Alfa Long-Range Dual-Band AC1200 Wireless USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter w/2x 5dBi External Antennas - 2.4GHz 300Mbps / 5Ghz 867Mbps - 802.11ac & A, B, G, N

I bought it about a month ago and have had no problems with it. It works well, and hasn't been giving me any problems lately. That's the short version. Below is a long version for anyone who really wants more information. (By the way, I would definitely recommend this product.) Anyway, on to the long version. At first I was a little worried about buying it given some of the negative reviews and all of the driver problems. I'm running a Win 8.1 machine. But bought it anyways just to try it. The shipping was great, I received it in 2-3 days and the device was completely intact and new. I tried just plugging the adapter and letting Windows auto install the driver for it because people have said that the driver on the CD didn't work. Windows did download a driver for it, but the driver didn't seem to work. It could see Wi-Fi networks around my house, but I couldn't connect to them, so I used the CD to install the driver and the Realtek USB service (after uninstalling the old driver that Windows downloaded). In the event that you do plug it in and the driver installs and you want to uninstall it, unplug it, go into device manager, and uninstall the driver. You can also try keeping it on there, but I didn't want to risk messing something up. In retrospect, the reason that I couldn't connect to any Wi-Fi was probably because the Realtek USB service is required. Edit: After a bit of use it seems that it is not required, but I like the service. So, just for reference, every single step I took once I put the disc in is as follows (which means a very long list. In reality it isn't as bad as it seems, just a lot of clicking. You can also skip it and just get to the overall review.): 1. Opened "File Explorer" and clicked on "This PC" in the Navigation Menu (Also known as My Computer on older systems). 2. Right clicked on my DVD drive and clicked on the "Open" option. 3. Double clicked on ALFAINSTALL.exe (by the way, I remember reading a review that said a user's manual was not included on the CD. I found one in the "doc" folder on the CD.) You could also let it auto run. 4. When it opened, there were three buttons. One was "Browse Disc" and the other two were for selecting the product you had. I clicked on the one that said "AWUS036AC", which is this product. The other option was a slightly different adapter. 5. When I clicked on it, it asked me which driver I wanted to install or if I wanted to view the user's manual. (The three drivers it listed were Windows, Linux, and Mac. Not sure how well the Mac works, but I will look at the Linux and edit this review later.) 6. Clicked on the "Windows Driver" button and it came up with another list of buttons that asked if I was using XP, 7, or 8/8.1.) 7. Clicked on the "8/8.1" button and then hit "Yes" when UAC popped up. 8. Next it had me install the Realtek USB Wireless LAN Driver and Utility. (Which is a fairly nice piece of software by the way.) 9. Hit "Next" on the screen that popped up. 10. It came up with a bar that said it was installing and then Windows asked me if I wanted to install the device software. Checked the box asking if I wanted to always trust software from Realtek Semiconductor Corp and then hit install. 11. It installed and then asked if I wanted to restart my computer now or not. I hit "Yes, I want to restart my computer now." and then hit "Next". 12. After my computer restarted I hit the "Show Hidden Icons" button on the right hand side of the taskbar, clicked on the "Realtek USB Wireless LAN" (hover over it to see the name) which opened an application window. 13. I then plugged in the wireless adapter and the application automatically found it. 14. I clicked on the "Available Network" tab and it showed a list of networks I could connect to. 15. I clicked on the network I wanted, typed in the Network Key (password), hit "Okay", and it worked perfectly. I tried it on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz and both of them work fine. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments. So far, the signal has been fairly consistent. It is usually around 95%, but goes between 90 and 100. For some reason it also occasionally freaks out and drops to 75% or 80%. But maybe that's because I am using USB 2.0 instead of 3.0 so it's not getting the same power it would on 3.0 (I have no clue so I am making a slightly educated guess)? I don't have good internet, so I can't speak for the speed. Also, I regularly use the 2.4 GHz band because 2.4 GHz is an inherently stronger/farther reaching signal. At average of 95% I am around 30 feet away from my router, with a few walls in between. I have noticed that the percentage doesn't really change much between 20 and 40 feet. It stays in that same range I mentioned earlier, and it still does the same freaking out thing. Just so everyone knows, I am using a Wireless-N network on the 2.4 and AC on the 5. I am also using a USB 2.0 because of the orientation of the USB ports on my laptop. It's light enough that you can also stick it strait into your computer without harming it or the USB port. Pros: Works on Windows 7 and 8.1 Good signal reception and transmission Doesn't cut out The Realtek USB Wireless LAN program is pretty good It supports USB 3.0 It supports AC wireless It operates at 300 Mbps instead of 150 Mbps It comes with a USB dock that has a 4' USB cable No problems with shipping. It came in 2-3 days. It is as it was advertised You can use different antennas if you want, maybe a lower or a higher dbi antenna Cons: Sometimes the installer disc ships with old drivers Can use without the two antennas, but not very good wireless The dock is 2.0 Occasionally freaks out and drops about 15% in signal strength 10" tall when in dock and about 8-1/2" tall when in computer Requires the Realtek Software to operate well At some point here I will test it on Linux and edit this review to include info about how it works.

