Side by Side Comparison of: Panda Wireless vs Panda vs Cooler Master vs Crucial

Just got this yesterday in the mail and now really getting a chance to put it through it's paces. I have a small, cheap Asus laptop that is designed for Windows. I wanted to set it up for writing C++ with some Linux distro. I first attempted to install Arch onto the thing and was having major issues with WIFI connectivity. I decided to simplify things and try Linux Mint, by to my dismay the same issue with the WIFI persisted.I did some digging online and I guess this particular NIC (wireless card) in this laptop does not play well with Linux drivers. I read about this little dongle on a couple blogs/threads and heard that it plays nice with Linux. I started fresh with Linux Mint and haven't had an issue one with this WIFI dongle. I'm tapping this review out on the laptop right now and the little dongle is happilly letting me know that he is talking to the network with his little flashing blue light. No dropped connection or nothing weird. I connected to my server and downloaded about 40 Gigs of data over the WIFI and the dongle handled it like a champ.The speeds are a little bit slow, but for my intended purpose I really don't care. Slightly slower speeds beats no speed at all. I've included a picture of speed test results from this laptop with the dongle, and my desktop on ethernet for comparison. I know comparing wireless to wired is not a fair comparison typically, but the wireless card in my desktop does about the same speed as the ethernet when I use it. Despite the slower speed of about 30 Mbs down, I am %100 pleased with this thing so far. I would have paid more for something that works as well, at a higher speed though.

I was pleasantly surprised with this product. I half expected it not to work because of the reasonable price (20% of some similar products) and because the information said it worked with such a variety of computers and systems. It was actually Plug & Play on an HP desktop with Windows10. It did not seem to work for the first minute until realized I had to turn off the wired connection which was the default. I purchased this product to solve the problem of having my internet connection drop intermittently. Worked for months with Microsoft, HP, Internet supplier, network adapter provider, etc. with no improvement. Then this $15 item solved my problem. And delivered on time. Thanks.

I put together a new computer build this summer (after 10-years with my last Vista operated build...yeah...long story). As I was piecing together this build I spared little expense. I went with a high end MSI motherboard, 6700 i7, 32gb ram, a 980ti gpu...and a couple of nice G-Sync 4k displays. My wife is not a fan of cables running across the floor (I however do not like wireless AT ALL). I could not convince her to step over my cables running here and there so I needed to go wi-fi. I researched the best solution to meet my needs and I came to this Panda Wireless USB adapter. I was concerned because at the time of the purchase there were not a great amount of user reviews though the technical reviews were solid. I was also somewhat taken aback because the price...seemed to be too good to be true. I figured I'd give it a shot and wow have I been happy with this thing. Very, very happey.Pro:- Easy to install.- Great price.- The company emailed me shortly after the purchase to see if I was happy or if I was in need of support (I love good customer service).- Oh...this is kinda important--it works and works well! I get great reception across the room. Down/upload speeds are comparable to what I was getting with a hard connection.Cons:- None so far after 3-months of regular use.

The PAU06 replaced ar "G class" USB adapter that was showing its age.For Windows 10 it is truly a plug n play installation. The operating system has the drivers. I use this in a desktopPC located one floor below the wireless router. It's positioned next to a steel desk - not the most ideal place for a good signal. Nevertheless, connect speeds area as good as any of my other wireless devices ( speedtest.net ). N-class performance is certainly an improvement, even with 15 Mbps throttling by the ISP.A nice touch was a followup email message (a few hours after delivery) from Panda support that arrived via Amazon.com. Since there was no manual included in the packaging, it provided some download information to XP, Mac and Linux users and a path for communications if problems occurred. Perhaps Amazon is making this available to vendors that want to make use of it - a nice feature.I've only used this adapter for a few days, so it's still early. The results are encouraging.

WINDOWS 7 & 8 USERS>>>> IMPORTANT NOTICE - DO NOT INSTALL THE INSTALLATION CD!!!! THIS IS A 'PLUG & PLAY' ADAPTER. THE CD IS FOR OTHER WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEMS ONLY. I made the mistake of not reading the simple instruction sheet, and spend 3 hours on the phone with Comcast trying to connect to the Internet, who said it was something with my PC/Wireless Adapter Settings. I spent several more days adjusting every WiFi setting imaginable. I finally read from someone else, NOT to install the CD which I had done. I 'uninstalled' the program and the Internet worked perfect! Pays to read instructions, but an easy oversight. Keep in mind.... i was fully connected to my wireless router in the house, but NO internet when i clicked on my Browsers. Installing the CD program & driver creates some 'block' to your internet. Once I removed it.... it worked instantly. All you need to due is simply plug the adapter in one of your PC's USB ports & connect! That's it. This little unit has significantly more strength in it's reception signal than my last adapter.... all the WiFi bars!

I've successfully used two different very small USB wireless adapters (Panda Ultra Wireless N USB Adapter (150Mbps) - 802.11n 2.4GHz - Compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1, Mac OS X 10.4/10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8, Mint 14/15/16, Ubuntu 12.04/12.10/13.04/13.10, Fedora 17/18/19/20, openSUSE 12.1/12.2/12.3, Puppy 5.6, Lubuntu 1... and AirLink101 AWLL5088 Wireless N 150 Ultra Mini USB Adapter).But, my new PC is in a bad spot for WiFi, and the smaller Panda just wasn't able to provide enough bandwidth - even though I used a USB extension cable to move it a few feet into the open (which does not exactly look nice). Not only does it have a 150mbps max, but it does not have an external hi-gain antenna.So I bought this unit, and it is much better. The 300mbps max will probably never be reached, but that design, coupled with the hi-gain antenna, allow the adapter to achieve much higher steady-state (not just peak) wireless speed.Note: it is much bulkier, and the protruding adapter and antenna could get knocked into unintentionally, so be smart about where you put it.Highly recommended for locations that have poor WiFi reception - it made a world of difference.

