N300 Mini Size USB Wi-Fi Adapter

This works for a system that uses Peppermint OS 3 very well. I plugged it in and it ran. No need to install the drivers from the CD that came with this adapter. It gets a strong signal. It doesn't even get warm like my older adapters. It does not disconnect while using the Peppermint OS 3 system. I tried to load the drivers and wireless manager from the CD and it just kept freezing on the XP system so I just installed the drivers. Although, XP had drivers for a 300Mbps wireless adapter already to be used when I plugged this in. So maybe you don't need them with XP. I have been using it for a week. I have 2. One for my laptop and one for my Desktop and both run well on Peppermint OS 3. My Desktop is a dual boot Linux Peppermint and XP. Now I can use both and have faster downloads and uploads. I purchased this because I had a wireless adapter that kept getting disconnected when using the Peppermint OS 3 operating system. The XP system on the same machine used the adapter just fine but the Linux side didn't. I read that some adapters just didn't stay connected if using a Linux system and to try a kind that did. I saw a list of adapters that were reportedly operating well with Linux and one of them was the TP-Link brand. I had a 54 megabyte adapter before and thought I would try something with more capacity. Yes, it says 300 megabytes per second. I am not sure if it reaches that speed as the router that I have only goes to 150Mbps. (yeah, only, that is fast for my casual emails and YouTube, I am not a gamer.) I am in another room from the router and I am getting 144.5mbps and 3 out of 4 bars for connection. It works better than my old adapter and it works on my Linux system. I am using Peppermint 3 and a 2005 desktop computer with XP pro. I also use it on a 2003 Laptop running Peppermint 3 and it works great. I had to put a usb card into the side of the old Dell Inspiron 4150 to get USB2. Now I can use Linux with a fast USB wireless adapter. Nice! I recommend this adapter. The price is good and it is half the size of my old adapter. I am not as nervous like I was with my old adapter sticking out so far. This one is much shorter. And it works better. 5 stars for Linux users and Dual booters like me!

I bought this wireless adapter to make it function on OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite since my wireless card doesn't work anymore. Most of the review is my experience on my Mac. After opening the package, I noticed the adapter was fairly small (smaller than an average flash drive), it does come with an installation CD, and the box does say it's compatible with Windows, and no other Operating System's listed. The CD only contains installation for Windows XP - 8.1, but it does work on Windows 10. Mac OS X installation files ARE NOT on the CD. You must get the driver from TP-Links website, which is listed that it does work from 10.7 - 10.11. So yes, this does work with El Capitan but I have not tested that. You can get the files using another computer and transfer via flash drive or use an Ethernet cable on the Hackintosh, Mac Book, whatever you have and download it there. Website is [...] Installation was pretty easy, using a .pkg installer. Installed it, plugged in the WiFi adapter, restarted. Once it was restarted, the program started up, I connected to my home network using their utility that was installed, and boom I have a connection. The utility seemingly starts up with the Mac as well on boot so I don't have to keep turning it on. So far I have had no drops, no lingering lag, no real issues with the adapter. I was able to game just fine but of course it's wireless; wireless will have occasional lag spikes especially in an apartment complex where interference is very possible, which is beyond my control. I have speeds comparable to the Mini PCI-e Wireless adapter that is in the Mac originally. I am assuming people who had bad reviews with it was related to human error, whether it'd be intensive interference, large distance, or a bad network setup initially when router was installed by the tech which is perfectly possible. Also if the adapter gets a bit warm, this is normal. Windows users, it installs similarly with a .exe file if the CD doesn't work. TL;DR, I am very satisfied with this and recommend to Hackintosh (or normal Mac) users to buy this if they want wireless and don't want to go through the pain of modifying DSDT's or going through Apple's Customer service. Also works great on Windows.

This is a great little USB wireless adapter. I'm using it on Linux, which (as others have pointed out) comes with a broken driver for the adapter's wifi chipset (Realtek 8192CU). It runs TERRIBLY out of the box - low speeds, drops frequently, poor reception - but once you download and compile the modified Realtek driver from github, it runs like a champ. Excellent reception throughout my two story house and great speeds (144 mbps even upstairs from the router). Cons? Aside from the buggy Linux implementation, the adapter is a little flimsy feeling (but what do you expect for the price?). Also, although it's small (about the size of the end of my thumb), it's just long enough that I have to be careful with it when using my laptop on my lap (or anything besides a flat surface). If you don't need exceptional range and want to use it with a laptop that you cart places, I'd consider the nano adapter instead.

My internal wifi adapter went down a few weeks ago. Since I had a few projects to work on, I couldn't afford to take it to the Mac store and have it checked out and repaired. So I was content with using an ethernet cable in the meantime while at home. I finally had some time last week to take it to the Apple store and have it checked out and possibly repaired. Long story short, they eventually came to the conclusion that my logic board would need to be replaced and that would cost me about $900-1200 to get it replaced, and it would take about 3-5 business days. At that point, it almost makes sense to just buy a new Macbook. Saddened, by that news, I decided to try some cheap alternatives to get my wifi back on. So I checked out some USB wifi adapters, and found good reviews on this, but they were mostly Windows. It listed it was okay for Mac's, so I decided to give it a try and ordered one. After looking on their website, and here, I couldn't get it to work with my Mac. After a quick Google search, I found a driver you can download and install to have this work just perfectly on Mac. I have the latest update for the Mac OSX, so I was relieved to find this worked perfectly. And now I can go back around places and have my wifi working just fine. I like how small it is, but I would not recommend just leaving it in there while bringing the laptop around since it does protrude about an inch out. Since it does come with a cover, be sure not to lose that. I have yet to use the WPS button and connection to test if that works with Mac, since my router doesn't have one. This also comes with a mini cd which I would not use in my Macbook's cd drive or any cd drive for that matter, unless you have the kind that pops out. I would definitely recommend this for it's small and perfect travel size, and fast connections as well. The site for the Mac driver is listed below. [...] Just hit the download button on the top. Since this is for a Mac and the USB adapter chip is V3, that's the one you will need.

