Hardware ReviewsHawking wireless workgroup bridge and USB adapter As a follow up to our recent review of the Hawking Technology wireless network starter kit, we decided to take a look at the Hawking wireless workgroup bridge (WB320) and wireless USB adapter (WU250). The bridge provides a way to link one local area network (LAN) to another using wireless networking. It is primarily used to connect one LAN (perhaps several computers networked via wired Ethernet) to another network by connecting wirelessly to a wireless access point (WAP) such as the one in the previous Hawking review. It also can be used as a wireless network device, connecting directly to another wireless-equipped computer in so-called Ad Hoc mode. The wireless USB adapter is similar to others we've reviewed and is perfect for anyone that wants to add wireless networking to a desktop PC without opening the case. Clearly, not many home
networks will have a need for the wireless bridge. However, Hawking decided
to send it to us to show how home users might extend their wireless
networks. And, since it isn't particularly expensive (we found it for $119 at
buy.com Overall, we found the Hawking gear to be well built at a reasonable price. The installation guides were good, but could have been a bit more comprehensive. We did have a few minor issues with the installation, but we stress that they were minor. And, finally, the performance was OK but not as fast as we've seen from other wireless gear. Read on for more. Overview Hawking Wireless Workgroup Bridge --
the bridge comes in a carton just slightly smaller than a shoebox. On the
box are detailed descriptions of the bridge and its functions in both The bridge is identical in size and look to the Hawking WAP. Only the words "Wireless Bridge" printed in a semi-circle on the front give it away. The bridge is about the the size of a small paperback book and has a nifty blue and black styled case. Four LEDs on the side provide information on power, status of the WAP and separate LEDs for the LAN and wireless LAN to show when connections are made and when data is being sent or received. On the back is the jack for the power adapter and a single RJ45 port for an Ethernet cable. A small switch just above the connector changes the port from a straight connection to a crossover connection. As the manual explains (unlike the WAP manual), straight is used for connecting the bridge to hubs and switches and the crossover setting is used for connecting the bridge directly to a computer. Unlike the WAP, no antenna is attached. It is simple enough, though, to screw in the 8-inch, "high gain" antenna that is about twice as long as the antenna on the WAP. We couldn't wait to see if this provided better network performance or ranges (see below for more on that). The written instruction manual covers the hardware installation of the bridge and its setup using a network utility and built-in web browser utility. The CD includes an electronic version of the installation guide and the setup program for the utility. Hawking USB Wireless
LAN Adapter -- the USB adapter comes in a 9x6x2-inch carton. Inside is
the adapter, a USB cable, a CD and 26-page "Quick Installation Guide." The
guide c The CD includes an electronic version of the installation guide that covers things in a little more detail (40 pages versus the 26 pages in the printed manual), the USB adapter drivers and a network utility. The adapter itself is about half the size of the bridge but has an identical look...with the blue base and black top. Two LEDs on the front indicate when the adapter is powered on and when a link is established to a wireless network. On the back is jack for the USB cable. Installation Overall, installation of the Hawking gear was fairly easy. For the most part, the actual installation stuck closely to the written instructions. We had just a few minor problems, but we had our wireless network up and running in about 20 minutes or so. The Wireless Workgroup Bridge Following the written instruction manual, we connected the power adapter to the bridge. We then plugged one end of the included Ethernet cable into our test PC's built-in Ethernet port and the other end into the back of the bridge. As the instructions suggested, we set the selector switch to the "crossover" setting and powered on the PC. Initially, Windows XP indicated that there was no cable connected to the Ethernet port. We had to set the switch to the other setting and then back to "crossover" before XP sensed the cable connection. Certainly not a major issue, but it could have been a show stopper for a network newbie. Next, again following the instructions, we installed the network utility from the included CD. After running the "setup.exe" file and clicking next a few times, the installation was complete. We then double-clicked on the wireless navigator icon on the desktop to launch the utility. It automatically searched and found the bridge. We double-clicked on the listing for the bridge but the program did not automatically launch the built-in web utility. The problem, as clearly indicated in the manual (bravo Hawking!) is that the computer was not on the same subnet (the third set of numbers in the IP address) as the bridge. To resolve the issue, as indicated in the manual, we right clicked on the listing and changed the IP address of the bridge to the same subnet as our computer. The utility even suggested an IP address for the bridge that would work with the computer's address. Very nice. We then double clicked on the listing again and the built-in web utility launched a logon screen. The manual indicated that the default user name was "root" and the default password was "admin" but in our case that didn't work. We left the password line empty and that worked. Again, not a big deal, but that could be a real problem for someone new to networking and computers. As you can see in the screenshot below, the utility shows the device status in the startup screen. It also provides access to all of the settings and features of the bridge.
