TP-Link TL-WDN4800 N900 Dual Band Wireless PCI Express Adapter - High Speed WiFi Card for Desktop PC, 450Mbps 2.4GHz + 450Mbps 5GHz, Supports Windows 10/8/7 - Perfect for Online Gaming, 4K Streaming & Home Office

I found prices lately at newegg and amazon comparable most of the time. Reviews were spot on and my purchase was based solely on consumer feedback. I had a 150 Mbps Edimax wireless N adapter with a 3 antenna base that, after a windows update, was giving me 144 Mbps. Not too shabby for an adapter that was half the price of this one. It was giving me 130 Mbps before with an older driver. With all the hype, I figured I'd give the TP-Link 4800 a try. I couldn't believe TP-Link, in their infinite wisdom, decided drivers from 2011 would suffice. Even with Windows 8 already out? The adapter is PCIE (Edimax was PCI) and both were positioned in the same location and a complete removal of old drivers was performed prior to "updating" to the 2011 drivers TP-Link and its fans raved about. I tried every wireless networking trick in the book (location, location)and, at first,never squeezed anything more than 130 Mbps out of the TP-Link. I even called support and their response? if it works, don't fix it. Sure, a lot of variables are in play when it comes to performance from a wireless adapter but, jeez, a higher price tag, smaller antennae with no extended cable and base and 2011 drivers? I expected to get my money's worth and better support. I refused to give up. This is not my first foray with TP-Link wireless adapters. TP-Link boasted 450 Mbps but I'm sure that would be achieved only with the more expensive routers like the ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router. I've been happy with my 2 D-Link Dual-band Dir-655 routers where one is set up as an AP repeater. I may have to save up for one of the Asus routers and give the TP-Link another go. Using the TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band TPLink N900 the 130 Mbps signal was indeed stable and I could see more wireless connections in my neighborhood than the Edimax but who cares? Most of the time your success will only be based on channels 1, 6 and 11. For the price I paid for the TP-Link I, at first, gave it 3 out of 5 stars since, for the price, it was just average. I have to add this as well. I even bought 2 sets of TRENDnet Duo 7dBi Indoor Omni Directional Antenna with Mounting Base TEW-AI77OB (Black) to possibly improve the signal. No cigar.Then, it happened! I tried a free little app called Wifi Analyzer and installed it on my Android. It was only then that I analyzed the problem and discovered, through graphical data, what channel to pick on my principal router. It worked so well, I re-wrote this review. To take the guesswork out of picking the best channel for your router/routers give the Wifi Analyzer a chance. It worked for me. I only wish someone at TP-Link could have suggested it. Sure, I spent some time trying numerous remedies and fixes but tenacity will win every time or at least explain why it can't. I now get a consistent 300 Mbps from the card using Channel 1 which is what Wifi Analyzer suggested. With the older D-Link Dir-655 router, I think that's all you can expect since channels 12-14 aren't available. More channels and faster speeds would probably be achieved with the newer more expensive Asus router I mentioned. I hope someone finds this review informative. Cheers!I haven't tested the speeds or anything so I can't go too much into technical detail. I can say it's very easy to set up, just throw it in a pcie slot. I assumed I would have to install a driver, but as soon as I booted up the pc after installation it was recognized by Windows 10 Pro and I was receiving WiFi signal like it came with it. Installed it into someone else's pc so I don't live with it but heard there have been no hiccups. The range seems good, it's in a pc in a corner on the second floor, opposite side of the small home where the router is on the first floor. Feels faster than WiFi on wireless devices such as phones and tablet, but not as fast as my personal pc which is a wired connection, no surprise there. Overall I am impressed how good it is for wireless. Maybe one day wireless will be as fast as wired, but not today. Casual users like the device's owner won't really notice the difference between this and wired when it comes to checking Facebook and such. If you are a pro gamer or trading on wall street, stay wired. The antennas do seem durable enough to last if they aren't abused, just remember they are there when moving the pc. My only complaint is that it's green, not black. If it would have cost another dollar for a black pcb, I would gladly pay it. I know it seems picky to knock off a star for a green pcie device, but nowadays almost every decent chassis has tempered glass and this thing is a real eyesore in an otherwise beautiful build. Obviously if you throw this in a Dell or HP or something you won't see it, but in a custom build it really stands out and looks ugly. You can mitigate this a bit by choosing a slot under the gpu rather than over it, but then you impede airflow to the gpu. However, the difference in gpu cooling is likely very minor in most cases. Ultimately it's up to you. This pc owner decided not to hinder airflow to the gpu cooler in any way, so it's above it and its ugly. Rest of the build looks amazing. What a shame.Some stability problems occurred with the default Windows 8.1 Drivers that Microsoft decided to use. This resulted in the computer freezing or resetting. Downloaded the latest drivers from TP-Link website and had zero problems since. However because of the initial problems I have deducted a star as really this shouldn't be happening.One of the main reasons for buying the dual band 450mb version is the 5ghz band that this uses. Previously my son was using a 2.4ghz USB wifi Dongle. My other son is still using his. But because we had so many 2.4Ghz devices on our wifi Network my son streaming HD Youtube videos was causing a problem for everyone else. Including streaming of Netflix over the Chromecast in the Kitchen. (Chromecast can only use the 2.4Ghz channel).I did a speedtest on my sons computer, and it was getting the same speed as my wired ethernet computer. 