24.12.2012

Nothing much to say about this product: this is decent and gives the impression of a well-built product (and I have experience with computer hardware of 15 years).I moved to a bigger place with two floors and needed a reasonably-priced N card, and--despite being a Wifi sceptic--decided to give it a chance.The reception, considering the best possible position of the router, was full with Win7 reporting the signal is either 'Good' or 'Excellent'. However--and this is the same problem with laptops I have--the speed and reliability was not even close to the one I was able to have using a good Cat5e/6 or even cat 5 cable: especially when I was working on files directly on my NAS.My criticisms,therefore, is not on the product itself but on the move most places (including academic institutions) are making these days towards Wifi (setting aside the questionable and potential health issues: hopefully this is not like the case of asbestos). For instance, in my local NHS hospital, with strong links to the local university, each floor has Wifi routers to provide EDURoam services--despite the concerns which have been made about WiFi in Canada (for instance)Buying a 20m+ of shielded Cat5e (either STP or FTP; not UTP) for c.8£ and placing it discreetly between the floors (using an old in-wall tunnel), obviously gave more value-for-money than this--or for that matter--any Wifi 'n' card. This is obviously my humble opinion. In addition, in many newer flats Cat5e cables (perhaps only in the US) are already installed as telephone lines, and all is needed--in most cases--is just to replace the phone jack (RJ11, lots of info on youtube on this) with an RJ45.The reason why I gave it 4 stars, rather than 5, is because Amazon's description says (as to 24/12/12) 'TPLink TLWN881ND Wireless N300 PCI Express Adapter ships with both full height and low profile brackets TLWN881ND Networks Wireless Adapters'. Well, I didn't get mine which was quite disappointing when I wanted to reuse the card for a home-built streamer in the living room, which is across the room from the Wifi router. The issue was reported by one of the reviewers of this product, and Amazon seem to have resolved the issue for him: but this is not amazon's fault, because the product's box was factory sealed.EDIT: I needed after-sale service, because I needed an LP back plate, which TP-Link's website says the device should come with--my card didn't come with it (the package was factory sealed). However, I e-mailed TP-Link UK, and received the part I needed (even for a card which wasn't supposed to come with it). I give the product 5 stars (over my original 4) as a gratitude to the after-sale service of TP-Link UK. I should definitely prefer their products, where possible.

2.8.2020

I'm an Avid PC builder and gamer so I encourage people to use a direct wire, however when building office based systems or workstations people want the flexibility of WiFi, and there isn't anything wrong with that of course, better to have the option and not use it than not have it at all.So, what do I think of the TP-LINK 300mbps unit? They're pretty bare bones packages of course, at this price point. I use them quite frequently in my cheaper builds as they provide pretty basic wifi for most essential needs.Wireless N operates on "300mbps" theoretical bandwidth, however in the real world its usually around half that, at about 150mbps, this is equal to a download rate of around 17/MBs,

15.3.2019

This review is for the TL-WN881ND 300Mbps model. I've had this Wi-Fi card for over 18 months now, so I thought I'd leave a review.I use this on a PC that sits on the other side of the house from the router. I also previously used it on a server. It comes with two small antennas, and while you might find these adequate, I find that the signal strength benefited from a larger aftermarket antenna. Reliability has been absolutely flawless. I get very heavy use out of this, so I'd notice if there were any reliability issues, but there have been none. I've never seen the connection dropping out.Operating system support is excellent. It works perfectly fine with Windows 10, no issues there.

1.7.2013

Once I finally got this card working I have no complaints at all, it's fast and works well.At first try on Windows 7 64-bit while everything installed without complaint I could not get it to work at all. Windows diagnostics just kept saying "problem with driver". As I have ZoneAlarm installed I thought that the antivirus may be preventing some parts of the install. So if you buy this card and can't get it to install properly, remove the software and driver through Add/ Remove Programs, reboot into Safe Mode with Networking (keep pressing "F8" while your PC is booting up) and install it from the disk as normal. This should work as your antivirus shouldn't be running in safe mode.Another niggle is with the included software.

4.8.2014

Due to being connected to an antique clockwork telephone exchange, I remained "cabled" for everything for years in order to maximise my speed as far as possible. As more and more gadgets relying on wi-fi have crept into my household, I thought it would be sensible to "bite the bullet" so I revisited my network. This incredibly simple to instal PCI card with seamlessly effective installation software has actually increased the download speed of the recipient desktop computer by an easy 50% which surprised the life out of me.Its secondary benefit is in providing software which allows you to use it as a "repeater/booster/access gateway" (call it what you will) and it works!

