ASUS USB-AC55 Dual-Band Wireless-AC1300 USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter

Pros: None

Cons: Could not get the AC55 adapter to work reliably with my windows 10 desktop. Tried the latest driver off of ASUS website and manufacturer drivers. It would constantly drop connections and when downloading or streaming it would cause a blue screen due to a bad pool header. Honestly save yourself the frustration and find another wifi adapter.

Pros: - Great performance; low latency and high bandwidth - Easy to install/setup - Very low price, especially when there is a rebate

Cons: No cons!

Overall Review: I was leery from the other reviews but with a rebate, the item was too good to pass up. On Windows 10, the set up is truly plug-n-play. I plugged this into an available USB 3.0 port and Windows downloaded the drivers automatically. I'm connecting to a Netgear X4 wireless router and this reports a solid 866mbs connection speed even three rooms away where my internal PCIe card on the same PC could barely muster 384mbs prior with periodic drops and high latency (200ms on occasion) For internet and gaming, I have 250mbs cable and on Speed Test website, this unit pegs 12ms latency and full 250mbs cable speed every time. I have gamed for hours on end, transferred large/multi-gigabyte files over Home Networking in Windows and all run fast, solid and 100% reliable. I have not had one second of lag, no drop-outs and zero hassles.

Pros: Works flawlessly with my Asus router

Cons: utility continues to autoload at bootup. Unnecessary utility.

Pros: Affordable. ASUS name.

Cons: Powers off after an hour and absolutely REFUSES to reinitialize on usb 2, or 3 until I unplug it, wait a minute, then plug it into a completely different port. Tried 2 desktops, a tablet, a laptop, and 3 servers, all the same thing, so it's not the local config. I expected more out of ASUS networking from products I use of theirs, this one seems to be the black sheep of the bunch. Time to go back to Intel wireless.

Pros: Removal wi-fi module that can but inserted directly into PC for added convenience.

Cons: - Seems unable to utilize USB 3.0 protocol on the X99 platform even with all provided drivers installed. - Irremovable USB 3.0 cable from dock should have been longer (AT LEAST 6 feet)

Overall Review: - Core i7-5820K (Same results whether at default or overclocked) - Corsair Hydro Series H105 CPU Cooler - ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer - Gigabyte GV-N980WF3OC-4GD Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GPU - Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD - Cooler Master V1000 PSU - Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (64-Bit) - Fractal Design Define Mini Chassis

Pros: - Solid connection (once the correct drivers are installed) - Fast 2.4GHz

Cons: - Terrible driver support. ( See solution below) - 5GHz band unusable with Asus drivers.

Overall Review: Tried everything to get Asus drivers to work, but nothing seems to result in a stable connection. The 5 GHz band would cut out for minutes at a time and only connect for mere seconds. Did some research and found another review on Newegg (for the AC56) where the reviewer installed a driver based on the chipset. Since the chipset for this adapter is different, a little more searching revealed that this adapter is based on the Mediatek chipset. I used drivers based on the MT7612U Mediatek chipset and have had a solid connection since. The 5 GHz now works flawlessly. I average around 22MB/s to 35MB/s in a fairly crowded area. I'm not able to provide links to other sites as per Newegg rules, but searching "MT7612U driver" should bring back a link to the driver. The driver version installed should be 5.1.20 WHQL, released on Jan 9, 2015. It will show up in the device manager as MediaTek, Inc. with a driver date of 12/08/14.

Pros: Packaged with a USB extension base/holder.

Cons: -Drops packets like crazy. -Drivers are REALLY bad. -Install with latest drivers does not fix the problem.

Overall Review: I'd rather get a straight up refund or be swapped to a PCIe WiFI card that isn't terrible. I ended up switching to a Buffalo USB adapter that has been amazing while my ASUS literally just collects dust on my desk.

Pros: I am usually satisfied with Asus products

Cons: I just mounted a new computer with an Asus Z87-Pro V Edition motherboard that lacks Wi-Fi. Since I have a tri-band AC router I looked at all the USB AC Adapters and was surprised that none allows a higher speed that the 866Mbps on the AC band (the remaining 400Mbps to reach the 1300Mbps announced by the manufacturer is on the N band). This one is USB3 and the same manufacturer as my motherboard so I figured I would get the best possible compatibility. As I plugged it in it was immediately recognized but couldn't join any wireless network, the device reboots when trying to join a network. I immediately went back to Ethernet, went onto Asus website to get the latest Windows 10 64bit drivers, none is available as they state that the drivers are built in Windows 10. I then proceeded to calling Asus customer service, they are very patronizing and asked many questions that are not even remotely related to the issue, eventually after 20 minutes on the phone, they put me on hold only to tell me when they resume the phone call that this device is not compatible with Windows 10 and to check the website regularly. I then asked when to expect the drivers to be developed for Windows 10 and was told "I believe the support team to work on that but we have no idea as to when it will be compatible.

Overall Review: Out of curiosity, I tried this device on a Windows 8.1 laptop. It is compatible, however the performances are bad, despite working on a USB 3 plug. The stock wireless N adapter of the laptop outperforms this Asus product. I am very disappointed and now have to return that one and search for a better adapter that is Windows 10 compatible...