This is a single (2.4 GHz) band device with two radios, supporting the 300 Mbps claim and accounting for its larger size. You get the faster speeds with "channel bonding", i.e. using two wireless channels at once. This is of dubious value if, like most of us, you live in a place where there are many wi-fi routers competing for channels in the crowded 2.4 GHz spectrum, and aside from that it's not always clear how to get channel bonding working (it doesn't seem to be happening for me and I have no idea what to do about it).

Anyway it's working fine in single channel mode out of the box with Raspbian Jessie on a Raspberry Pi 2. It does not work with my other RPi2 running OSMC, but there's probably a way to fix that.

Finally I noticed the USB connector gets very hot to the touch; am guessing at least the advertised maximum operating temperature of 50C (122F). This makes me wonder if it will fail prematurely, and I'll update here if it does.

UPDATE 2017-02-14: I talked with Panda support about the heat concern and they mailed a replacement out (PAU03 150Mbps version at my request), no charge. Comparing the two, I find the PAU05 gets a better signal, I guess because it's bigger. I will continue to run it and see if it holds up. 5 stars for awesome support!

UPDATE 2017-04-02: Still working well with continuous use under Raspbian.

I had some problems getting this setup at first and reached out to their support who were super responsive and helpful throughout troubleshooting. My problem was that I could connect to my wifi but couldn't get an IP address. If I configured a static IP, it worked. I remembered that I had a static IP configured for my Ethernet card even though at this point I didn't have any network cable plugged in. After clearing the static IP config on my network card, I was able to get a DHCP address off my wireless network and all is working fine since then.

5 stars to their support and for the product itself. Just had to get over that initial problem which is probably specific to my computer.

We recently brought home 2 Lenovo work computers that are 2 years old, both were upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8. They both had ethernet only as an internet connection, no onboard wifi. So we were in need of wifi adapters to connect at home without having to string cables everywhere. After researching different wifi adapters online, it appeared that a lot of them had issues with Windows 10. So I thought it would be best to get one at a midrange price and well known brand just in case of problems. So I originally purchased 2 Netgear AC600 mini adapters for forty bucks each, which were also supposedly backwards compatible with N routers. They were installed as instructed with the provided CD. No initial problems. However, after restarting the computer it would not connect to the internet. It actually kept shutting down our whole network with 2 iPads, laptop, and the tv, whoever was on it. I had to keep resetting the router, which did not have issues until adding the adapters. This happened for over a week. I tried all the install, reinstall, driver updating from manufacturer and Windows, disabling certain settings, etc.. All to no avail. I finally decided to return them and search for something else. I checked out a bunch of ones here on Amazon, and decided to go with this Panda Wireless PAU05. I was worried about the same type issues happening again, but for seventeen bucks each was worth a try. It had very good feedbacks and said it was plug and play, so I figured I would give it a shot even though I had not heard of this brand before. I got them on same day shipping, put them in, turned on the computer, and voila! Internet connection. These have been awesome for like 10 days now, without a single issue on both computers. They are pretty quick too. Take a chance and go for it. You might just be surprised as I was. Thank you Panda Wireless!!!

Saved functionality on my new Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 laptop, which apparently has a faulty/finicky wireless adapter. after checking on Dell's site and googling reviews I found this common problem- none of the Dell suggested fixes, resetting my router or "troubleshooting" the wireless seemed to help, it would completely lose my "Favorite" network as well as the 5 or so neighboring networks I always used to "see". all of a sudden NONE of them exist? when I read to try USB wireless adapter and bypass my computer's internal wireless altogether I thought, sounds simple enough for me! I saw so many good reviews on this one by Panda Wireless, it's not too big, but has good range. I sit in an alcove of sorts, surrounded on 3 sides by walls, with the router a good 30+ feet away, through several other walls. this dongle has no trouble connecting to my wireless with full signal strength (4 bars!). it was plug-and-play with Windows 10, didn't need to download anything. this computer came loaded with 8 but I upgraded to 10 Prior to purchasing this wireless adapter

My Windows 7/64bit did not recognize the dongle. Not a problem, I thought, a mini-CD is included with the Windows driver and a "utility application" on it. I installed the driver and the utility app and then went through several hours of frustration trying to get the thing to work reliably at something better than dial-up speed. I even removed and re-installed it twice without any improvement.

Here's what finally made it work...install the driver ONLY, do NOT install the utility app. Windows 7 sets it all up automatically as soon as it has the driver. It works great when you install it this way.

Ed

A rule of thumb when buying wireless wifi adapters, Spend the big bucks. Do not buy cheap unless you expect cheap results,That said, for the price this is you get what you pay for. For the first month I had zero issues. No lag, no dragging at all with games or movies. Then my videos started playing in lower quality to keep up with internet connection. Shortly after I would connect and disconnect randomly (never for longer than a second. But if you play games like league of legends, overwatch, etc. this can royally screw your team over)That was about the worst of the issues. And it has been consistent since. It connects, but youll cut out on occasion and sometimes not even be able to play or load videos without waiting a long time for them to buffer.I recommend if you dont have a lot of cash, get this. If you can manage to save up and get the 100 dollar model, do so. Otherwise, take the time to purchase a long ethernet cord and tape it down until you can trail it to the nearest plugin.

