TP-Link AX1800 PCI Express Adapter

I am very pleased with the performance of this AC1300 (Archer T6E). It thrashed the speed of my previous wifi card.There are two vital points to bear in mind before you start:1. Go to TP-Link’s website and download the appropriate driver file. In my case for W10, the driver file was:Archer T6E_V2_200508_Win10.zip.You will need to download this file on another computer if the current one has no internet access. Then copy this file to a USB drive and copy it to the current computer. I recommend creating a folder called “TPL” on the Desktop and putting the file in there. Then right click on the file and click on “Extract All”.2. The second point to bear in mind is that BOTH your antivirus and firewall must be temporarily disconnected otherwise the driver installation will fail!If you use Kaspersky or similar, you need to disable it first and then go to Windows Defender and also disable that. This is because as soon as you disable Kasperky (or Norton or McAfee etc), Windows Defender will automatically replace the main security system.I recommend searching for “TP-Link How to Manually Install Adapters on Windows 10” and follow the instructions.Also search for “Turn off Defender antivirus protection in Windows Security”.I installed the AC1300 and screwed on the 2 antennae and switched on the PC.As per the above instructions, I browsed to:“Archer T6E(EU)_V1&V2_200508_Win10” and clicked on “Update driver software”.I rebooted the PC and then reactivated Kaspersky’s antivirus and firewall.Finally, I entered the wifi code for my network and my internet was restored.*****You may find that, contrary to the generally accepted wisdom of using the 2.4MHz frequency when you have thick walls and floors, that you actually achieve a higher speed using the 5MHz band.Accepted wisdom:“2.4 GHz networks cover a substantially larger range than 5 GHz wireless networks. 5 GHz networks do not penetrate solid objects such as walls and floors nearly as well as do 2.4 GHz signals”.I switched from 2.4MHz to 5MHz and my second (wifi) PC, which is 2 floors below, went from 11Mbps to 46 Mbps, matching the speed of my first PC which is connected via ethernet cable! It’s worth a try...................................................................................................................................................................................................EDITNo 5GHz signal on Linux? Then change a router setting.I recently bought this dual-channel TP-Link AC1300 Wireless Dual Band PCI Express Wi-Fi Adapter for a desktop PC that sits two floors below my router.The PC was originally using Windows 10 and the 5GHz signal was much stronger then the 2.4MHz one.I then decided to replace W10 with Linux Mint 21.1 MATE. The Broadcom BCM4360 was recognised by Mint and the appropriate driver installed.So far, so good.I then found that only the much weaker 2.4MHz signal was available.I used the excellent Wifi Analyzer (open-source) app on my mobile phone and this registered nothing for the 5GHz band. In contrast the 2.4GHz showed a strong signal.I tried connecting to a “Hidden network” and creating a new network, all to no avail.Finally after much research, I discovered that the Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03) does not see 5GHz networks with a high channel number.See confirmed bug #1574196 at Launchpad.To rectify this, it is necessary to login to the router and change the channel for the 5GHz to a lower one.In my ASUS router I went to Advanced Settings > Wireless > Wireless General > select 5GHz band.Then clicked on Control Channel and reduced the figure from 140 maximum to say 36.Clicked on Apply and logged out.The Wifi Analyzer immediately picked up a very strong signal from the 5GHz.All is now well using Linux.

This TP-Link AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 Dual Antennas High Gain Bluetooth 5.2 PCIe Adapter was easy to install and worked first time using drivers on supplied mini-CD.I'd been successfully using the USB 3 dongle version (Archer T4U) in my 2011 vintage PC, plugged into a USB 2 socket, for over 6 years. However, when I upgraded to full fibre I was losing potential speed using USB 2, so I plugged it into the USB 3 expansion card I had installed. This worked fine and gave the extra speed but with one issue. Every time the computer was woken up, the wifi dropped out for up to 30 seconds. I believe this was due to the USB 3 sockets being on an adapter card and not part of the motherboard provision. Installing this internal wireless card solved the problem - it's active as soon as the computer is woken up and the speed is available too.In addition, this has also added bluetooth to my system. Activating this requires connecting the supplied lead from the card to an internal USB header on the motherboard - which I was surprised to find existed on my PC.Highly recommended.

Installation of the card was simple like any other expansion card, my experience is based on Windows 10 so software issues may not be an issue on newer versions.Straight out of the box the card was detected and installed with no issues and I was able to connect to my network, however every 15 minutes or so it would drop the connection and I would need to reboot the computer to get it reconnected.Checking the device manager I see that the driver windows installed was very out of date (2016) so I downloaded the newest software from the TP Links website, installed the updated driver and I have had no issues since.Updating drivers should be done anyway but I know some people sometimes forget so if you have this card and are having connection drop issues, try updating.Other than that the ecard has been fast and reliable.

I have only known Netgear PCI cards and USB dongles and had to replace my USB dongle(Netgear WG111 as it was broken. I read several good reviews about the TP-Link but was very reluctant to buy .Netgear and Belkin were the only two names that came to my mind. However after reading the several favourable reviews put out here by many before me, I took the plunge. Installation of the PCI express card was a breeze and I was able to notice very good speeds (download speeds of 10-13 mbps.I have 2 PC's , one on the same floor of the SKY router(this uses the TP link card I got now) and the other on the floor above(uses a Netgear WG-311 PCI card). Both have reported similar speeds and I am very pleased. (Note:PC on the same floor as the router has the rear of the PC up against a hard wall, and still there is NO drop in signal strength)Very strangely the PC on the floor above the router uses the Netgear-WG311T card had a very good speed boost just by using the TP-LINK wireless client utility (CD Supplied ) - instead of the Netgear one .I am guessing the TP-LINK client utility by itself is much more advanced piece of software kit.I would most gladly recommend this card as it is very good value for money and the signal strength is rock stable at different times of the day. My system config are as followso/s - Windows XP Professional SP3 on both PC'sRouter - SKY Sagem (the black colour one)Signal Strength : 15mbps ( as shown in the SKY router admin).1st PC: Dell Vostro 200 with Intel Dual processor2nd PC: AMD Phenom 4 - quad core processor