This is my second TP-LINK N300. I got the first one for my son's small bedroom upstairs. It was able to reach my wireless N home network in a snap, AND.. it had a strong connection considering the wireless router was downstairs and at the opposite end of our 2 story home. Small light came on to let me know it was connected. Plug and play with Windows 7 systems that we have. Small and didn't "stick out" when inserted in a desktop/tower PC. When our son and his wife moved in temporarily, we had to get a second one because my daughter in law, who was using it on her PC upstairs, physically broke it when she smashed her PC up against a wall when she was moving her PC around and the TP-LINK snapped that was attached to the back of the PC. TOTALLY NOT THE FAULT of this device! We liked it so much, we ordered (she ordered) a replacement for me ;-) My stepson/daughter in law use the TP-LINK for work, and my son when he's not grounded off the internet, uses it for gaming and streaming videos. This has worked flawlessly since we purchased the first one 2 years ago, the new one also works just as great. Highly recommended.

This little thing is awesome! It really, really works like mad. ** I get constant download speeds of 12Mbps+, which is close the the max of my internet bandwidth. - It's very cheap cost-wise for the great performance it gives you - It's small(ish), though it will look big connected to your laptop - Comes with a 3' USB extension cable which I definitely recommend using. It helps position the device, and keeps it from crowding your laptop or from being destroyed by being knocked out of your PC's front USB port. - Has a diffused green LED under the white plastic to let you know it's working, instead of the blinding blue LEDs that everyone uses these days. The light turns off when it's not powered (like when you hit Standby on your PC). NOTE: It's still annoying in a dark room when I'm trying to sleep, but a few post-it notes helps that. - The software is relatively simple to install and use, and allows you to use other products to manage your WiFi instead. - The current driver, software, and documents come on a mini CD and are all up to date with what's available on TP-Link's web site - The documentation is good, but it could use some more detail.

When I bought this adapter I decided not to heed the negative reviews, hoping that the problem was less frequent than reported. I was unfortunately in the wrong. Props to this adapter for being initially easy to install and having a fast connection speed, but it putters out after a few months of use. Perhaps I'm the one that has the problem, however, so I'll be detailed in my description of how I tried to diagnose and fix the problem in case anyone is thinking about buying this and better knows how to resolve the issue I had. A few months in my adapter would infrequently stop receiving a signal, leaving me without connection. I used safe eject to remove the device and re-plug it into the same USB slot. Problem solved for a time, but it would eventually have the same problem. I'd fix it the same way, but the loss of function became more and more frequent, until a few days ago it started working for 30 seconds before disconnecting again. I looked up the adapter in my device management window and found that it was reporting Windows Error 43, which in short means the driver or device itself had a problem and so the computer doesn't recognize the device at all. I tried many of the suggested methods found on support forums, including a simple reboot, uninstalling the device drivers and then putting the device back in, and finally powering down the computer, pulling all USB devices, booting up and reinserting all USB devices one by one to see if they were recognized. The fatal error is that the device's driver are actually onboard the adapter itself, so if the device is failing the driver is inaccessible via the device. It didn't matter which USB slot it was in, same problem, but my wireless keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, phone charger and mobile preamp all worked no matter where they were plugged in. Then I decided to test it on a different computer (the one I'm using to write this) and it didn't recognize the device. I downloaded the driver from the manufacturer's website, double checking that it was the correct device and OS, but when I went to install it the OS failed to recognize the adapter which was plugged in. After all of this it's clear to me that the device itself is faulty, and I'd strongly urge potential buyers to consider other options. I'm currently trying to start a local business and my lack of internet access has crippled the process. Don't skimp, buy something quality. TL;DR - After rigorous attempts to make this faulty device work, I just had to accept that it was junk.

Not sure what to think about this one. For the life of me it would not configure to my Time Warner wi-fi router. It would see 2 identical SSID names, so I tried them both, several times. After entering in the password, it chugged away for a couple of minutes, then said that I must have entered the wrong password. Not! I tried this several more times, and it gave me the same message. I tried the WPS - it did the same thing. I tried different USB ports on my Win7 - 64-bit laptop. I even uninstalled and tried again. I then went online and downloaded the latest software, which was July of 2013, a year old, and tried it. That didn't help. It would not configure to my router. The message about me entering the wrong password kept flashing on the screen. I would turn off the old wi-fi link, still no change. I was to the point of boxing it up and shipping it back when I noticed that my Wi-fi task bar icon now looked different. I checked it and it now showed 2 Wi-fi connections. The old one was off, and this new one was on and working correctly... with the error message still flashing on the screen. So it's working, but how it got there is beyond me. It somehow connected to the router, but still gave me the error message that it had not. It's working great now, showing proper upload and download speeds. Will see what happens in the next few days. I had to think really hard on how many stars I wanted to give it. I'm basing my rating on setup, since it is working OK. Five stars would be a no brainer, fast as light setup with no problems whatsoever. Four stars would be minor issues, but still getting it up and running fairly quickly. Three stars would be lots of hassle on my part with several issues to deal with before getting it up and running. Two stars would be lots of hassle, contacting the website, installing new software, receiving false error messages on the screen, and to the point of packing up and sending everything back. Sounds like 2 stars to me. But since it does work, I will give it one more star. So three it is. TP-Link engineers may need to re-qualify this one. As for me, I do have an IT background in hardware, software, programming, and support.