I've had a good experience with this device. First of all, I bought it because it has Wireless AC technology and removable antennas. I put a homemade 15 element Yagi-Uda antenna on this and I was able to get internet connections 2,000 feet across open water with great speeds (15 ms ping times and 35 MB/s downloads). I'm using it on a boat and it has been working even with some rain and heavy winds (I wrapped the device in duck tape so it wouldn't get wet). I also added a longer USB cord; a longer USB cord is better than a longer coaxial/antenna cable. It might be hard to believe, as it was for me, that 2.4GHz wifi can reach out across 2,000 feet. This little device with a Yagi is amazing. Before I tried the homemade Yagi, I tried some 10 dBi omnidirectional antennas. Those were pretty terrible as they picked up too many hotspots and a lot of noise along with it. All in all, I'm really satisfied with this device. The small size, good price, good power, remove-able antennas and the ability to do both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz were all a big plus. Now for the only downside, which was the drivers. I tried to install the drivers on both Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 and Ubuntu mate 16.04. I had to dig around the Alpha website for a while to find drivers. Installing the drivers on Ubuntu failed and I gave up. The Drivers for Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 work, however, I wish they were a little better integrated with the operating system. For instance, the driver program runs as a menu bar item which has to be started with admin privileges. If your main account user doesn't have admin privileges you have to either start-up the computer to an admin account before using your non-admin account or do a little hacking with visudo. It would also be nice if the Mac OS X driver program showed better wifi signal strength information.

I am unfortunately in a situation where I am not able to use a proper wired network at the moment. I had used several USB adapters, but ultimately decided on a wireless bridge (D-Link DAP1650) to keep as many machines wired together as possible. Inexplicably, bandwidth dropped so badly while using the bridge that I needed to find a replacement. I have been using ALFA wireless adapters for a long time for security research, and I liked the idea of a USB 3.0 AC-wireless adapter with large antennae that would get me the best possible bandwidth. I have deducted one star for a simple reason - the extension cable and desktop mount is not USB 3.0. This seems like a crazy oversight, but it does make a substantial difference. I purchased a separate 4-port USB 3.0 hub and double-stick taped it to the base of one of my monitors. Works like a charm, and I also have a convenient place to attach external HDDs, USB sticks, etc. As far as performance goes, I am very happy. I consistently get 180-200Mbps downstream and 18-25Mbps upstream via Ookla speed test, and my internet tier is 200/20. Speed test are hardly an indicator of real performance, however, so I am happy to report that I am consistently getting 25MB/s (200Mbps) when downloading large games like GTA V, The Division, etc. on Steam. So I'm very pleased with the WAN performance via this adapter. On LAN I am getting very acceptable speeds as well. I have no issues streaming 4K video from my NAS, file copies are sufficiently fast to/from the NAS, and I am not getting dropped connections at all. I'm not sure what issues some other people are having with dropped connections, but it's never happened to me without some other source being the issue (e.g. my router rebooting itself after I made a settings change). Very very happy. Could easily be 5-star item but just make the extension cable USB 3.0!

