NETGEAR - Nighthawk AC1900 Dual-Band WiFi USB 3.0 Adapter - Black

Netgear A7000 Wi-Fi connected to Netgear R7000P router: A7000 shuts down when connected to 5G Wi-Fi under heavy load. A7000 does not appear to exhibit similar behavior under 2.4G Wi-Fi. I believe this to be a result of thermal load as adapter is extremely HOT to the touch when event occurs. When this occurs, WPS (blue light) is inactive and adapter must be physically disconnected from magnetic cradle and reconnected to re-enable adapter. In other words, the adapter completely shuts down when the chipset reaches a certain thermal threshold. I wish I had a thermal probe as I could share idle temperature verses temperature at shut down. Moving on to the magnetic cradle: Although, the magnetic cradle appears to be an innovative concept, it must be one of the most fatuous implementations I have seen in a long time. The disclaimer that USB memory sticks, external hard drives, cellular phones, credit cards, etc., must be protected from the “strong” magnetic cradle is impractical. First, the cable is too short to adequately distance the device from everything else. The next option is to pull everything off the desk. The problem that most users will experience is it is our natural predisposition to drop our wallets, cellular phone, memory stick, etc., on our desks. I do not want to worry about this constantly. As a result, I carefully removed the thin rubber (layer) from the base and removed the three star-head screws. Therein, there are two dense dime-sized magnets accompanied by six strips of metal shims (3 each side if memory serves). I removed the magnets and fashioned paper shims to compensate for the vacancy of the magnets. Closed it up and it looks good as new. In addition, the weight is still appropriate to sustain the extended adapter. It is an interesting device but thermal shutdowns under heavy load connected to 5G is a significant issue. Design is a head-scratcher considering the list of electronic devices one must safeguard from the cradle. In addition, simply connecting the adapter to an available 3.1 USB connector may be impossible or impractical due to the dimension of the device and preferred signal strength. Although, I understand that most modern electronics, like our smartphones, are not going to be adversely affected by small magnets, I do not want to be the one whom tests the aforementioned devices to determine which devices are damaged, which devices lost data and which devices are unaffected. Notwithstanding, I recommend this product with caution.

Its an AC1900 wi-fi receiver where AC designates that it can process/receive 802.11ac signals using 5GHz technology. The 1900 designates the theoretical bandwidth it can process 1900 = 1900 Mbps, 3000 = 3000 Mbps, etc. So this receiver fits nicely in the middle range and for its cost is a decent deal. Also provides the ability to move from computer to computer. But I am left trying to grasp some of the design decisions (see quibbles below). In the box Wi-fi receiver Some warranty and warning info Base Install disk Pluses; It has foldout antenna to help with its range and speed. Has base to help position it for greatest reception. Easily installed and you can use the “default” windows driver(s) or use install disk. Check website for updates too. Using disk installs Netgear genie which provides visual representation of your network as well as connection info – network name, Mac, IPv4 and v6 addresses, channel, etc. Is pretty fast – running speedtest.org I was steadily in the 190 mbps download and 23 mbps upload range. I have an Orbi 3000 mesh router and was probably around 10 feet away when testing. Quibbles – all related to design; Why provide a base unit that has powerful magnets to hold it in place with no option to easily remove them? In the box is a disclaimer to not use around pretty much any commonly used data storage device – hard drive, SD cards, etc.. Thanks for that but it makes no sense to me! And it really only works if you have metal to attach it to anyway. Because wi-fi unit is so wide/thick it can cover other USB ports on your computer. I happen to have a USB 3.0 extension cable handy so I didn’t have to spend any more money to buy one. Base USB connection cable is decently long but WHY is it hard attached to the base? Why not have it removable so as to be able to use as an extension to connect to the wi-fi unit to computers? I did wind up keeping the unit as it does what I wanted it to do and was able to work around its design issues. I do think its fast for the money and would suggest it as long as know what you are getting into…

Purchased this for a Cybertron gaming PC that didn't have a built-in WiFi adapter installed. A disc with driver software was included, but since the gaming PC didn't have a suitable disc drive, I installed the software from Netgear's website onto a USB thumb drive using a different computer. Software installed quickly and easily and the WiFi adapter instantly recognized all the nearby signals. Couldn't have been any easier to setup. Downloading games was pretty quick, and the adapter has worked flawlessly since it was installed. The base (or docking station) for the device has a strong magnet in it, so it should be kept away from mechanical hard disk drives and anything else that might be affected by a magnetic field. It can attach to a metal computer case, but seems like a bad idea to me. Depends on where your hardware is installed inside the computer case in relation to where the magnet is attached on the outside of the case. Use caution. Software looked like it was designed for release with Windows 1.0 in 1985 which I thought was kind of unusual. Definitely "tool" software that's not intended to impress aesthetically, but that's intended to get the job done. I would buy again, and I recommend it for anyone who needs a WiFi adapter.

