OURLink 600Mbps AC600 Dual Band USB WiFi Dongle and Wireless Network Adapter for Laptops and Desktops

searcher: Small device. USB and still only about the size of a thumbnail. Put into the USB port and loaded the software. Then went in to Network settings on my PC and found the wireless network that it set-up. I could then connect PC wirelessly to the internet. Needed a WiFi connection to get on PokerStars so they could detect that I was an Ontario resident. They otherwise couldn't locate me when using Ethernet otherwise.

Canada on Nov 15, 2022

Nicholas ParkerNicholas Parker: This is how I got it to work on my three-year-old Acer laptop. I should say that I tried the drivers at the manufacturer website mentioned on this page, I tried the ones at the site I found when I searched the name and brand of this adapter, and then ultimately installed the drivers directly from Realtek (chipset I got is RTL8811CU). The actual Realtek drivers don't include the utility app that the ones from the manufacturer do but I actually prefer not to have it. Just more junk running in the background.

After installing the drivers in all three of those cases, I didn't get speeds any faster than I had with my built-in wireless card. After installing the Realtek drivers from Realtek, I decided to poke around and discovered what I think was the problem all along.

You need to force the adapter to only use 802.11ac.

As soon as I did that, bam! My speed more than doubled. Problem solved. It's possible that the manufacturer's drivers will work, I just ended with the Realtek drivers. Since it's working, and without the utility, I am going to leave everything as is.

I have attached four screenshots to this review to help you locate the place where you set...

United States on Aug 27, 2019

Colin V.: I bought two of these to use with my Raspberry Pi 3 Model Bs. One has Kodi on it and the other has plain Raspbian Stretch. I noticed when I transfered my Kodi Pi to an aluminum case, streaming hesitated a lot more often. When I plugged one of the WiFi dongles into the Kodi Pi and restarted it, the WiFi was recognized right away! No fiddling or anything! On the other hand, when I plugged the other one into the Raspbian Pi, it didn't work. It was listed in lsusb (ID 0bda:0a11) but there was no network interface associated with it. It looks like I need to compile the drivers for it from source code but I can still use the built-in wireless for the time being (at a slower speed) until I can get it working.

Since the primary reason for getting this was to improve the streaming on Kodi, I'll give it five stars because it did the job with no hassle at all.

Canada on Jul 16, 2018

Mike: - My Internet is 75mbps. My laptop is a cheaper Dell Inspiron, I had no idea that the Dell did not have 5G, and only 2.4G built-in. So, while I was paying for 75mbps Internet, speed tests showed my download speed was only about 35-41mbps.
- So, after some thoughts, I bought this wifi adapter dongle. I received it this morning, and installed the drivers. The product description has the website where I went to download the zip file with the drivers. The package comes with a tiny manual, but it looks like it is useful only if you have Windows Vista (people still use those??) and Windows 7. I have Windows 10, which means all I had to do was install the driver and that's it.
- After installing the driver and restarting my computer, I plugged the dongle in. Went to my wifi settings, and now I see a second wifi option which says "Wifi 2". I went there and connected to my router's 5G signal. I just did a speed test and now I am getting 65-70mbps download speeds. So, this tiny dongle basically almost doubled my Internet speed in my computer. I think this was a $18 very well spent.

Canada on Mar 22, 2018

Max: Update: I took off some of the stars. The Wifi adapter works fine when it works. But when I start my laptop either from off or from hibernation, the adapter takes forever to find the available networks and connect. Not sure its because of the hardware or because of the Realtek wireless software that this unit uses. The end result is a need for patience and wait for at least 3-5 minutes to connect. This is not my laptop's problem because when I remove this and use my built-in wifi adapter instead, it connects in a fraction of a second (but doesnt support 5 GHz, thats why I use this and not the native card).

Plus: the seller is so cheap that uploads the driver on a file sharing server. Today when I wanted to download the driver I got this error message: Bandwidth Exceeded
This link has been temporarily disabled because the sender is out of bandwidth

To learn more, please visit our Help Center.

