Despite the Hawking HWR54G's very clean interface and respectable feature set, its performance left us unimpressed. This router barely maintained a connection at the 120-foot mark.

Initial Configuration and Documentation

Hawking has made a noble attempt at providing detailed and intuitive user documentation and setup routines. Most users will find the documentation helpful and will have little difficulty installing the router using the setup wizard. When installing the PC Card, we recommend using the optional Windows XP client if you are running that OS.

Management and Features

The HWR54G includes many features you'd normally find only in higher-end models, such as support for UPnP, DMZ, and virtual servers. One minor complaint: We wish that the advanced configuration tab would not open up a new browser window. We are, however, impressed by Hawking's attention to detail, such as completing IP address information—with the correct digits for the gateway subnet—automatically. This will definitely help reduce user errors.

Security

Since the HWR54G lacks WPA support, we cannot recommend this device for use in a small-office environment. For home use, WEP may be sufficient, although we recommend WPA. Finally, the device also includes the ability to filter on the client PC Card as well as simple URL filtering.

Performance