Hawking Technology Wireless-AC Multifunction Range Extender, Access Point, Bridge - Wall Plug (HW7ACW)

I purchased this access point for my house not knowing exactly what to expect. The specs seemed decent, and the price was great compared to any other wireless AC access points out there that offered VLAN and PoE support. Once the device arrived, I promptly plugged it in to an open Ethernet jack in my bonus room, and went through the set-up process. The set-up itself is pretty straight-forward (I used the browser-based set-up vs. installing their software on my computer). The access point supports multiple SSIDs (each with it's own VLAN if you want), along with wireless client isolation per client or per SSID. Otherwise, you can adjust the other settings you'd expect to be able to adjust with any access point, like turning radios on and off, or picking channel numbers and widths.After all was said and done, I rebooted the access point and was able to connect right away without issue. The throughput and coverage compared to my old access point (an Asus RT-66U I put in access point mode) were excellent. After unplugging my old access point, I still had coverage throughout my home.There are really only two small issues I have with this device so far:1. When you upgrade the firmware, you lose all of your settings (at least I did). So after you plug it in, I'd recommend doing a firmware upgrade first to save yourself some time. Though on subsequent firmware updates, I have not experienced this, so it may have been a fluke.2. This doesn't support 3x3 wireless AC transport, hence the theoretical transmit speed to/from any client is slightly lower. For the price though, this can't be touched, and unless you have gigabit Internet access, and need several hundred megabits per second to/from any single wireless client, you won't notice a difference.Please note, this is just an access point, not a router. Most "non-techies" don't put these in their homes. They are more often found in commercial settings. If you aren't specifically looking for an access point to add to your existing home network that already has a router, you don't want this product.* Update 11/2/2015 *I'm upgrading my review from four stars to five. Did the product suddenly get better? No, actually, I had a minor problem with it. However, that allowed me the chance to interact with Hawking technical support, and they were excellent. I encountered an edge issue with the access that most people probably would not notice or care about (the access point was assigning itself as the DNS server for wireless clients connected to it and proxying DNS queries on their behalf, rather than having the wireless clients directly query the DNS server provided by my DHCP server). However, my particular network configuration (multiple VLANs and subnets) did not work properly with this setup (the wireless clients connected to VLANs other than the VLAN for the AP's LAN interface could not perform DNS queries).So about one week ago, I emailed Hawking Technology technical support, detailing my discovery, and asking them for help. I did not expect much, but I received a response the next business day, from someone whose first language was clearly English, and who actually understood the issue. After a couple of quick back and forth confirmatory emails, I was told they were able to replicate the issue themselves, and that they would have a firmware update available in a week. Sure enough, I received an email this morning with an attached firmware update as promised.While most companies *should* do business this way, very few do. While this access point may not have the flashiest specs printed on the side of the box (no tri-band AC3200 gimmicks here), so far this has been an excellent and reliable access point, with outstanding after-sale support to back it up.

I purchased this AP to replace an old Netgear EX6100AP, which became unstable after a couple of years of usage.The HW7ACB came nicely packaged, and worked for me right out of box. It appeared that this can be set up as a router, but I did not try that.One thing in particular that I did not like during setup was that wireless security key could not handle the full ASCII characters, mainly some of special characters. In addition, the unit I received may suffer from some range/performance issue. I was able to connect to the AP at the same distance (connecting from 1 floor above) as my old EX6100, but was not quite able to get the same throughput. In terms of usability, the HW7ACB is still adequate for video streaming as a replacement, but, to me, it felt like trading performance for stability (was hoping to maintain performance and increase stability).Overall, this AP has a good interface for easy setup (though some small quirks), and solid performance at close range (within same level/ little obstruction like tall ceiling). However, this does not quite fit for my criteria (no performance loss), so I am returning this AP as I'm writing this review.

We were having trouble in our small office with sufficient coverage using a typical wireless router. With a separate conference room across the hall, we weren't getting a solid connection everywhere we needed it. Since we already had a PoE switch with available ports to drive our VoIP phone system, stealing a couple of ports to add these "smoke detectors" was painless. As always, running cables over ceilings is the biggest pain. This comes with several mounting options, including clips for two sizes of suspended ceiling tracks. Be sure to download and install the current firmware version before setup - it just makes life easier. You'll also want to do that disconnected from the network since the device is preset with a fixed IP address. Although it will operate in DCHP mode, it will be much easier to manage if you assign it a static IP outside your DHCP range. It has a built-in web interface, but you'll need to keep track of the IP address for each device and manage them individually. Not a problem for home or small office use, but it would be cumbersome for a large enterprise. They also have a repeater mode which connects to an existing WiFi network 2.4 or 5 GHz network, then provides a new access point on both bands through the wireless link. I chose not to use this mode since we had cable available in the remote location, but it would be a decent way to expand a network's range if power but no network cable is readily available. You cannot use these in PoE mode as a repeater, only as an access point, but a power supply is included - very handy for setup also since most computer network ports do not supply power.