Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have purchased many wifi adapters through the years - Almost all were "duds." The outdoor high gain panels such as Powerlink and various brands from Red China boast of three mile ranges but failed to go beyond 35 feet. Wireless adapter cards from Asus and Netgear last less than a year and have weak reception. My only adequate purchase was the TP-Link TL-WDN4800 - the highest rated wifi adapter in the market. The signal strength was only adequate. Four bars on 2.4GHz and three bars on 5.0GHz. . The Alfa AC1200 is an improvement over the TP-Link TL-WEN4800 in a few areas: . 1. It is an external wifi adapter that plugs into a USB 3.0 port. As a result, you save a PCIe slot on the motherboard for something else. . 2. The signal strength is one bar or 20% stronger. I am able to get five bars on 2.4GHz and four bars on 5.0GHz (62%). Signal drifting is not a problem. I only experience a 2% variation. . 3. This wifi adapter is the first in the market that handles the new IEEE 802.11ac specs. Being the "first kid on the block" commands a premium. The price is well warranted. . 4. The device is able to capture several networks in my neighborhood. On 2.4GHz, there are 27. On 5.0GHz, there are 14. On a comparison, I was only able to capture 7 on my Asus wifi adapter card. . 5. The software utility is the best in the market. It covers almost everything that you want to know. Most valuable is the wifi signal strength graph. It shows the actual strength in percentages. Not too many competing utilities offer this insight. . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . . UPDATE . Despite the performance, the device is useless if it has short life and is not repairable. Here is my updating. On the tenth month of ownership, the unit went bad - nothing worked. I contacted the manufacturer and shipped it to Texas for repairs. It came back within a few weeks. After installation, it still did not work.