Just Say No to Hawking

So I have a printer at home that I want to network. Being the smart guy that I am, I think “I’ll by a print server”. Having heard good things about Hawking Tech’s products (particularly in terms of price), I thought I’d pick up a USB print server from Hawking Tech. So I go over to Computer Alley on State St. and pick up a Hawking HPS1U USB Print server for $65.00.

I get it home, unpack it, look at the simple docs, cable it up, and try to set it up. I install the config utility, run it, and it can’t find the print server on the network. I power cycle it, try again. No dice. I swap out cables, same result. I look at the docs some more, and try some other stuff. I ping the broadcast address on my network and see what shows up in the ARP table. I see a new device, and try to connect to it. I can ping it, but I can’t connect to the HTTP server that is supposed to be running on the thing. I also try putting a static ARP entry in my system’s ARP table and connecting to it that way (which is what is suggested for non-Windows systems). Again, I can ping the thing, but I can’t actually access it in a useful way (ICMP conversations are rarely interesting — “Are you there?”, “Yes, I’m here.” — “Still there?”, “Yes, I’m here.” — And so on…)

After a bit of cursing, I conclude that the unit must be defective. I look for help on the Hawking Technology web site. There is none. There certainly isn’t a support number that I can find.

So I take the thing back to Computer Alley to get an exchange. They happily give me a new one, apologize for the problems, and take the old one back.

I bring the new one home. Unpack, cable it, etc. Same results. Troubleshoot. Same results. I look at the docs some more, and apparently the thing is also supposed to have a TFTP server on it. So I grab the TFTP client for my Fedora Core 2 box (surprisingly not installed by default), and try to TFTP to the thing to configure it. Again, no luck. The thing responds to ICMP packets, but no other packets. I even tried connecting via crossover cable to the thing just to make sure it wasn’t my LAN switch or something wacky like that. Still no dice. The damn thing just doesn’t work.

Now I can accept having a unit go out the door DOA. Sometimes it happens. But TWO units? Both were in unopened OEM packaging. The boxes were in good condition, and didn’t appear to have suffered in transit. But both simply don’t work.

Looking online, I see that folks have had mixed results. At least one other person reported the same thing I did — the unit just didn’t work out of the box.

I’m not at all impressed with Hawking. I think I’ll avoid their products in the future, and look for vendors like D-Link, Belkin, and LinkSys for stuff like this.