TP-Link AC450 Wireless Nano USB Adapter 433 Mbps

I was excited to receive this TP Link T1U yesterday. I installed it in my Windows 8.1 HP 'budget laptop' - the reason for my purchase - the laptop has (slow-ish) internal 2.4ghz wifi, and I video-conference a lot with customers, while connected to several VPN networks. I currently have a 5 Ghz Netgear WNDA 3100 adapter (to improve performance over the internal wifi - but this is too large to leave in the laptop permanently, and doesn't have wireless AC. I wanted a 5ghz AC network card for speed, my TP Link VR600 router supports this AC protocol. I also wanted the portability of a Nano device.Installation - easy enough, the device is a very tight fit in the USB socket - will never fall out. The device doesn't self-install - there is a disk with drivers, though I just downloaded the latest from the TP-Link website and installed that way.Speed Results - the T1U is fast. I compared it with a couple of other options in the same/test environment. The T1U was 50% faster than a Netgear twin band USB device (with no Wireless AC), and 100% faster than the internal Intel 2.4ghz wireless card the laptop shipped-with.Test method - I transferred the same 20 large video files both to and from a network storage device (NAS) using each device in-turn, recording the transfer rate reported by windows in each case.Reliability - Now for the bad news. Upon initial installation the device performed well. However, following a restart of the laptop it seemed slow and connection seemed intermittent. I conducted connectivty tests (automated ping tests every 20 seconds to the network router& internet) only to find 50% of the network packets were being dropped. I conducted the same tests on both the internal card and the old Netgear USB adapter to find the issue now also occurred on the Netgear adapter. The internal network card was unaffected. Removal of the T1U, uninstallation of the driver and the utility software have cured the problem with the old Netgear Adapter once again performing reliably. I have yet to re-test the T1U further to determine the root cause of the problem - it certainly seems to be driver related - given that it also affected my old Netgear device until the T1U driver was uninstalled.Overall - This is a device which would fulfil the promise of fast Wirless AC connectivity in a tiny package if only the driver hadn't presented reliability problems. Needs more time to debug / check the TP Link forums etc. For now I've reverted to my trust (if large) Netgear WNDA3100 for slower but very reliable USB network connectivity..

Used to replace a powerline/ethernet cable connection to PC that kept failing. I couldn't work out what part was at fault. As a gamer that was no use! I also didnt want to run full network cables from downstairs to upstairs room with PC.I get near top speed my internet connection provides over WIFI now, so far no disconnections. Would recommend it.Ive used tp-link wifi adaptors/routers in past, always good quality and always well priced.

TBH, I'm not really a fan of 5g and the main reason I got this was coz my 2013 laptop could only see 2.4G, and I was testing some issues with a neighbour's wifi. This thing does the job though, so that's fine, and comes with a little disc you can mooch the drivers off, since your Window's version may not figure it out automatically.The main issue I see is, as the title suggest the constant irritating flashes that is shows when it' working. Since this is a smaller device, I expect most people would be using it either as a replacement for failed on-board, or for older systems that either have no on-board, or have older generation cards that only run 2.4g. This is fine if you have a tower, but I wouldn't recommend it for long-term use for a laptop, unless it has somehow back USB ports - since you will always see the flashes in the corners of your eyes with side port laptops.Update: Had this things a few months now, and I haven't really used it all too often - which leads me to wonder why the damned thing keeps having issues. I would not recommend this product, because it will often:- dropped signal at random.-lost connection with the laptop.-fail completely, requiring you to remove, and reinstall the drivers.Update: I'm pretty sure this thing was faulty from the onset. It not longer functions at all. Blinky blinky has died completely. Don't buy this product.

REVIEWED AFTER 12 DAYS TO 1 STAR - 0 STARS NOT AVAILABLE. - Adapter stopped working after 12 days. Green light stopped turning on in adapter to indicate it was on and flashes when there is date transfer. UTTER RUBBISH PRODUCT!!!FIRST REVIEW AFTER A 3 DAYS OF USAGE - This TP-LINK Archer T1U AC450 Wireless USB Adapter works well enough on a 5G dual band router, but sadly it has a tendency to turn itself off for some unknown reason and loses the WiFi connection requiring it to be removed out the USB port and then reinserted for it to reconnect to the WiFi again. Rather frustrating having to do this, especially if you are in the middle of something and the connection drops out. This drop out can happen 2 or 3 times in an 8 hour work day over 3 days.

When it connected to the router over 5Ghz, my connection was very fast. However, it managed this once and it's not worth the hassle trying to fix it. It should just work - install device, add password, connect, like every other Wifi device. I tried the downloaded driver, the included CD driver, the Windows connection, the TP-Link connection utility, using my password, using the WPS button, etc. It only managed to connect once as a freak occurrence, after rebooting the machine. Imaging it still worked, next time I booted up, the connection was lost. On the latest attempt, having left the machine to make a cup of tea it was connected to the router. The moment I tried to access the internet though, connection was lost.Plain doesn't work. Add the wasted time trying to get it to work, and then printing a return label and dropping it off somewhere, it's a useless waste of time. Expected better from TP-Link.