I needed a network adapter for my system since the built-in was failing and since I've had good luck with Netgear in the past, this one was a good candidate. Ran the install and plugged it in and was up and running, but not without a couple of problems first. First, it didn't like when I tried changing networks from 5G to 2.4G and back. It actually locked up my system's USB inputs until I removed and re-inserted it. A firmware update and disabling of a service was required to fix it and so far it hasn't come back. Time will tell. Second, it's BIG and the base that it comes with has an equally large magnet in it for some reason which limited where I wanted to set it, so it sits on my floor away from anything sensitive. Once I got it up and running, I noticed ti has really great reception, getting me over 300Meg of my Gig line through two floors and a wall. It also picked up a good number of networks that the other adapter didn't even see. So far latency has been good and speed-wise, it's a huge improvement. A little pricey when compared to the next "step down", but it does the job and does it well.

This adapter works very well IF you go through a couple of exercises that are not for those unaccustomed to working with more esoteric aspects of Windows. For me it did not work "out of the box." The device is USB 3.0 and you WILL need to have one of those ports open for it to operate. My USB 3.0 is after-market on an older machine and works fine once you disable a certain service in Windows. Once the particular service was disabled the computer finds the device assuming it is plugged into a USB 3.0 port, installs the drivers and it works great. This should have been corrected in the driver installation package, but it apparently was not and from what I read on line not everyone is affected in this manner. Do an online search on the adapter name and the disconnect problem and you will find instructions on the web. Again, not for rookies, but it works great once you jump through the hoops. Have not had a disconnect problem since. I would recommend, but with caveats!

For those of you doing over wireless file transfers and or online gaming, this is the card to get. I do large amounts of over wireless/network file transfers back and forth to my file server and I used to have a TP-Link T9UH AC1900 adapter but that did not have MIMO and I was only getting about 35mbps for file transfers. With this new Nighthawk wireless adapter I am getting 100mbps file transfers over wireless! That's a huge difference! And it's all because of the 3x4 MIMO that the Nighthawk A7000 has. BE AWARE, your router also has to support MIMO or you won't get the faster transfer speeds, I have a Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200 router so it has the MIMO (Single User or SU not Multiuser or MU which is the next gen AC). I also do lots of FPS online gaming and this does great for that. Overall I HIGHLY recommend this USB wireless adapter if you are looking to get the fastest wireless speeds.

Depending on the use you're looking at getting out of this if you're using it let's say with your laptop and a hotspot that you have through your cell service before you spend the money make sure you find out what the top speed is that the hotspot you're using can go to. Like mine I'm only able to squeeze out about 800 meg but normally it's setting at either 300 or 144 connection speed but I have seen it at 800 a couple times. If you're using it in your home and you have a really high speed router with wireless connection definitely hands down would be a good investment for the speed Improvement I've seen it still worth what I use it for with gaming. If you're just looking at browsing the internet I would go with one of the cheap ones that are $25 $30 but if you're doing any kind of streaming or gaming I would definitely spend the extra money for this it is well worth it.

Over the last couple years the number of 2.4Ghz access points visible on my Wi-Fi Analytics software has quadrupled !!!. I installed the A7000 on my XEON Workstation and moved the single band WNA3100 to the desktop. The Genie software is easy to use, but is a Pain under WIndows 10 . Genie brags in notifications every time the system returns from sleepy-sleep and is redundant. I recommend installing the driver ONLY if you understand how... The magnetic base is nice.. I have yet to add the dual band router, however the connection is better on 2.4. Wrong adaptor to plug directly INTO your USB 3.0 on a laptop. However, when we travel the internal 2.4 on the my laptop many times may NOT get a decent connection at the hotel. That base positioned for max signal will really help.