I would like to state that I tried another cheaper card that had an Antenae and it had less signal strength than my preloaded stock wireless desktop card. I recieved my package on-time, everything worked as described, nothing was broken, it was brand new and as advertised. The directions for installation are very simple, the cord is long enough to go over half of a desk, with a desktop at the floor on the sides. NOTE: Alfa's website: http://www.alfa.com.tw/download.php HAS Windows 10 Drivers for this Wireless Card AND is compatible, having run this on a Laptop AND Desktop both running windows 10. The drivers are most definitely needed as I tried the windows 8 ones, and they were slightly unstable until I got the Windows 10 ones. I would like to point out some key features that I like about this Wireless Adapter Card. 1. Range and Compatibility: The range easily surpasses more than a half mile, with the card I'm picking up signals my stock wireless card didn't even see. 2. Compatibility Issues not an Issue: I run windows 10 to which this card is used for, but I had no idea when I had purchased it, I looked on Alfa's website and even though the disk that was included with the card does not have drivers for Windows 10, the website does. 3. Very Study: The design of the Adapter has no flimsy parts, plastic is rugged and feels solid, the wireless stand is heavy and even though it falls over easy is very sleek. The USB cord is as thick as my mouse cord with normal covering surrounding it. 4. Stable: Even though I have my own Wireless Network I use, the card can full bar Unsecured Wireless Networks while connected, I used my Comcast login info to test a XfinityWifi hotspot that is more than a half a mile away (I checked the distance using the app) I used it all night, and the connection stayed strong throughout the night. 5. Dual Band Attenae: The Attenae are what makes the Adapter strong, I point it toward my Modem and the Connection is increasingly stronger than when pointed away, doing a speed test I gained a small amount of download and upload speed doing this. I added 2 screenshots of my "Before" and "After" of the wireless networks available to me with my stock card, and the Alfa one. I would like to point out that, there is many more networks below it as it creates a scroll bar of new networks! Overall I am fairly impressed with the quality of the purchase, so much that I am thinking about buying one for all of my standstill devices (Smart TV etc) I would like to point out that I tried using it for my Xbox One and it did not recognize it. Sorry! All and All I commend Alfa for this monster of a Wireless Adapter, and if I ever need another one, I know which company to stick to from now on.

I have purchased many wifi adapters through the years - Almost all were "duds." The outdoor high gain panels such as Powerlink and various brands from Red China boast of three mile ranges but failed to go beyond 35 feet. Wireless adapter cards from Asus and Netgear last less than a year and have weak reception. My only adequate purchase was the TP-Link TL-WDN4800 - the highest rated wifi adapter in the market. The signal strength was only adequate. Four bars on 2.4GHz and three bars on 5.0GHz. . The Alfa AC1200 is an improvement over the TP-Link TL-WEN4800 in a few areas: . 1. It is an external wifi adapter that plugs into a USB 3.0 port. As a result, you save a PCIe slot on the motherboard for something else. . 2. The signal strength is one bar or 20% stronger. I am able to get five bars on 2.4GHz and four bars on 5.0GHz (62%). Signal drifting is not a problem. I only experience a 2% variation. . 3. This wifi adapter is the first in the market that handles the new IEEE 802.11ac specs. Being the "first kid on the block" commands a premium. The price is well warranted. . 4. The device is able to capture several networks in my neighborhood. On 2.4GHz, there are 27. On 5.0GHz, there are 14. On a comparison, I was only able to capture 7 on my Asus wifi adapter card. . 5. The software utility is the best in the market. It covers almost everything that you want to know. Most valuable is the wifi signal strength graph. It shows the actual strength in percentages. Not too many competing utilities offer this insight. . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . . UPDATE . Despite the performance, the device is useless if it has short life and is not repairable. Here is my updating. On the tenth month of ownership, the unit went bad - nothing worked. I contacted the manufacturer and shipped it to Texas for repairs. It came back within a few weeks. After installation, it still did not work.