Purchased this in September 2016, to be used with a new computer I had put together. With Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04, I haven't had any issues with the adapter until January 2017, where the device periodically and randomly shut off. Today, 13 February 2017, I touched the device to disconnect it and reconnect it; upon doing so, I noticed that it had grown unusually hot.I'm not sure what the problem is, and I guess I'll have to investigate a little further. I'll try to update this review as I learn more.EDIT: 15 February 2017As may have been pointed out in other reviews, and at the risk of sounding pretentious or presumptuous, it seems that having too many resource-intensive processes going can cause this adapter to overheat and shut off. This includes using voice-chat clients like TeamSpeak, or having certain website pages (like YouTube) open in too many internet browser tabs. I will continue to test my speculative hypothesis, and pay extra attention to what I have open if/when the adapter overheats and fails.EDIT: 21 February 2017This is embarrassing, because I've overlooked the old IT mantra "did you turn it off and on again?" That is, my problems may have been connected to my not turning my computer off enough--setting it to "hibernate" for a few days, straight, probably contributed to the malfunction, because the USB wireless adapter seems to be working normally after shutting down. Adding a star to make up for my own mistake, but we'll see how it fares for the rest of the year.

*FIVE STARS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE*I had made my decision to buy this product because of the various anecdotes on other reviews regarding the great customer service and I was not disappointed! The product did it's job, but it was not working as well as i'd hope so after a few months I emailed their customer service team and I received a reply almost immediately. Mark was extremely helpful and patient. We began a lengthy correspondence in an attempt to solve my problem. I believe the main issue was that the adapter was not strong enough for the interference in my environment. After some more discussion he helped me find an adapter that would work great and now I am very happy with my new productPanda Wireless PAU09 N600 Dual Band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wireless N USB Adapter W/ Dual 5dBi Antennas - Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10, Mint, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, CentOS, Kali Linux and Raspbian. During my correspondence I had actually broke my adapter and that would be my biggest complaint with this product. The way it is designed, the USB doesn't go into the computer all the way and it sitcks out. This made it weak and when I moved my computer it bent the device and rendered it unresponsive.Overall I might or might not say that this is the product for you; make sure you don't need a dual band and that this adapter suits your needs. I definitely recommend Panda Wireless!

In case this is helpful to another user: We have this working on a Windows 7 box, but only after some driver difficulty.It would be good if the documentation were better and the driver files were provided separately.The official instructions did not work for us.What worked for us was:(1) inserting the device (Panda PAU06 USB WiFi adapter) (not recognized -- no driver could be found by windows -- appeared as "other device" or something like that in device manager)(2) downloading and running the driver installer (with "driver only" option) from [...] (while some users report this working, it did not work for us -- the adapter was not automatically associated with the installed drivers)(3) looking where raw driver files were stored by the installer (in our case, somewhere under 'c:\ProgramData\Medatek Driver\RT2870 Wireless LAN Card'; if necessary, you can see a truncated version of the driver paths if you film the driver installer when it's running and then play it back frame by frame...)(4) pulling up device manager (something like: control panel -> system -> device manager); you should see the adapter device ("802.11n LAN adapter", or something like that) in an "other" category (i.e., not in the "Network Adapter" category, where it should be)(5) selecting "update driver" for the adapter and explicitly selecting the directory containing the raw driver files (at this point, we had a working adapter)Hope that helps.

Pretty decent little wifi adapter - doesn't even require a driver install on Windows 10 (Windows finds it automatically). Requires a driver from the company's website for Windows 7 (haven't tested on 8).Works instantly in various Linux distributions, even during OS installation, which is really convenient.Not the fastest Wireless N adapter ever - maxed out around 50-60 Mbps for me on a 200 Mbps internet connection.Biggest issue is hardware-related. Adapter often will just not function after rebooting my computer. Have to reseat it in the USB port or reboot the PC. Sometimes disabling/reenabling the adapter in Windows will fix it. Sometimes after it's been in use for a while it'll start making high-pitched "activity sounds" whenever I do something that uses Internet, like navigate to a webpage. Barely audible - probably inaudible to many people - but can be a little annoying. If I restart my computer or reseat the adapter it fixes the issue for a while.For the price and ease of use in Linux, I say it's easily worth 4 stars.

I show 300Mbs rate yet actual throughput is only 6-9 Mbs using speed test. Adjacent laptop gets 35+, I can only assume another defective unit. Connects to PC and installs just fine under W10 which show MediaTek, 6/6/2014!!, Ver 5.1.16.0. drivers. Nothing newer W10 specific shown at Panda web site I see W7 videos showing 30+ speeds using this adapter on utube.When connected to USB3.0 I experienced very long cold boots, warm boots have adapter reporting connect speeds all over the map with my WDNR3700 router set to 300Mbs.Any W10 users please leave comments. ThxUpdate: found latest 2015 drivers, no change. Moved adapter 1 wall closer to adapter, now up to 21Mbps from 9. My little mind now see the antenna is just not matching the single wire in laptop lid even though link quality shows 100%. I raised 1 star to 3 mainly due to Panda tech support getting back to me during the holiday madness. The adapter will need a better antenna($) to meet my needs so back to cat 5 for heavy downloads, also no heating or disconnects during first 4 day use.Stop my press!Found Netgear AC1200 USB 3 adapter on sale at local store. I went from 9Mbps on 2.4 band to 65+Mbps on the 5g band. Ok so the panda will stay in drawer for guest or trouble shooting. The AC1200 rocks but many found the Panda works just fine and of course what works for you varies.

