20 Best Wifi Cards For Laptops (2023 Updated)

I bought this product 12/20/2018 after I upgraded my internet to at&t fiber optics internet getting upwards for 300-400mbps. I usually prefer wired but I had to opt into wireless due to apartment constructions.

Anyway, I bought this adapter due the it saying it supports 802. 11ac(5Ghz) which is required to get the full speed of 100+mbps, but instead I am stuck on 2. 4ghz. I’ve checked to make sure I have the correct drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled, and I’ve made set the protocol to only find 802.

11ac, but it will not find the network I’m trying to connect to. I’ve also tried other protocols such as 802. 11n to try to use 5ghz to no avail. In the end if this network adapter worked as advertised, I would rate this higher, but so far it has not worked properly for me.

I’ve recently bought a Netgear A6100 USB wifi adapter that currently gets me an average of 120-150mbps. I will say there maybe a chance I’ve installed it improperly or got unlucky and bought a bad batch.

Bought this for my Dell Inspiron i7559 to replace the stock Intel 3165 card that came in it. Performance over the local network is much better, much more reliable, with a lot less issues. Install is very simple in this laptop thanks to a single screw holding the bottom panel on and everything being exposed.

Only difficult was getting the antenna wires to clip onto the card as it requires more pressure than I was initially comfortable with. I saw lots of dropped connections with the 3165 before and all of my issues have been remedied with the 8160.

My only regret is buying this instead of the newer Intel 8165 card that supports MU-MIMO. For most people, this won’t be an issue as most people won’t have MU-MIMO on every device regardless so they won’t notice a difference, but for the people that are looking for the latest and greatest, go for the 8165.

I’ll be going that route and sticking this 8160 in a different laptop when I can. Otherwise, no disappointments with the 8160.

Easy install on HP 800 G2 mini. download the owner’s manual for instructions since there are several slots that look like they could hold this card, but only one fits. Remember to order the internal wire antenna – about $10 – for maximum range.

East 15 minute install.

This chip worked perfect, in and out. I replaced my Wireless I think AC3280 or something on those lines. Easy install; M. 2 slide, 2 antenna cables, and a screw. The speed is twice as what it was before and the communication is great.

I just popped it in, installed the driver I had copied to my C Drive prior to install, and presto. I haven’t benched the speeds, but it seems like its running twice as fast as before.

I’m sure this is more a problem with RealTek than with Asus, though I did – and continue to – have some issues, predominantly with drivers. I have an old Toshiba Satellite that has an embedded RealTek WiFi controller.

The chip is old enough that it doesn’t support anything more recent than the 802. 11n specification. Recent Windows 10 updates have rendered this embedded controller completely non-functional. The last RealTek drivers supporting this card were released 8 years ago.

In Windows 10, I’ve disabled the embedded controller in Device Manager (I cannot do that in BIOS). The RealTek drivers installed – sort of. The Asus adapter is recognized, yet it only supports 2. 4GHz networks in Windows.

(My wireless network has 2. 4GHz and 5GHz capability. ) In Ubuntu – yes, my machine dual-boots – the OS doesn’t even see the Asus adapter. Ironically, Ubuntu has no problem with connecting to my home 2.

4GHz network with the embedded controller. I spent an hour or two trying to get the Windows drivers figured out, and gave up in frustration. It seems as though the old RealTek driver and the new RealTek driver are fighting each other.

I have not tried to remove the embedded wireless controller – I’m not sure if that is even possible with an older Toshiba laptop, and it’s low on my priority list. I have wireless connectivity in Windows 10.

Could be better. What more can I say?.

Wow. I bought for my son an Asus gaming laptop for Christmas last year. He uses a wifi connection, and it’s been kind of okay until recently. It just stopped connecting to both 2. 4Ghz and 5Ghz access points, or it would connect and drop.

We have 100Mbps throughput with our internet provider, and he’d often get between 70-80Mbps when connected, but it was picky with access in different areas of our home. When his wifi connection started dying, I thought perhaps his internal wifi adapter was failing.

I was right. After researching different USB adapters, I settled on the TechKey adapter. One thing we weren’t very happy with was the USB stick came with the driver on a tiny CD. His laptop doesn’t have a CD drive, and without internet, it makes it a little complicated finding, downloading, and installing the driver.

I thought we should just plug it in and see if Windows 10 knows what driver to load. We plugged it in, and in about 15 seconds we had internet! OMG! We didn’t have to do anything. The best part is the throughput.