I'm running Windows 10. I received this product, unboxed it, assembled the antennae, and plugged it into the back of my computer. Like most folks, there's a ton of stuff plugged into my computer, but this product had no problem sliding in. Windows 10 found the driver, and I immediately had a list of wifi networks available. Impressive! In fact, my network was noticeably faster than the WD Powerline kit (200 Mbps) than I had been using. I wanted to measure how much faster, so I went to the website to download the utility. First problem: The utility isn't available as a download from the support page on their website; only the driver. I didn't need the driver, because it was working fine. So, pop the included DVD into the optical drive, and start the install. The installer walks me through a bunch of options, but the one option I'm looking for (choose to install the utility only) isn't there; I have to install the driver from the DVD to get the utility. Unfortunately, there's no mention of Windows 10 in the installer, only Windows 8. I cross my fingers and hope I don't screw up a working wifi adapter. Install and reboot. I have the utility, but the wifi is down. Great. Fortunately, I have some experience troubleshooting driver issues, so after 20 mins of fiddling with it, I am able to get back to Windows 10 driver I was using, and I still have the utility installed. I'm connecting to a dual band AC gigabit router. According to the utility, my signal strength is in the low 70%, but my link quality hovers in the 90%. That's great. My actual bandwidth is generally at 585 Mbps, with occasional fluctuations -- awesome. I've seen it drop to 325 Mbps, but that's rare. So, there's really just two issues with this adapter, neither of which are a show stopper. First is that you can't install the device utility alone, you have to install the driver, too. It's understandable that they wouldn't have a Windows 10 install yet, as Windows 10 is so new. The utility isn't needed for the adapter to work, but it's nice to see the performance. Second issue is that the base that comes with it is only USB 2, while the adapter is USB 3. Now, the max theoretical bandwidth of USB 2 is 480 Mbps. That's still pretty decent in 2015. But it would definitely be throttling down your wifi bandwidth, and I suspect that most people who buy this adapter are looking for performance. You will need to buy a third party male-to-female USB 3 cable, if you need to mount this wifi adapter somewhere other than the back of your computer. There you have it. If you can live without the base, and the CD install problems don't bother you, this is a really good wifi adapter.

I have tried many Wireless Adapters, and this is by far the best. I have close to no complaints with it and it truly works as it claims. If your internet modem is located far from the computer where you use the WiFi, then this is certainly one of the best choices you can make. From the compact build to the close to flawless connection, it has certainly made using the internet a breeze. USE: -Pros: Comes with a disc to install drivers and other needed software. Takes around 30 minutes to set up. Very easy to read instructions. After it is set up, there have been almost no issues thus far and there has been excellent connection to WiFi ever since I got it. If there is a problem with the internet connection, it can be almost always fixed by unplugging the adapter and then plugging it back into the USB port. -Cons: The actual adapter comes with two antennas to achieve the desired connection. These are helpful for the Wifi, but can be bothersome as the structure occasionally falls over with lack os support. SHIPPING: -Pros: The product has Prime shipping which means 2-day free shipping for Prime members. Arrived earlier than expected. -Cons: No complaints with shipping. Note that it arrives in a small box. DESIGN: -Pros: It has a very sleek and modern design. It must be placed facing the wifi modem so it may stick out in front of the computer. -Cons: Blue flashing light on the front can be unwanted, but it shows that the device is working CONCLUSION: -The Alfa Long-Range Dual Band AC1200 Wireless USB Adapter is a great device that allows almost anyone to take advantage of their wifi, even from long distances. It is far more expensive than a lot on the market, but it is ultimately worth it if your computer is not able to retrieve good signals otherwise. I am happy with the purchase and would recommend it to almost anyone looking for better internet connectivity. I am a longtime Amazon Prime customer who enjoys writing reviews in my free time. If you have any questions or comments about this product or my review, feel free to message me and I'll be glad to help!