Great device that instantly connects to WiFi without fail on a Linux Mint 17.3 operating system.

One quick caveat: On a dual-boot operating system, if the Panda Wireless USB Adapter is plugged into a USB port when booting the computer, the bootloader on our computer will not function and no operating systems will appear; the Panda Wireless USB adapter is somehow interfering with the boot loading sequence and the computer display remains blank. The cure for this problem on our dual-boot system is to unplug the Panda adapter before booting the system and then plugging the adapter in after the operating system has loaded.

Once the operating system has loaded and the Panda WiFi adapter is plugged into a USB port it's off to the races with fast and consistent WiFi connection and speed. No drivers were needed with Linux Mint 17.3, it was a quick plug and play. We've used several wireless USB adapters over the years and this one is the best we've seen so far (small USB WiFi adapters the size of a thumb-drive all seem to fail over time, probably due to the great amount of heat they produce internally.)

On a single boot computer (a machine running one operating system), there probably won't be any bootloader issues so you might not have to unplug the Panda Wireless USB Adapter before turning on the computer, but if you do experience a problem with the operating system booting up, just unplug the Panda adapter until the machine loads.

The Panda 300Mbps wireless N USB Adapter is a solid performing WiFi adapter and works with Linux Mint, so will work with Ubuntu and likely other Debian derivatives without needing to add WiFi drivers.

I bought this to use on a Debian Linux machine. It did not work immediately, and the drivers included were not helpful, but with the appropriate apt-update I was able to get this to work. It's not the strongest WiFi adapter, and I found to get a 5-bar signal I needed to put it on a USB extension above the desk. But it does work, and has been reliable. I've not tested network speeds through it, but for what I've used it for it's been fine.

I got this mainly because I needed a wifi connection for Linux on my desktop PC. I dual boot Windows 7 and Kubuntu 14.04. I'm quite happy with this device. It is truly plug and play under Kubuntu 14.04: I didn't have to install anything. I just plugged it in and Kubuntu found nearby hotspots. From there, I just logged into the wifi network and was connected. Regarding Windows 7, I did what one or two other reviewers did: downloaded the latest driver from the manufacturer website, installed it, and **then** plugged the adapter into a USB port. From there, it was the same experience as Kubuntu.

Under Windows 7, the connection seems quirky at times, though I am not sure since I have had this for only about two days. I tried it out with Netflix, and it seemed to handle that kind of video streaming fine. Under Kubuntu, the connection is great. It seems fast and, like Windows 7, video streaming seems to be no problem for the device.

Overall, I'm very happy with it. Even if it lasts only a few months, the inexpensive price tag makes it easy to just get a replacement down the road (I'm thinking of getting another one as a backup), and with the easy setup under both operating systems I use, as well as the strong connectivity, I can highly recommend it.

UPDATE: Just ran Linux Mint 18 (Mate) live from disc, and the adapter works like a charm under that, too: plug and play, no software or driver installation needed.

It seems to have a high error rate resulting in poor speed and reliability. Unfortunately, the errors sometimes cause my browser to freeze or the graphics to become useless.
I think I'll get the better quality adapter. It's not quite as compact but the extra cost will probably be worth it.
I'm about 25 ft from my router but this adapter only has 3 of 5 bars. The internal adapter on another laptop has 5 bars from the same location.
UPDATE:
I have been in contact with the manufacturer and was told that it is in fact a short distance wireless adapter. Their representative helped me troubleshoot the problem and it just doesn't have the range. It's okay for some places, just not my home where the router is downstairs, the other side of a wall.
After spending some time with them troubleshooting the problem we have agreed to upgrade to a more powerful model. I hope that works better.

Works great after you figure out how to install. Little frustrating at first to get to work properly with Windows 7. Kept losing connection and would not connect after it work up. However this is how to fix.

BEFORE plugging the device into your computer, download the latest driver and install the driver ONLY. REBOOT. Plug in the device and it will set it up correctly. If you plug in the device first then install the driver you will be frustrated.

Did get instant customer support when I emailed them.

I purchased this device for a new installation of Ubuntu 16.4 that I'm using as a Plex server. Unfortunately, after many hours of trial and error and searching the internet for help, I could not get this device to work with my server. There are no good instructions available, especially for Linux newbies, to help walk you through installing this device. The website states that it works with Ubuntu out of the box, which may be true for some versions of Ubuntu but not with 16.04.I'm sure I'll find another use for this device but as of now it's going in storage.

Purchased in October, and worked great for about 3 months and then it started working only about 50% of the time, blue light does not come on whatsoever. Have tried different USB ports and still the same result, tried on another computer and still barely works. I am very disappointed in this purchase, and am unable to return or replace due to a 1 month policy via amazon.Edit:Panda Wireless support got ahold of me and was very helpful and prompt. I was sent a replacement unit hassle free within a few days. It is working wonderfully. Will update in the future if any other problems arise. Changing to 3 stars due to the defect, but still a good product.