Now I am out of luck to download the driver and get the thing working. At least for now...

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I have had the unit for a few days now. The delivery time was reasonable. The installation process was also easy. I downloaded the...

Canada on Mar 07, 2018

Positive Investing: I love this dongle! I picked it up as I upgraded my home internet to 100mB down/up, and my current laptop could not handle the speeds on it's wireless N card. Installation was very easy - I just plugged it in, used the CD to install the drivers and software, and within a few minutes I was up and running. I use this now as my primary wifi connection, as it can pick up 5GHz signals (my PC card can only do 2.4GHz). The speed difference was instantly noticeable when downloading and streaming, as I can now enjoy my internets true speed. The ONLY complaint (which isn't a big deal) is that the dongle is a bit thicker than expected, so if you have 2 USB ports side by side, it could get in the way if you need to use the 2nd USB port... but that is a minor issue and can easily be overlooked with the performance this dongle provides.

Canada on Oct 15, 2017

Amber Coppola: It "worked" right out of the box when I plugged it in. However, the speeds I got were abysmal. 2.4GHz or 5GHz I was getting max 1Mbps when it was connecting at all. For reference, if I unplugged the dongle and used the laptop's built-in wifi (which only connects to 2.4GHz) I was getting 24Mbps in the same location. I tried installing the drivers included on their website but that didn't help. It installed the utility but the connection was just as terrible.

Getting the driver directly from Realtek fixed the issue (for reference, the chipset is RTL8811AU). Once I installed the proper driver I was seeing the speeds I expected. I'm able to to get about 200Mbps now when close to the router and about 110Mbps from my bedroom. My phone seems to get about 30Mbps better speeds on average in the same spots but for a $14 low profile connector it works better than I had expected.

I'm docking a star because the drivers on their site don't work. They should be providing working, up-to-date drivers on their own site so users don't have to search for the source drivers from realtek.

United States on Jul 08, 2017

Homken: After a Windows 10 upgrade from 8.1 in July, my 1st gen Lenovo Yoga started having problems with WiFi. The problem wasn't that it couldn't connect to WiFi because it connects easily and does not disconnect - but after a few minutes of startup, no sites would launch from any browser! Even the Microsoft Store techs couldn't solve the problem permanently. You'd need to run IP or Winsock reset constantly throughout the day, that it got counterproductive having to shut everything down and restart. After talking with a tech for a final option, he suggested using a new NIC card - or in my case something like the Ourlink WiFi dongle. I decided to try it and didn't hesitate to install it immediately as soon as it was delivered. First, the existing Realtek driver for the installed network card needed to be disabled (go to Device Manager, you'll see it, then disable it). Be sure to leave the driver enabled for the Ourlink dongle. I've had it for almost a week and I only had to run IP and Winsock reset once the entire time, not like before where I had to do it 3-4 times a day. So, that works for me! And there's something really important - sites run much faster on the old band and now I can...

United States on Mar 15, 2017

N0174394: Great little USB Wi-Fi adapter. I'm using it on a fully updated older two core Intel Win 7 64bit laptop that has a failed internal Wi-Fi component. The adapter arrived ahead of schedule in in excellent condition. Packaging is Earth-friendly cardboard and recyclable plastic. Quick start guide and driver CD also were included. I pulled the drivers off their website however. Just a habit.
The OURLink has a very small presence on the side of my laptop and does not caught up as I move the laptop around. Drivers installed without any problems and I disabled the onboard Wi-Fi in Device Mangle, so the laptop only sees the OURLink device. The adapter has worked very well maintaining a strong connection all around my house and I don't use repeaters. Task Manager > Network shows an average of a 64Mbps connection on an older FiOS router, more than adequate for my needs. I've also used this laptop with the OURLink adapter at work to connect to our public AP's. Connections were quickly achieved and a strong TX/RX maintained throughout the connection. There does appear to be a tiny green activity light inside the adapter's small plastic housing. I can see it when I hold the laptop directly...

United States on Feb 03, 2017