We went on a SpeedTest website and ran different tests throughout the house. Before, if he went upstairs, he’d often lose wifi. The router is downstairs, up by the ceiling to provide coverage upstairs as well.

All our devices work fine throughout the house, except his laptop–until now. Now, his throughput is crazy fast everywhere in the house, even the most remote locations. He gets anywhere from 85Mbps to 140 Mbps downstream and 6Mbps to 9Mbps upstream, which is outrageously fast! This little USB wifi adapter is fantastic for the price.

Fast and zippy and, best of all, it really is plug-and-play with Windows 10. Just plug it in and go! No messing around with any downloads or configuration. If you’re thinking of getting this, we very highly recommend it.

Thumbs up and five solid stars!.

Great little trinket; I needed internet on my PC, had no way of being able to hardwire in and so was in need to making Wifi available to my PC, went to Best Buy to ask about how to go about doing that, and this was one of I think three products that they sold that would do what I needed it to.

I believe this was the best/fastest option they had (something to do with the number after “AC” — “AC1200”), and IIRC it was the same price as a “lesser” option, so I just went with this one. It was the best ~$40 I had spent in a while! Does exactly what it’s meant to: provides Wifi to a PC that doesn’t otherwise have the ability to connect to Wifi.

I was using it to play online video games such as League of Legends and Warframe; no lag or DC issues that stemmed from this little magic-box that I know of! Best of all, IIRC, it’s basically “plug-and-play”, so you can just stick it into your PC’s USB port, run the wizard that opens right up for you, and wait the 15 seconds it takes to “set up” and you’re good to game! Definitely recommend this little thing.

I’m hardwired in now, permanently, but this thing is so little and such a lifesaver that I’ve just left it in the port so I don’t end up losing it, should I need it again someday!.

I bought this because I needed to connect to WiFi from my basement on an ancient PC that came with Windows Vista installed. Now it’s dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows 10 so I needed a beefy WiFi antenna that works on both Windows and Linux.

This one does the trick! Note, I did not try the Bluetooth part of the card. My PC is old enough not to have any open USB headers on the motherboard. It only has two and they’re both in use. On my phone the 5GHz signal in the same room as the PC is around -85db strength, and is almost completely unusable.

The 2. 4GHz signal hovers around -70db. This AC2100 adapter and external antenna can easily connect to either and stream video, etc. without issue. The old USB adapter I had been using could only see the 2.

4GHz signal and would periodically lose connection. This is a HUGE improvement. Installation was easy (although admittedly I never tried the Bluetooth feature as mentioned). After the card was inserted into the PCIE slot, I booted up the computer and after an extra-long boot Ubuntu came up fine, able to connect right away with no additional drivers needed.

I rebooted into Windows and the story was the same. I did not even try installing the drivers from the CD yet as it seems to be working fine without.

The card was in great shape and simply just works. Installed in an old dell inspiron 13z. WIN10 driver update required. Now using 5GHz wifi. Signal is strong and works well. Have not tried the bluetooth yet.

Good packaging by the seller. The included screwdriver, adapter and extra screws were a nice touch.

I installed this in a Toshiba Satellite S855-S5382. I got this because my university updated their network and suddenly the wifi was invisible to me. I figured might as well try replacing the card since my old realtek card was only single band and the ability to use 5GHz wifi was appealing.

It worked right away. I still went ahead and got the newest drivers from intel. I then noticed I didn’t even have the option for bluetooth, so I took my laptop apart again and put tape over pin 51 like everyone was saying to do.

Sure enough, worked like a charm. I’d already installed the newest bluetooth drivers so now everything works great.

Used two to replace the Wi-Fi cards in a Dell E6520 and Dell XPS15Z because the originals could not work correctly with new high speed router. Win10 recognized them but still had to get the latest driver from Intel for full functionality.

Also had to disable the separate Bluetooth in the E6520. Will eventually take that separate item out of the laptop, but disabling it in Device Manager works for now. Both 7260’s work great including the Bluetooth.

These are made in China. So were the original equipment ones in the Dell Laptops.

This little Wi-Fi adapter amazed me. I have bought many of these for myself and my customers. They are great and just works fine with Linux in particular PCLinuxOS. I was surprised with its range: Through walls I was seeing my neighbors Wi-Fi networks It is really wonderful that Plugable is explicit about about Linux support.

Other manufactures will change chipsets without changing model numbers (I’m looking at you, TP-LINK), so Linux support becomes luck of the draw.

Thanks to having my system built and running for a time before getting this, it was a 2 hour process to shutdown, unhook, open, unmount, detach, install and get it all back together. 20 minutes on the antennas alone.