I purchased this wifi adapter because the wifi unit in my laptop was malfunctioning. I wanted a less expensive alternative to replacing it. The price is good for this product, but it is not as good an alternative as I had hoped.The USB adapter fits too loosely in the port, so if I brush my hand against it it stops working until I restart it. Even if I jar the laptop too much it will stop working. Unfortunately to restart the device, it is necessary to pull up the utility software supplied with the device and reenter the pass key for the router because the utility doesn't store the pass key. Ugh! Yes, so I stored the pass key in a text file and keep it on my desktop, and this has made it less inconvenient.In summary, this device does function just fine, but be aware of its limitations.

At first I was happy with this product, until I became plagued by frequent disconnects and malfunctioning from the device under normal usage. The issue got so bad that the adapter would go offline for minutes at a time....I emailed support but am unsure if I will even get a reply.......get a better adapter.....don't buy this one.BTW: You won't get very good speeds with streaming or downloading using this adapter, which is something I had to find out the hard wayUpdate: Although I was having issues at first I was able to figure out a fix for this problem. My system is custom built, and I figured out that the power being pushed out by my system was causing the adapter to overheat. I have a high speed USB hub, and I tried hooking it up to that. Once I did, the adapter stopped overheating and dropping connection. Now I am connected continuously with no issues.Update 2: I talked to one of the tech support guys for Panda and told him the issues. After some emailing back and forth, they sent me a brand new adapter with a 1 year warranty, and even included a free Linux install CD. So now, I have 2 working adapters, because they really wanted to make things right.In summation, read all the reviews before you get this product and be vigilant while using it. If issues occur, take steps to reduce power consumption. If those attempts fail, then contact customer support on the Panda website as I did. Despite mixed reviews on this product, their customer service is pretty good. They replied to my email within half an hour, and within 24 hours my issue was resolved.

The item worked for 34 days, and then malfunctioned to the point my USB / Device Manager will not recognize it. If there is nothing that can be done, I will never again will I buy a Panda product. There wasn't any warranty card in the actual package. I can't get a refund, and now I have to figure out the "warranty" information by contacting the seller.UPDATE: I spoke to a company representative, and within 4 days I had my replacement. So far the new product works well. I would rate their customer service a 5/5 from my experience. If the product fails within 60 days, I will update this review. If it doesn't then I will give the product a 4 out of 5.It was easy to setup, and windows 10 installed the drivers automatically.

Did not work on my Windows 8.1 desktop.Did not work on a Windows Vista laptop.Did not work on a Windows 7 laptop.It is not plug n play on any system. Vista tells you it wants to install drivers, then asks for the CD. You put the CD in and then Windows can't find the driver. I plug into Windows 7 and it says it is installing drivers, then pops up the window asking to enter the CD. First I told it not to use the CD, that didn't work. Second I tried to get it to use the CD, it didn't find the driver. Windows 8.1 desktop pretends to install it correctly and then doesn't find any network connections, even though my phone and both laptops can easily see mine and my neighbors wireless connections. THIS IS NOT PLUG N PLAY.EDIT: I am upgrading to a 3 because we were able to get it working on a Windows 7 laptop. I am still unable to get it working on my Windows 8.1 Desktop PC.

Purchased this item December of 2014. It served it's purpose well for about 2 years, but has been dropping connection more and more frequently as of now (FEB 2017). My router is a dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz. Other computers and laptops on the network have better connection, especially on the 5g band. That being said, 2 years of good use at this price (and continued use at about 90% uptime) WAS a good deal in 2014, but now I would say that you're much better off buying 600Mbps dual band 802.11ac wifi adapter, now that they cost around $20.

Don't even have to install software (Windows 10 32 bit) . Purchased this for a friends old laptop.

Update: I just purchased another one of these for my laptop (Windows 7 64 bit) - Installed driver only; works without a hitch.

Update: It kinda fizzled out after about 4 months; somewhat disappointed. There are other "dongles" on the market for the same or lesser price that are flush to the USB port, and, as a result, will not twist and bend.

This worked great on Windows 7, but has been giving me grief on Windows 10. I of course suspected drivers, and did a full uninstall-reinstall from the Panda Wireless website- it hasn't seemed to help.

The issue is that throughput speeds are sometimes significantly slower then they should be. I test with my cell phone while sitting at my desk and the connection is running full speed, so it doesn't seem to be a networking issue. Windows 10 often reports poor signal, which is strange because the router/switch is a mere 10 feet away. This same problem did not happen on Windows 7, the connection and speed were always rock solid.

I admitted defeat on Windows 10 in place upset, and just did a clean install. Most of my other issues were resolved (it was, after all, a very well used installation of Windows 7, needed a good clean wipe anyways). However, the problem with the device is still there.

I would gladly rate this 5 stars if I found out the issue was not the device, but rather something on my computer or network. However, I fear it's a driver issue, and will await an updated driver for Windows 10.