The receive sensitivity appears to be good. I can't really comment on the transmit range because I have a repeater in the same room, and I doubt that the neighbors would appreciate my breaking into their networks for "educational and scientific purposes only" ; ) . But if I were interested in my neighbor's networks, I'm pretty sure they are all in the "available networks" list. I am a little skeptical of the reported received signal strength numbers though - way too many "100%" scores on networks up and down the street. The stand/extension cable are poor, I tossed them in my junk box. Fortunately it sits nicely on top of the Pluggable USB 3 hub I docked it with, and a nice hub with upward facing ports would be my recommendation to others in lieu of the included stand.. The accompanying software, while usable, is unimpressive, with all the hallmarks of get it out the door Chinglishware. This is just a "first impressions" review. I haven't done any throughput testing, as this is just a backup connection option, I have Ethernet everywhere, but I wanted to have a WiFi option available for testing and troubleshooting. When I have time I'll try to take a look at performance. I also want to measure the output power, as I am wondering if they might be running these on the hot side - I hope not, as a quick look with a spectrum analyzer shows way too much clutter around me, and I don't want to add to the problem. Overall, if you are looking for a modestly priced USB WiFi adapter with AC1200 support, this seems to be a reasonable choice. Keep in mind that the software is a little fidgety, so if you are not technical, you might want to look around for something more "polished". And if you are going to run AC networking I would suggest that you have a USB 3.x port to plug this into if you want the full benefit (and of course, a compatible access point wouldn't hurt either ). Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

This product is very good for pentesters it helps every single programs and windows Linux and security testing features with it.

Got this product delivered very quickly. Now all the computers and laptops in the house are connected via WiFi. Bought this USB WiFi adapter for its range, as my wireless router is 2 floors away, and in the diagonal position through the structure of the house. it's very easy to set up. Just installed the driver and plugged in this adapter, and hey, it worked on the first connect. Reception signal reading is much than the laptop and two other USB adapters without the big antennas. So now I can crank down a bit of the transmission power of my wireless router and still keep computers in all rooms connected without any issue. Recommend it (generally with big antennas) if you need to get reception through several floor and walls. Hey if you still have issues getting signal, the flexible antennas are there for a reason. Imagine a huge donut shape radio transmission cloud around the antenna, and make sure your wireless router is in the cloud. Hope this helps.

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Es buenísimo, detecta una asombrosa cantidad de redes que mi portátil no puede.

MI EXPERIENCIA: Quería contaros mi experencia ya que he quedado totalmente alucinada con este dispositivo. Vivo en un duplex y en el piso superior o en la terraza era toda una odisea recibir señal wifi para conectarme al portatil (un HP Spectre x360) por eso decidí comprar un adaptador wifi usb. Tengo contratato el adsl de movistar de hasta 30 Mb y el resultado tras realizar diversos tests ha sido pasar de una velocidad de descarga de aproximadamente 2 Mb a 28 Mb. Respecto al número de redes detectadas he pasado de 4 a 18. Con estos datos creo que no hay nada más que añadir... Estoy encantada. De hecho, ya he pedido un segundo adaptador para la casa de mis padres. EL DISPOSITIVO: Este receptor wifi USB Alfa AWUS036AC tiene un buen acabado, con un bonito color negro brillante y dos 2 antenas de 5dBi cada una. Usa el estándar 802.11ac (el más rápido) con lo que llega a velocidades de hasta 1200mbps (el modelo anterior llegaba a 867Mbps). Al principio puede resultar un poco aparatoso ya que las dos antenas no son precisamente pequeñas, pero si coloco el adaptador en el puerto usb más alejado de mi teclado puedo trabajar perfectamente. Teniendo en cuenta lo que gano en velocidad entiendo que las antenas deban ser de ese tamaño. Viene con usb 3.0 y como el resto de antenas de Alfa network es compatible con Windows, Mac y Linux (importante si queréis utilizarlo con Wifislax). CONTENIDO DEL PAQUETE: Usb Dos antenas de 5dBi CD con drivers Mini manual de usuario (en inglés y castellano) FUNCIONAMIENTO En mi caso, con un portatil HP Spectre x360 con Windows 10 el funcionamiento ha sido mega sencillo: acoplar las dos antenas al usb, conectarlo al portatil y automáticamente ha detectado la señal wifi amplificada. Como curiosidad he probado el cd de drivers y, aunque en mi caso no lo he necesitado, veo que vienen los drivers para Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, Mac 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 y Linux. EL PRECIO: Ahora podéis encontrar exactamente el mismo dispositivo pero 6 euros más barato en otro vendedor de amazon. Yo ya he solicitado el cambio.