Netgear A6100 AC600 Dual Band Wifi USB Mini Adapter

If I could give it a 0 star I would I have had problems with this network adapter since taking it out the box. It quite literally breaks your computer (blue screen of death). There is so many problems with this network adapter on windows 10. It connects and disconnects every 2 minutes and sometimes doesn’t even show any networks available, also doesn’t come with a cd but wants you to go online to download the driver? Why do you think I bought this in the first place?? I would highly not recommend there is so many problems with this product!! Save your money and another brand!!!

DO NOT BUY

I have literally never left a review on anything before, but this absolute piece of garbage deserves to be talked about and consumers should be warned. This thing is AWFUL. It has constant issues with slow WiFi speeds or more often randomly disconnecting from the WiFi for 2-5 minutes or more at a time. Sometimes it’ll even just disconnect %26 then show no networks available at all. Have to reset my entire network on windows to fix it. This isn’t just my issue either, google is riddled with users having these issues and none of the solutions actually solve anything. This thing is GARBAGE. By far the worst product I’ve ever purchased. Even when it does work, it doesn’t perform at the speeds it advertises either. Awful product. I pray nobody else makes theMistake of ... MoreI have literally never left a review on anything before, but this absolute piece of garbage deserves to be talked about and consumers should be warned. This thing is AWFUL. It has constant issues with slow WiFi speeds or more often randomly disconnecting from the WiFi for 2-5 minutes or more at a time. Sometimes it’ll even just disconnect %26 then show no networks available at all. Have to reset my entire network on windows to fix it. This isn’t just my issue either, google is riddled with users having these issues and none of the solutions actually solve anything. This thing is GARBAGE. By far the worst product I’ve ever purchased. Even when it does work, it doesn’t perform at the speeds it advertises either. Awful product. I pray nobody else makes theMistake of buying this.

Frustrating Setup, Great Performance

I found the NETGEAR AC600 Dual Band WiFi USB Adapter (A6100) convenient for boosting WiFi on my older laptop, but the setup was frustrating. I had to use another device to get it connected to WiFi, and it took too long to figure out. While it offers great speeds on the 5GHz band, the range isn’t great, and the build is compact. Overall, it’s a good first option, but the setup process was a letdown.Rating: 7/10

Netgear USB WiFi

No higher than Windows 10! Windows 11 did not function with this at all, not at all, blue screen even.You have to get the drivers from the internet; I did not see anything that said it needed drivers, but you do need them prior to install, or you get nothing - no response in Windows 10.I did not like all the fussing with discovering it needed drivers; but once the drivers were installed, in Win 10, it did work very well. Don't try it in Win 11, you'll be sorry.

Not plug and play.

This item requires the installation of a driver to work. I was able to accomplish this by downloading the drivers on my android phone, transferring the files to a USB drive and plugging that drive into my computer. Since the majority of the population uses an iPhone, I can't guarantee this method will work for you. If your PC/Laptop has Bluetooth, you can try transferring the files from your phone to your computer that way. But honestly, unless you need this adapter immediately like I did, just go to Amazon, find a better, cheaper product with no required drivers, and buy it there. This product works well once I got it to work, (hence the 4 stars) but for $45, its just not worth the hassle.

Restored my internet connection reliability

Easy to install and get online however as others stated you must download the installation software from the internet in order to install. That can present an obstacle however once you overcome that I would say this adapter works flawlessly. I've had no issues since I started using it. One note: if your laptop has an internal WiFi card, I suggest disabling it (in Windows Device Manager) after you get up and running with this Netgear external adapter. My internal WiFi adapter was becoming unreliable thats why I bought the external Netgear adapter. Disabling my internal WiFi adapter prevented connection issues. I'm happy with my purchase because this adapter restored my internet connection reliability.

Why

Why, in God's name, would you make a wifi adapter that requires the user to download the driver? You realize, I bought this so that I could get online and that it stands to reason that I cannot get online without it. How would you suggest I download the driver software, genius? So I bought a flashdrive and now I'm at a friends house and do you know what I found when I clicked on the install instructions at your website for the AC600 adapter? It tells me to put the CD in the drive. Not a link to download the driver, but instead tells me to install the CD which, I'm sure you know, is not included with that adapter. It's like selling someone a car with an empty gas tank. It's no problem, just drive on over to the gas station and fill it up. That's what your tech ... MoreWhy, in God's name, would you make a wifi adapter that requires the user to download the driver? You realize, I bought this so that I could get online and that it stands to reason that I cannot get online without it. How would you suggest I download the driver software, genius? So I bought a flashdrive and now I'm at a friends house and do you know what I found when I clicked on the install instructions at your website for the AC600 adapter? It tells me to put the CD in the drive. Not a link to download the driver, but instead tells me to install the CD which, I'm sure you know, is not included with that adapter. It's like selling someone a car with an empty gas tank. It's no problem, just drive on over to the gas station and fill it up. That's what your tech support guy had for me. Oh, just download the driver on another device and transfer it to your computer.

Works good, installation stupid

A device used to access the internet. Requires you to access the internet prior to inserting/installing device. Does anyone else see a problem with that?My old adapter was going bad, would connect then drop the connection a minute later. I had to connect, then reconnect , then reconnect…… Each time adding a bit of data for the required download. Including a USB key drive with the download onboard in the package would make much more sense.

You need an Ethernet cable to install the driver

I bought it for my desktop that I bought online and it said plug in and connect. But guess what you need a driver for it, I’m like seriously then it should come with a cd disc or a drive on the usb. They expect you to connect to the internet to get a driver to connect to the internet how crazy. Unless you have an Ethernet cable to download the driver then you are out of luck. I have to return it cause guess what I don’t have an Ethernet cable to use to install a driver for it. I’m paying $45 for it and it says plug in and connect and I worked with it for over an hour and nothing. For $45 I can go on Amazon and find one cheaper and has a cd drive with it. Which you guessed it I did the first thing I did was plug it in to see if it needed the cd and you wouldn’t ... MoreI bought it for my desktop that I bought online and it said plug in and connect. But guess what you need a driver for it, I’m like seriously then it should come with a cd disc or a drive on the usb. They expect you to connect to the internet to get a driver to connect to the internet how crazy. Unless you have an Ethernet cable to download the driver then you are out of luck. I have to return it cause guess what I don’t have an Ethernet cable to use to install a driver for it. I’m paying $45 for it and it says plug in and connect and I worked with it for over an hour and nothing. For $45 I can go on Amazon and find one cheaper and has a cd drive with it. Which you guessed it I did the first thing I did was plug it in to see if it needed the cd and you wouldn’t believe it it didn’t require the cd drive to install and connected instantly without any hesitation and I only paid less then $10 for it

this ruined my life

Words cannot describe how awful this adapter is. First of all, you need to download the drivers off the internet to even get this thing to work. However, I'm not sure if the company realised this, but the reason people buy this is because they do not in fact have access to the internet and they would like to gain it. After you somehow get this thing to work it's complete trash disconnects every 20 minutes or so for 10 seconds at a time genuinely awful product would not recommend this to my worst enemy