I ordered this USB wireless adapter because my previous Linksys AE1200 USB adapter would not work with Windows 10. If you have recently upgraded from XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8.x then this adapter may be just what you need. Be aware however that installation is not for the faint of heart. It is promoted as a simple plug and play device. It most certainly is not. It comes with a mini CD with a PDF file describing the installation for everything but Windows 10. Windows 10 is unique and requires some modest expertise in translation from all the other operating systems. Several emails to the company were promptly answered but they offered only generic replies and referred me to the installation disk. I already looked at the installation disk and had difficulty figuring out what I must do for my particular desktop machine. After several days of pondering, I tackled it again and finally was able to install the driver using the Windows installation utility. I was not at all clear that the drivers on the disc were the most current so images of my driver version under device managers was sent to the tech support department at their request but they failed to acknowledge receipt nor proceed with the directions. Fortunately, I knew that my machine was capable of using this adapter and simply needed directions for getting the drivers matched with my Windows 10 operating system. In summary:
Pros: very sturdy and professional looking USB adapter. Packaging was professional. Mini CD was provided along with a Windows utility installer and a PDF file manual.

Cons: device is not plug-and-play as advertised. Installation of the drivers cannot be accomplished by simply asking the computer to retrieve drivers from the mini CD. Directions for Windows 10 are not included on the disc. You have to guess what operating system works best for you. Since most of us will have recently upgraded from a previous Windows operating system to the latest Windows 10 or have just purchased a new laptop or desktop that is in need of a wireless adapter for one reason or another, such installation directions should be front and center on the PDF file.

received your product on time.
I received this product on time. I bought it based on user's review.
I plugged it to my desktop (just upgraded to Windows 10). This desktop use an on-board wireless card. The signal is weak (1 bar). That's why I would like to buy an external USB wireless adapter. After installing the driver and utility, scanning the signals, it can find my neighbor signals, but not mine. After rebooting a few times, and scan a few times, it get my signal (by luck). The signal is strong (96%). However, if I reboot the machine, the the connection disappear. It took me an effort to rescan signal to get the signal again.
When I get the connection, I have problem with the web page retrieval (E.g. yahoo.com). It takes 5 times longer to retrieve yahoo.com page comparing with my internal onboard wireless. This is very frustrating.
I don't know if this problem is related to Windows 10 or something else.

I purchased this about 6 months ago and it just died. Actually, it never really 'worked' all the time. Sometimes my computer would recognize it but most of the time it wouldn't. I'd have to unplug it...re-insert it over and over. It actually came apart on me several times. The USB part would stay in the port but the p.c.board would end up in my hand. I crimped it a bit to keep it connected but the reliability was still spotty at best. I just received my "Mailiya AC600Mbps Wireless Adapter Mini USB Wifi Adapter" from Amazon today and it works perfectly.I cannot recommend the Panda.

I've been using it for a few weeks now and have had no issues. Quite a bit slower than a wired connection but that's to be expected. Only rating 4 stars because it's not "plug and play" as advertised. I had to use a wired connection and search for the drivers to get my pc to read it.EDIT 8/14/2016: Hate to come back and change to 2 stars, but I've been having a terrible time with this thing since formatting my PC. Not sure what happened, but now the Mbps download speed fluctuates an incredible amount over the span of seconds. One second I will have 16 Mbps, the next will be 1 Mbps, then it will pop up to 8, go back down again, etc. My phone will be sitting on top of the PC doing the same test right after running it on my PC, the phone will get consistent 15 Mbps while the PC varies wildly as stated. As I said, I have no idea what changed, since I re-installed the exact same software after formatting (and have since re-installed to try and fix the speeds). Anyway, pretty disappointing.

Worked really well for the first few months. Had had excellent signal strength and wall penetration. I was in a living situation where my room was far from the wifi access point, and this really helped keep my speeds at a decent level. I noticed that it got really hot under any sort of load though.After about 4 months it started dropping connection regularly, I would have to unplug it and re-connect it to my USB hub. This persisted no matter what port on the hub I used, or if I connected it directly to one of the computer's USB ports. This problem got progressively worse and worse, after about a year it has stopped working competely. Now it is not recognized by any device. Pretty disappointing that it's dead after only 1 year, when I have an old Belkin N150 adapter that I've had for like 7 years, and it still works without a hitch (though it doesn't have the level of attenna gain that this one did.)In all, I can't really recommend it, unless you just need a temporary quick fix. But this thing won't last you.

Currently use a Dell XPS 14z. The default installed WIFI card was an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230. Despite the positive reviews on Amazon and other places, it was pretty much garbage. I could barely connect to my home wifi from more than 25 feet and even the connection from beyond 10 feet was spotty. The Panda instantly gave me full signal strength from 100 feet away and does not drop or disconnect signal like my old Netgear USB adapter used to. It took about 2 minutes to install without a CD and I haven't looked back since. I swear I get better connection on this than when I'm wired in. Very small and easy to move and doesn't take up much extra space.Computer: Dell XPS 14zOS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bitEDIT: It is now January 6th (purchased 2 weeks ago). Today the adapter stopped working and Windows told me it has malfunctioned. Not sure what happened. I didn't break it or anything it kind of just stopped working.

