Product Reviews

A wireless router may not be able to provide network access through your entire house or office. Hawking Technologies' HWREG1 can help you fix this problem by extending the range of any wireless network.

The HWREG1 sits halfway between the problem connection and your wireless router and joins your existing wireless network as any computer would. However, it also acts as a wireless access point. Your wireless clients connect to this access point and the HWREG1 passes the data to your wireless router. The result is that it boosts the range of your wireless network by

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repeating the signal.

Configuration is simple thanks to Hawking's CD-based setup utility. Provided you've plugged your PC into the HWREG1 through its Ethernet port, the setup utility automatically detects the device. The simple configuration wizard presents a list of wireless networks, and you select the one you want to join and enter the security settings. These settings are replicated on the HWREG1's wireless network, so you don't have to remember a new password.

Once we'd rebooted the router, we placed the HWREG1 10 metres from our wireless access point. We ran our tests at close range and 10 metres from the HWREG1. As you can see from the results below, the speeds are not that impressive, but they're good enough to keep you browsing the internet.

If web browsing is all you want to do, the HWREG1 is a good choice. However, it's quite expensive and gives you two wireless networks to contend with: your original network and the HWREG1's new network. For most people, a simpler answer to poor wireless reception, such as buying high-gain antennas or investing in a Draft-N router, such as D-Link's RangeBooster N 650 Router, is preferable.