Edimax EW-7711UAN 11n 150mbs Wireless High Gain USB Adapter
Posted by Notcot on May 25, 2010 in Peripherals & Accessories |
Product Description
EW-7711UAn is a high-gain wireless USB adapter which provides a simple and easy way to add or upgrade wireless connectivity to your desktop or notebook computer. This nLITE high-gain USB adapter supports higher data rate up to 150Mpbs when connecting with wireless 802.11n device. You can just plug it into computer’s USB port and enjoy incredible high-speed wireless network access. EW-7711UAn complies with wireless 802.11b/g standards. With built-in with the latest wireless technology, EW-7711UAn can increas…
Tested on?
Compaq C700 Presario note book PC (with inbuilt Wi-Fi turned off)
What does it do? What’s it for?
USB dongle for PCs/Macs that don’t have inbuilt Wi-Fi to connect to wireless networks.
What’s in the box?
· Installation CD.
· USB extension cable with an USB desktop mount/stand (primarily needed for a desktop PC).
· USB Wi-Fi dongle with short aerial.
Installation:
Turned off Wi-Fi on my notebook PC and installed dongle into a USB port. Found New Hardware wizard prompted me for the installation CD with drivers. Inserted CD and followed the prompts. Software couldn’t find the driver, so not so easy after all. While I was wondering what to do next, eventually an Ezimax install wizard from the CD started and installation proceeded.
A user manual and quick guide are provided on the CD.
Use:
Scanning for Wi-Fi networks located far more than my inbuilt equipment. Located my network and added my network key and quickly connected. A wireless utility shows network strength, status and signal strength.
Even though I was connected to my network, initially there was no internet access; no e-mail or web browser. A reboot fixed that issue.
Web browsing and e-mail work normally and the signal seems robust. Taking my notebook PC outside wasn’t an issue and the signal remained strong and robust.
Uninstallation.
Even though this is a good piece of kit, I didn’t really need it on my notebook PC. From control panel I was able to identify the Edi Wireless LAN software and click uninstall. Windows security checked I really wanted to do this and an uninstall wizard did the rest. A reboot was required afterwards.
Conclusions.
Fit for purpose, easy to use and seems to have better reception than inbuilt Wi-Fi LAN cards. Recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
I buy alot of these, I install them on customers computers and use one at home too. They are still the best. Robust, reliable connection, and useful for low signal situations, eg where the router is a distance from the target machine. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
The Edimax is of a higher quality than I’d originally expected; in fact it is quite impressive. The adaptor itself is completely contained within the USB stick and aerial so there’s nothing else to clutter your desk or carry around. However, it is also supplied with a smart extender unit which you can place up to 1 metre from your computer to extend the range of the adaptor. Both are made of `iPod white’ coloured plastic.
I have been using the Edimax adaptor with a one year old laptop computer which is running on Windows Vista, and a Netgear DG834N router. The laptop has it’s own built in wifi too which has allowed me to compare the Edimax against it. Installation was fairly simple following the supplied software cd, and in my viewthe Edimax software is actually better than the standard networking software as supplied with Windows Vista. It gives a far better idea of what’s actually happening with your network than Vista does and for that reason I’d recommend installing the Edimax software too.
As far as increased range goes I found that it wasn’t massively better (when connected straight into the laptop) than the built in equipment in terms of detecting the signal. The difference does come in making the most of that signal though, which is where the Edimax shines as it maintains a better transfer rate than normally achieved when the signal is weak. It is certainly far better than the other USB adaptors I’ve tried in terms of performance and also in terms of appearance.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is a really well priced adapter especially giving an older Apple Mac wireless capability or indeed upgrading beyond older Airport wireless cards to operate with more modern wireless routers with higher WPA/WPA2 encryption.
I use it wlth a 2001 vintage iMac G4 which only has USB 1.1 – but don’t expect it to be as fast as with USB 2.0.
The only downside is that there is no accompanying literature to help with the install – it’s all on the CD, see ‘Driver-Utility for Mac’, open the dmg disk image and select your version of Mac OS X.
However if you have 10.4 Tiger, beware the driver on the disk doesn’t work and you need to download: USB RT2870 version from http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Macintosh.html
Find USBWirelessUtility in your Applications folder and run it before plugging the adapter into your USB.
Set-up is fairly automatic – just go to ‘Site Survey’, to select your router, then ‘Add Profile’, and then enter your WEP/WPA key under ‘Authentification & Security’.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is a nice little USB wi-fi adaptor capable of doing b/g/n favours of wifi. It comes with an extension USB lead that can sit on a flat surface so the adaptor can be placed at an optimal position away from your computer. The antenna itself can twist 180 degrees and bend 90 degrees.
I got this adaptor mainly because it said high-gain on it. On that front it’s not bad so far. My wifi router is in the loft (3rd storey), and I get a constant 70% signal on the ground floor. I haven’t tried venturing out into the garden with it yet (it’s rather cold outside). However in practice, this is only a slight improvement to the built-in wifi on my laptop, which usually gets a good, albeit fluctuating signal on the ground floor.
It’s lost a star cos it took me about an hour to get it set up and connect to my network. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the “connect” button to show up, nor would the textbox show up to let me enter the encryption key. In the end a reboot solved it – the software didn’t tell me to reboot, nor did the instruction say reboot after install. Maybe I just missed it, but maybe not.
Rating: 4 / 5