I bought this product to boost my asus laptop wifi reception capability. This product is plug and play, no installation needed, which I gleaned from the numerous product reviews. What was not immediately apparent to me, was that inorder for it to truly "work", any built in network adapters need to be disabled/ uninstalled. Once I did that, it worked like a charmEDIT:So just a few days after I made the review, I got a a message saying USB device not recognized. In device manager the adapter shows up as unknown usb device (device descriptor request failed). I have tried disabling, uninstalling and rebooting to no avail. The device simply will not work. I even system restored but no luck. I contacted them via their website and after a few back and forth emails explaining my issue and "screenshot" they agreed the unit was probably defective and agreed to send a replacement unit. I also received a separate email indicating that I was given a refund for the cost of the item. I await the arrival of the replacement and will adjust/ update this review based on what happens with the replacement unitEDIT:I received the refund, but no replacement. So I can only comment on the performance of my original unit; namely it worked for a few days and then stopped

I got this product to replace another wireless adapter, which was also made by Panda. It got damaged after moving my computer (my mistake) It was the same only it did not have the antenna. I originally was going to buy the same model until I read reviews that the antenna makes browsing much faster. It had a lot of good reviews so I decided to give it a try. First off, I love the fact that this brand is literally plug and play. The antenna is also adjustable so it wont be a problem if you need to plug it into the back of your PC. It comes with a CD, but I just plugged it in the USB and it worked fine... well, for a time. I only had this thing for a month before it died! The first few weeks it worked perfectly fine. After that, the connection would get sketchy. It would DC for 30-60 seconds before re-connecting by itself. Extremely annoying when gaming online or watching videos. Just yesterday. for the entire day it would DC for a few seconds, connect for about 10 minutes and DC again, this morning (9/26/15) I was browsing the internet with no problems, then finally it disconnected and never came back on. I tried every USB port on my PC, nothing. I reset my router and tested my internet speed with my tablet, nothing. I noticed that this adapter gets really hot when it is plugged in. Not sure what happened, I know other people are having the same problem. I felt as if I've spent enough money on panda's products, so I decided to bite the bullet and just buy another adapter at Office depot. The smaller and cheaper model by Panda worked better than this one. If you are on a budget, I'd recommend that one.

...but it crapped out after fewer than 6 months. I bought this for my children's old desktop PC so they could connect wirelessly to the home network. It worked great for several months, the speed was fine and the connection pretty steady. However, it stopped working completely and without warning about 5 months in. Bought them a new PC that had a wireless adapter built-in. Much better.

Of course this is an inexpensive item, but I spent twice as much as necessary to get 300 Mbps. This adapter is about half the speed of my cell phone's adapter and considerably less than than half the speed of the 150 Mbps built-in adapter of the laptop I bought it for. I tried both the Panda driver and the built in Windows driver.

UPDATE: With the latest driver from the Panda website and a tweak or two from their support, the Panda is now slightly faster than the built-in adapter. I suppose that's pretty good because the very helpful Panda support technician said that the built-in adapter has a big antenna.

I am using Windows 8.1, and while it does say it is plug and play I still downloaded and installed the drivers before I plugged it in, based on suggestions from other Amazon reviewers. This resulted in it detecting and setting up my wifi without any hassle. However, I am getting network speeds of about 35 mbps on my home network, trying to transfer files from my NAS in the next room, ~12 feet away with a strong signal.

I bought this to avoid resorting to needing to walk back and forth with a flash drive all the time, but I was expecting performance at or near the 300 mbps claim and I am not getting anywhere near it. I originally plugged it into a USB 2.0 port and saw improvement when I switched to a USB 3.0 port, but not nearly the improvement necessary to be satisfied with my purchase. I have used a TP-Link 300mbps USB adapter in the past and it performed to my expectations, I should have spent the few extra bucks and gone with them instead.

I had high opes for this product but I am disappointed in it's performance and the annoyance trying to get it working. First off, the micro cd with the drivers on it will not even go into my pc because I have a tower with a vertical drive. the disc falls out before I can close the door and I fear it would get stuck in there anyway. I tried leaning my drive on it's side and it still did not work. I do not know how I am supposed to download the drivers to get this thing to work online, when I cannot get online in the first place because I can't get the drivers from the disc either.

When I first plugged this item in, it worked for a few days seemingly fine. I turned my PC off for a few days, turned it on, and now it is not working. Nothing I have tried is working. I used an old wi-fi adapter I had (which still works) to download the drivers on the official website and I installed it, didn't work. Restarted and it still didn't work. I don't know what else to do and it would be nice if they would send you a normal sized cd-rom which works in all dvd drives out there. the mini cd is rarely used, cheap and not ideal for all users. Disappointing and I will look for another adapter elsewhere because this isn't the answer.

I can't go too deep into the ins-and-outs of different USB adapters. I purchased this adapter as an afterthought with my desktop PC and I've already put out for a wireless card. I've always been able to connect to our home router on the other side of the house with every device I've ever owned, from my laptop to my game consoles to my handhelds, but this adapter barely manages a passable connection with my main modem's wi-fi and wouldn't achieve more than a Limited (no internet access) connection to the Belkin router at the same range (this being the normally-superior connection option). I finally found a workaround in a program called a Virtual Router--by running this off of my laptop, I was able to use my laptop's wi-fi as a secondary router, basically bridging the wireless connection: my laptop's superior adapter picks it up, and then re-transmits the signal at a range the Panda has no trouble using it from.

So the primary weakness appears to be range, but I'd also like to mention that the Panda runs pretty dang hot, most particularly when extended downloads are in play. At one point I set it to download a Steam game and went to sleep; when I woke up I found the game had only partially downloaded and the adapter was registering as an unrecognized USB device, presumably a heat-induced malfunction.