23.3.2013

I brought this wireless card for my desktop pc as it is in my room and i would rather not have a 20 meter Ethernet cable going through my house like my brother does, this card sorts everything out from running on Windows and Linux operating systems, it provides a fast connection and a good signal range. This card will give you the connection that your Internet hub would give you on a cable.The are at least three problems however, the first one is that if you have a small case then the bracket may not fit, you will need a available pcie slot to connect the card to and the last problem is that if you move your case a lot to new locations then it is safer to take the antenna's out but the you risk losing them like i did,

16.6.2012

I first bought this product from Amazon a couple of years ago when I was using a home built computer runing Windows XP. I was impressed with the speed and reliability and so was the guy who bought the system from me, when I decided to upgrade.Now I have an even faster, computer running Windows 7. I did wonder how the TP Link Adapter would integrate with the latest solid state drives and Intel i5 processor running at 4mhz ... ... I needn't have worried. This is a really excellent product!Coupled with a decent Wireless "N" MIMO router this Adapter runs like a scalded cat, and ... it's compatible with most Windows operating systems ... and it's easy to install ... and it's a bargain at the price !!One word of caution,

4.1.2013

I have been using a USB wireless adapter (a 150 Mbps "N" Ralink, which is a very good product and has served me well). However, I recently upgraded to BT Infinity, and I suspected that my broadband speed was being limited by the fact that my wireless adapter was restricted by the USB 2.0 speed, rather than the adapter itself. If I connected my computer to the BT hub/router I was getting around 70 Mbps, but via the USB wireless adapter it was reducing to around 40-45 Mbps. So I purchased this PCI card network adapter so as to eliminate the limitations of the USB connection. Well my suspicions were correct. Having installed the card, I am now getting around 65-70 Mbps. The card itself was extremely easy to install.

30.10.2014

I required a slim and fast PCI adapter to fit my custom built computer. I was easy to fit into the PCI slot and was identified by both of my duel boot operating systems (Windows 7 & Linux Mint) without requiring any installation. An installation disk was provided just in case. In term of speed - my household router offers 2 channels - 2G and 5G. My computer is the only one in a house of 9 computers which can pick up the 5G signal from upstairs so with this wireless device I get a whole channel to myself. If I was out of range of the 5G signal then the duel band offer the option of logging on to the 2G channel (as it travels further) as well.To summarise - this is a great device - suited to both Linux Mint,

12.9.2013

Only 3 stars as after a PC reboot and programme dialogue box stays open on screen and displays which items are connected on either the 2.4 or 5 GHz channels etc which is all fine and dandy HOWEVER my wireless keyboard and mouse got jumpy around the same time as the install and whilst typing etc it would simply stop, beep and disappear so you had to re-click the cursor where it stopped, all very annoying so I purchased a new keyboard and mouse but alas it made no difference. Then I thought I would see what happened if I closed down the dialogue box completely and voila no quirkiness since so the adapter's open dialogue box is definitely to blame - easy to solve but it should not have happened,

4.1.2013

Fantastic product. I used to have concerns that i'd lose out on a lot of speed over wireless, or that it'd be too unstable for the time sensitive applications such as online gaming. I can safely say that neither of these are a concern. With the help of the supplied software, it even allows you to turn it into a hotspot while simultaneously allowing you to continue accessing your network as normal through it, and thus extending your network range is extremely easy.I was wary of using TP-Link being that they were a brand i hadn't heard of before. Having trouble with a Zyxel router some months ago had put me off using brands other than Belkin, but once i found this card to be stable,

8.6.2014

Like many people I worry about buying the wrong thing. For WiFi adapters this is particularly relevant given the mass of options you can get. Yet I would highly recommend this product, as:- Easy to put it in (two metal brackets so it can fit in both normal and slim PC)- Easy to install software (it tells you just what % signal you are receiving - so you can tell if you need to change antennas)- Uses standard antennas - easy to replace for bigger ones (if you need).Important to note: it has two antennas but is not dual band. However not many routers (i.e. people) can actually make use of this feature. So this not having it is good as it helps make it really cheap. For those worrying about the speed of this device (i.e.

1.12.2015

I used to have a lot of latency drops issue while gaming as I was running my Wi-Fion 2.4 Ghz. This frequency often gets interrupted by other neighbours in a densecommunity but also by many appliances like microwaves.With 5 GHz the signal is stronger and has more channels so there is less dropsin latency. With stronger singal the radius is however smaller thus the signal might be weaker if youhave your router too far away with obstacles between (like walls). I personally had have had no issuesgetting 4/5 bars on first floor (the router is on the ground floor).Very well worth it if u can run 5Ghz on your router and have latency issues while gaming.If I was not into gaming I would stick to 2.4ghz

12.9.2012

Finally needed to get wireless accessibility for my desktop, and eventually settled on this card. It works great, though the bundled software seems redundant on windows 7 and had a habit of popping up a networking window on startup. Uninstalling the software made no difference to the card's performance, so I'd suggest ignoring it if your automatically installed drivers work fine.I've had no disconnects, and the signal is reasonable. Can't promise that it will work at all ranges or anything, but it's giving me strong signal through a partition wall in my flat and I can game and stream video just fine. The only tricky part was squeezing it into the case,

15.5.2012

Bought this a week ago to replace the HUGE Belkin Virgin dongle that was in itself a great little worker. I just wanted to free up a USB port on the front of the tower and maybe get a few more bars on the old signal strength.It went in a treat, I run Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and it recognised the card with no initial problems. It did drop in and out quite frequently on the first day, losing signal for a few seconds then finding it again so I went to the TP website and downloaded the driver again just to be sure. After that and uptil the posting of this review it has been flawless.USB port freed, signal strength a constant 2 bars and tower unit able to be brought up the front of the cabinet,

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