Edimax EW-7711UAN Wireless nLITE High Gain USB Adapter

Before buying this product there were always certain places at home where we lost signal from the wireless router when using the laptop. I have to say I bought this adapter more in hope than anything else, but im very pleased with the results. I can now say that there is nowhere in the house now that we dont get some kind of coverage and the best thing now is I can sit out on the patio and use my laptop. Easy to install too well well done Edimax !

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.

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'.