PAU09 N600 Dual Band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wireless N USB Adapter W/Dual 5dBi Antennas - Windows 7/8/10/11, Zorin, Mint, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Centos, Kali and Raspbian

For Linux users. I bought this adapter instead of a standard adapter because we have a very large old house with 12" walls, and I have trouble with wireless range on most usb adapters. I have been pleasantly surprised by the performance of the adapter, but I have actually been amazed with the performance of the Panda support team. I have been in touch with them several times because I initially had trouble with my 5GHz band performance. They reply at once, and the information they request is cogent and the solutions that they offer are sensible and they work. The adapter is plug and play for Linux. You do need to install the proper firmware for your distribution, but that is true of any adapter that you purchase. The installation disk only has Fedora files, so you will have to find the firmware necessary for your distribution. For Debian Jessie, for instance, it is firmware-ralink, and for Debian Stretch it is firmware-misc-nonfree. In any event, after you install the proper firmware, the adapter is plug and play. It is also worth mentioning here that if you run PCLinuxOS, the firmware will already be in place and the adapter is truly plug and play. Just configure your internet connection and away you go. Performance. Ironically, the reason that I initially contacted Panda support is because I was having trouble with stability on the 5GHz channel. I had no such problems with the adapters that I was using, so I was confused that this one would be less effective. It turns out that the extended range of the adapter also meant that interference from a neighbor's connection caused the occasional signal drop. Alex from Panda's support team picked up the problem immediately, and I have had no trouble since. I can absolutely recommend this adapter for Linux installations. RLF

EDIT: New card was received by Amazon within 2 days but I just now remembered to update. Everything was there and everything is now working as intended. Monitor mode and packet injection work perfectly on Kali. Everything is plug and play unlike the Alfa ACH model I picked up at the same time. My Alfa ACH gets a bit better range but that's a monstrosity of a device when you are required to use the included ~3ft long cable. The Panda is perfect for my mobile devices - I love the small form factor and the fact I can plug it directly to the machine. Panda does include an optional usb extension base. I also have to say that the Alfa ACH is NOT plug and play in Kali like this Panda is! Just plug in and go! The range is about 2 city blocks here - picks up 10-12 networks as opposed to Alfa ACH 14-17 networks. Altogether its a great buy as there isn't another device of this capability in this form factor. Original Comment: Product showed up without the actual Wifi dongle in the box - everything else was there including the antennas, extension base, CD's and instructions. Box seemed to have been opened after factory packaging at some time. Now the wait is almost 2 weeks out - definitely not impressed with PantherOne

I have tried to install this 5 times on my Windows 8.1 and I get nothing. All I get after installing it is IEEE802.11 WLAN Not exist. I click on Launch Config Utility (after right clicking on their icon), and once again I get absolutely nothing. Since I know it's not a Plug and Play on Windows 8.1, I don't plug it into the computer until the drivers and utilities are fully installed (of course after nothing has happened once they're installed). I only bought this thing because I can't get 5G from my Netgear Nighthawk AC1750 Smart Dual Band Wi-Fi Router because of my Windows 8.1 and someone suggested this. Edit: I just found out my Kaspersky Antivirus is apparently the problem. Unfortunately one of the best antiviruses in the world trumps a $23 adapter. I went without the 5G for this long, it's not going to kill me to be without it. I'm sure this adapter works fine, but beware if you have Kaspersky. I'm too uneasy about completely uninstalling my antivirus just to see if this adapter does work. Even if it does work, does it stop working once I re-install Kaspersky? I'm not about to find out, thank you very much. I'm changing from 1 star to 4 stars based on Panda's help in this matter.