Since we wanted to test the network performance of the bridge by wireless connection directly to the wireless USB adapter (thus not using a WAP) we had to change the wireless mode from client/peer mode (also known as infrastructure mode) to ad-hoc mode (this is all explained in the Hawking manual). Also, even though the default setting for the wireless network ID (which has to be set the same on all of the wireless devices on the network) is "any" (meaning it would connect with devices using any IDs), we found it better to actually provide an ID word to get the connection to work. The Wireless USB Adapter Next, we installed the USB adapter on our test notebook using the included, written instructions. Our notebook uses Windows 98 Second Edition, but as we mentioned the instructions also have details for installation on Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. To begin, we plugged one end of the included USB cable into the adapter and the other end into a USB jack on our notebook. Windows automatically detected the adapter and started the "Add New Hardware" wizard. We pointed the wizard to the CD and it automatically loaded the correct drivers. Be sure to have your Windows install CD nearby because, as is typical in new hardware/software installations, the program will want to copy a few files from it during the installation. The program then requested that the computer be restarted, which we did. The computer actually took some time to restart so do not interrupt that process. Upon restart, Windows automatically launched the program to install the utility for configuring and monitoring the USB adapter. We clicked "next" a few times and the necessary files were copied from the CD and the installation was complete. We then clicked on the small icon now found on the taskbar to launch the utility. Again, as we did with the bridge, we set the USB adapter to "ad-hoc" mode and made sure it had the same channel and ID as the bridge. Once we did that, the USB adapter showed a positive connection to the bridge (this is also indicated by the icon itself which turns green with a positive link; yellow shows a weak link and red shows no link). Unfortunately, although the adapter was connected wirelessly with the bridge, the two computers could not communicate (we tested that with a simple ping test). Similar to other wireless network devices we've tested (in fact, this applies to most) the notebook's built-in Ethernet adapter conflicted with the wireless USB adapter. Once we disabled that adapter, everything worked fine. The computers could communicate and once we shared some folders on both machines, our network was up and running. Performance To test the performance of the bridge and USB adapter, we copied a 30 megabyte file from the notebook with the wireless USB adapter to the desktop machine connected via Ethernet cable from its built-in 10/100Mbps LAN adapter to the Hawking bridge. We ran the copy tests in two locations: one was just three feet away from each other and one was several rooms away. In each instance, we copied the file back and forth twice, then averaged the number of seconds for the four file copies. All tests were run with just the TCP/IP network protocol installed. The results are shown below in seconds required to complete the copy. The blue bars indicate the results for the wireless USB adapter connected via wireless network to the bridge. For comparison, we've included results from the Hawking PC Card connected via wireless network to the Hawking WAP (red bars) and results for a Compex PC Card connected wirelessly to the Compex wireless access point previously reviewed (yellow bars). As you can see, the Hawking USB adapter/bridge combination comes in almost identically to the Hawking PC Card/WAP combination. Both are a bit behind the Compex set. It's clear that the Hawking equipment is not the fastest wireless gear out there, but keep in mind that most users would probably never detect this speed difference in everyday use.
We also tested the bridge's ability to connect two local area networks. We connected the bridge via a hub in a local area network in a house next door. By running the network utility, we were able to see that it detected and connected with the wireless access point on our test lab network. We were then able to ping from a computer on that network to a computer on our test lab network. We also were able to share files across the network but did not have a subjective way to test the actual speed of those file transfers. Suffice it to say that the bridge worked as advertised to connect separate LANs via wireless. Support Hawking Technology provides a number of support options including e-mail and a web site with some FAQs. They also have a U.S. technical support phone number (not toll free), but that number is only listed on the web site and not in the installation guide or on the package. Summary Overall, as we said at the outset, we found this Hawking gear to be well built at a reasonable price. While it isn't the top-performing wireless gear we've tested nor did it have the best installation guides and flawless installation, it is certainly solid wireless network equipment. Most important, if you need a wireless adapter today but think in the near future you might want to link two networks via wireless connection, we suggest you give the Hawking wireless bridge a good look. Grade = B+ Details
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English and French. Inside is the bridge, a special "high gain" antenna
that needs to be screwed onto the bridge, a 6-foot Ethernet cable, a power
adapter, CD and 30-page "quick installation guide."
overs
installation of the adapter under Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP.
It also covers
installation and use of a utility for setting up the adapter and even
includes basic instructions on installing network protocols. It isn't
quite the "A to Z" coverage of home networking that some manufacturers
provide in their install guides, but the Hawking manual does a fairly good
job of covering the basics. 