As a budget wireless adapter for limited connectivity time--say if you want to use it at the coffee shop or in college class for lightweight wi-fi--it's not a totally bad option. One thing I noticed was that I got better performance out of the Panda after going into Device Manager, selecting "uninstall" on the Panda USB drive, and then putting in the installation mini-CD and installing the drivers from there (and ONLY the drivers--Windows 8.1 comes with more than sufficient wireless internet management, and I've heard the Panda software isn't very good).

For a desktop or for more connection-intensive activities such as long downloads or video livestreaming, I would definitely recommend something a little more "hardcore."

As a side note, don't be too dazzled by that 300-megabits-per-second connectivity. First of all, that is not the same as a megaBYTE (which would be written all in capital letters: MBps as opposed to Mbps). Second of all, that only applies to the connection to your router. Make sure to check what sort of connection you can achieve in your desired network before putting out for a higher-end or higher-performing adapter. It might be handy as a "just in case" but if you're not capable of achieving the best connection to your router in the first place, getting an adapter that can achieve a higher connection mostly amounts to untapped potential in the end. Just a thing to keep in mind if you're shopping for cheap, efficient hardware rather than top-of-the-line stuff. Always be conscious of your needs versus the hardware's capabilities.

Would not recommend this at all. I tried multiple times to get the drivers to install but despite my efforts my computer would not recognize the adapter. I tried to reboot to see if that solved the problem and my system would not boot, it was tuck on the window loading screen. I unplugged the adapter and it then booted no problem so there was clearly some issue here. I have to say that amazon was fantastic on helping me with a return though. But yeah, would NOT recommend this one, at least not on Windows XP.

After 2 months of use with Windows 10, my internet connection is null. Windows tells me that it is connected to the router but there is no internet; 3 other devices are connected to the router with no internet issues. Multiple router resets and driver re-installations later, still no internet connection. Windows cannot pin down the issue, nothing has been done to the adapter, it's been in the same USB port the entire time. Windows recognizes that it's there but it cannot connect to the interwebs. The last Panda USB adapter I bought failed right out of the box, so I'm giving up on this one altogether. I won't be purchasing any more Panda adapters in the future.

Slow. Obstructions drastically effect signal strength. At 18 feet away from the router and with 2 walls obstructing LOS, it pulled an average of 10 mbps.Switched out this adapter for the 2007 Linksys adapter it was replacing for a comparison, and the Linksys pulled 55mbps.Ran about 30 speed tests over the course of 4 hours, while using 3 different USB ports at varying locations of my desk. Results ranged anywhere from 0.50 to 22 mbps.This adapter fluctuates far too much. Far to finicky and the slightest obstructions effect it too greatly.I'm running Windows 10 on a desktop, adapter driver being used was 5.1.22.0Product is probably worth 3 stars because it actually works and seems pretty hassle free, however seller will not accept returns...

Was using it with my laptop, which naturally means I wasn't always seating by a desk or another flat surface. One little accidental bump was enough for it to stop working after a week or so. I guess it was expected having the thing sticking out so far from edge of laptop.

Second one died after replacing the first one (company sent a replacement after the first unit stopped working after a month of use).Same problem: will work for a little while and then starts glitching and then completely goes out (pc or laptop says "usb device not recognized...device malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it."Drivers were reinstalled (after removing all of the virus software, a huge pain in the ass) and...nada.A sketchy piece of junk that only works for a short period of time.

This thing worked great - for a couple months. I rarely use the pc this is hooked into (it is in an out-of-the-way room in the house), but fired it up this morning only to find it the wireless adapter no longer functioning. I have tried it in all of my usb ports (eight different ones) with no luck at all. Even tried hooking it up to my work laptop with no luck there, either. Not happy with this AT ALL. Do NOT recommend.

I am using this device on a new Jaguar board. I updated the drivers from your site for Windows 10, and the device will not work. when I click on the software, the OS will restart and then hangs.

It got hot and no longer recognized by the PC (running WIN 10) every time the downloading speed went beyond ~3MB/s for a short period of time(~15mins). I had to restart the PC to make it work again. Works fine during normal web browsing sessions I tried two of them, both had the same symptom.

Honest review.

I usually do not write reviews on products, unless it is extremely good or extremely bad.

Unfortunately in this case this device proved to last for 22 days which prompted me to write a review. Had it lasted for at least 3 months, I would have thought it to be worth the money for what it's worth and not write a review at all.
It worked great for about 2 weeks. Then it started randomly shutting off on its own until it completely died. I've tried plugging it in to multiple USB ports, and do keep in mind that I am very familiar with networking. This device also has a habit to corrupt its driver on some USB ports, which you have to then use a different one.

When it worked it worked great, maybe this was just a bad pick in the straw. However, I will listen to my instincts again stay and way from non-mainstream brands. It will save you much more money in the long run. I'll be sticking to my regular investments of great quality but expensive products.

There is nothing plug and play about this. Wasn't easy to set up. After I did get it set up, I removed it from the usb slot to place it into a more accessible ubs slot. Had to reenter the wifi SSID which should have been previously saved either to the device or to the computer. Finally, after having the device work for a few minutes it completely failed to work.

I can't recommend this product for use with Win XP. I downloaded and installed the most recent drivers was not able to get any connection in XP Pro SP3. So, I tried installing it in an old PC running a copy of XP that had all XP updates to the support cutoff and found it worked intermittently for a while and then stopped making a connection altogether . I didn't try it on other OS's. After a day and a half of fiddling with it, I returned it for a refund. When a device like this is designed to work on virtually all OS's of the last 15 years, its bound to have problems.