (no AC3200 tri-band tricks here), so far it has been a great and reliable AP with excellent customer service.