104Mbits down, and 8Mbits up. With a ping of 9ms. The ping was exceptional in my opinion. Very very good. And this was on the default Virgin Media Super Hub 2.When I do a file copy on his computer from our local server, it was pulling down around 25-30 MB/s constant, (megaBYTES), which is a lot faster than his previous USB dongle that maxxed out about 8 MB/s and usually around 4-5MB/s on average. A massive improvement.I have asked my son how his Youtube viewing has been since install 3 days ago. And he said it has been great, and that he is able to rewind his youtube videos now without it buffering, and that he is able to watch all his videos in HD.I have also noticed it's improved the remainder of the wifi Network, especially the chromecasts and other 2.4Ghz devices.I will be buying one of my other son as well, to free up the 2.4Ghz network for those devices, and leave the main computers on the 5Ghz network.Hopefully none of my neighbours will be moving to the 5Ghz channels any time soon, as they seem relatively empty at the moment (having down a wifi analyse of the local environment).I was going to wire the house up with Ethernet, but this device will do for now. As my son is able to download at the maximum speed our Internet runs at, and that's all you can ask for really.First off, I've had misgivings about TP-Link after buying one of their ADSL modem/routers. It was cheap and worked well enough, but in terms of configuring the thing it left a lot to be desired.But despite that, I bought this for my desktop PC after upgrading to fibre, where it was no longer practical to physically connect my desktop to the new router. Arrived well-packaged and right on time. Installation was easy, simply plug in and go.To be honest, I didn't look at any of the instructions provided because they weren't needed. First time booting Windows 8.1 after installing this card, my computer froze. But a quick reset and it booted fine next time round, autodetected the card and installed the required drivers. Linux (Linux Mint) on the same PC recognised the card straight away and configured it without any hassle.It's now been running continuously (this PC doesn't get switched off) for about 3 weeks now, with full connection strength and no disconnections. Other devices such as my phone or tablet, when used in the same room as the PC, only get around 3-4 bars of wifi signal strength.During big downloads from the Internet it transfers data at the full speed of my phone line (around 65Mbit/s). On the few times I've had to transfer data from this PC to another device on my home network it's been as fast as the target device can handle it's been at or near the 450Mbit/s rate advertised.TP-Link have never failed to impress me with their networking products in the years I have used them. This PCI-E Wi-FI Card works straight out of the box, no drivers required. I used it for Windows 10, but I also tried Linux - they both work easily as soon as its inserted into the motherboard.Some people may be wondering about 'monitor mode' for network security; and I can confirm that this product works for this perfectly.At home, I have 70Mbps internet download speed, and this card delivered me 40mbps during peak times; so I cannot fault it there. The antennas don't protrude too far out, and it looks like it would fit in any motherboard and case where the graphics card isn't covering there PCI-E.It managed to connect to both of my 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz network bands, and both worked, the 5Ghz of course giving me faster speeds at a shorter range.To be honest, I could not find a fault with the N900, but if I was to be super picky, then the green board the card is made out of does stick out from my black and red PC build, but I understand TL-Link do have a more expensive model - AC1300 which is black.In conclusion, this is a brilliant product, and I highly recommend. It is easy to fit for anyone with any experience with computers, and it will give you the connectivity to the interwebs that you desire.Great WiFi card. I know someone who bought this card claiming it is terrible and couldn't get a decent speed and would constantly lose connection, I bought this card as it is 5Ghz and I needed it because I live in a Uni dorm and the 2.4Ghz network is crowded. The card worked like a charm, went from 1mpbs to 39mbps. The problem my friend has was he didn't install the SOFTWARE along with the card, he installed the drivers but not the software, sure you may not want to install extra software, but it's lightweight and it's actually really good, it tells you the Ghz of each network and works like a charm. The card holds great speeds and holds a great connection. I would highly recommend it.This is one of the most simple yet effective solutions to adding wireless networking to your desktop PC.Having built my gaming rig just over a year ago, my onboard networking went haywire, sending spam packets across my local network - bringing my entire network to a standstill. I needed a simple and elegant solution to make my desktop go from relying on a wired network to being WiFi enabled.I wasn't expecting such an effortless installation. Simply place in a PCIe slot (it fits into a PCIe x1 slot!), screw in the antenna and away you go. It's pretty much plug-and-play. TP-Link offer a software bundle with it - but your PC should find the drivers for it locally, and for Windows machines, you'll be able to connect via the normal network icon on your system tray.Most important thing for me was speed, and this doesn't compromise - easily hitting my maximum down/up speed (70mpbs/down, 20mbps/up) for internet access, and I achieved speeds in excess of 330mbps locally.