Luckily the Crosshair VI Hero Wifi AC has that WifiGo module to install it in and once all that is done, pure gold. There is something about Intel networking that is better than any other.

the package has arrived safe. It contains plastic case with two small drivers. What I most surprised was this seller send a detailed manual with it. I can easily installed it owing to the manual. Strongly Recommend This Seller! :D.

I needed an 802. 11ac adapter for an older dual boot laptop that had been upgraded to an 802. 11ac internal broadband adapter. It had no drivers that were compatible with XP, so I shopped and found this adapter.

It plugged in and the drivers on the included mini CD were found by XP with no problem. I got just under 400 Mbps according to my wireless connection. This adapter solved the problem and I’d recommend it for anyone that needs an inexpensive 802.

11ac adapter.

Really fast wifi adapter. went from a G adapter 20mbps. to this ac and got 130mbps!!!!!!!!!! on speed test. this adapter allows you to watch 4k videos on youtube without buffering. i paid 50$ for the old wifi adapter years ago and paying 12$ for an adapter that was 110x faster is unbelievable.

My older PC had no built-in wireless adaptor on board. This was the cheapest and easiest wireless Internet adapter I could find. Plug it into a USB port. It practically sets itself up. I highly recommend it!.

The item came well protected, on-time and it works perfectly. I am very satisfied with the process and the price. There are no instructions with it or specs, but with the right YouTube video for my model of laptop, installiation was simple.

Also, it beats buying an external wi-fi adapter that would use one of my few ports on the laptop. Good job.

Fixed my Error Code in Three Minutes. My HP DV-14 laptop would not boot up due to an error code about the wireless card. Found a YouTube video that showed replacing the card in about two and one-half minutes.

i took a picture of my card (removed two outside screws in the back) and ordered one with all labeling and numbers the same except serial number. Must get HP version. Received the card, replaced in minutes, everything working great!.

My Toshiba laptop recognizes this wireless adapter but but doesn’t work. I’ve tried deleting and reinstalling the drivers and tried updated drivers. Still no luck. This wireless adapter is the exact one as the original one that came with my laptop.

I will need to return this for another one.

TranslateShow in original languageEste produto é de baixa qualidade avariam e perdem a conexão a rede no curto espaço de tempo já tive de comprar três .

I upgraded my internet package and then realized my Wi-Fi card had fallen behind. This card was easy to install in my tower pc and the added bonus was the ability to now add Bluetooth to my set up. My older card had no Bluetooth capability.

Easy instructions and simple set up. One change I made was to hook up the card and the Bluetooth cable at the same time while the pc was open. Instructions wanted you to install one, run the software and then install the other.

If you disconnect everything and open the box, you don’t want to hook up the Wi-Fi, plug in everything to install the software and then open it up again for the Bluetooth install. It’s much simpler my way.

And it worked fine. Speeds really jumped up. If your tower is under a desk, consider an extended antenna to replace the ones that screw directly onto the card so you can place the antenna in a more visible space.

My wife’s small form factor computer was using an older TP-LINK Archer wifi card that wasn’t quite working for her over the distances required. We swapped out to this and immediately found the signal stronger, faster and with increased stability.

Whilst our router isn’t Wifi 6, this wifi card is simply better at handling the regular wifi bands. For the price I think it’s a very solid option. NB: the guides don’t make it very clear, but for wifi you just need to plug the card in and download the drivers.

If you want to access the bluetooth functionality there’s an internal wire (included in the box) to connect. I’ve not bothered as I didn’t have a spare internal header and my wife won’t be using the bluetooth functionality.

I just thought it’s worth nothing if you’re purchasing for the bluetooth feature.

I bought this after moving into a new apartment and I had a wireless router already installed before moving in. There are no ethernet connections available currently and I was using a older usb 802. 11 g/ac adapter to connect to it.

After doing a few speed tests I can say that I am getting 4 times the speed with this card than the usb stick, around 300mbps down and about 280mbps up. Which is a limit from my isp not the wifi adapter.

I’m not doing any real heavy intensive online gaming at the moment so I am not worried so much about ping times, but I am getting them in the teens in case anyone is interested. The only drawback I would say is that you need the included cable to be used in order for bluetooth to work, so if you have lots of rgb fans you may need to unplug a few of them if you are planning to use the bluetooth functionally.

All in all I think its a great card especially for the price and I dont think you will regret picking this up if you are needing a very reliable wifi adapter for your pc.