It was an ordeal trying to get it installed! It works fine now, but there are so many details about this for Linux that could be really good to know. * It took some force to make the USB plug go into the hole! * There's a green LED on the antenna that lights up if the wifi connection is made, and flashes when it's transmitting or receiving * In Linux apparently it's an ongoing struggle to work with the manufacturers of the chipsets to make the wireless antenna compatible with Linux. Open source software is sometimes available. Software from the manufacturer is sometimes more or less compatible and workable. And this particular gadget works with Ubuntu and Dell in 2025. I'm not recalling the details of the chipset. Amazon might not be the best place to get this from. * I had to install two or three packages and start a service to get it to run in Ubuntu. * Support team supported me very well, emailing back and forth. Overall this solved the problem of having an older, smaller panda antenna that was dropping out whenever the zoom call started to get exciting.

Excellent range, and the fact that it worked with my Linux (Mint) box without extra drivers -- awesome. It also works with my Linux OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Honestly, it probably works with all Linuxii and all Mac and Windows. It's just basically plug-and-play: Ideal. I must admit I get a glance here or there when at coffee shops (looks a little geeky), but once or twice I've heard comments as people nearby talk, and they've actually been complimentary. I think people are envious! I mean, who hasn't had wifi problems? Also, I love that it is dual-band: Sometimes my local coffee shop gets a bit of traffic congestion on the normal 2.4GHz (b/g/b) band when there are too many people in the shop.. But the 5GHz band is always open, and probably only myself and at max 2 or 3 others using it. Mua hahahah!!! ;-) This thing has also been a lifesaver, since the built-in wifi radio on my HP laptop (a RealTek Semiconductor RTL8723DE) does not (yet) have reliably Linux kernel driver support. I just pack this in my laptop bag. And, though not necessary, I do use the extension USB wire (instead of plugging directly into laptop), since it looks less geeky, and I can kind of slide it off to the side. Yes, I have seen that similar-looking models are available for maybe $10-15 less on Amazon. But I went with the little extra money because this manufacturer is obviously a cut above and takes extra care in a few ways: A) They actually make a box with their name on it B) They go out of their way to advertise that it works with Linux and without need for extra drivers (quite rare, as we know), C) the comments indicate they are reachable for tech support (not just a one-way production line that doesn't want to hear from you). Thank you, Panda.

I'm using this on a Linux host to broadcast multiple SSIDs with hostapd. Working great. Signal is strong, I even have suitable signal from this to add IoT devices in a partial metal outbuilding where I thought for sure I was going to have to run fiber to add a remote AP. Good unit. Only gripe is the little stand is way too small, it falls over easily. But that's just a USB passthrough socket in a base, so easily mitigated/replaced.

The Panda PAU09 is wonderful. Great build quality, speed and easy to install. Works on Windows and Linux. 80Mbps down/24Mbps up (even under a metal desk, from from my router). I believe it would be even faster in a different location. Fantastic customer support! It's plug an play on Windows and most Linux machines. But mine was a special case: I have a VERY lean CentOS 7 install (from BlackMagic for DaVinci Resolve color grading) on my HP Z820 workstation and it didn't recognize the Panda at first. But...... Panda customer support came to the rescue right away when I emailed them: they kindly walked me through troubleshooting and then installing an easy update that allowed plug-and-play use of the PAU09. I literally just typed "yum update" into the terminal (to update CentOS with the latest drivers) and I was good to go! (That was all it took. This should work for you too if you have a similarly lean distro of Linux) Thank you! Highly recommended.

I do not expect you to read the entire review, but if you do here is the "how to" for installing Mac and oh BTW Panda no longer supports Mac. Pointless purchase does not support 10.13. Time to return and get the Alfa... I know it works! Copyright © 2017 Panda Wireless™, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sierra Installation Instructions NOTE: The chip manufacturer said they have discontinued the Mac software support for Panda PAU03, PAU04, PAU05 and PAU06 Wireless-N USB Adapters after macOS Sierra. Please ask us about the new Mac driver for Panda adapters before you upgrade your Mac to upcoming macOS. Please send an email to [email protected] if you have any question. **** You don't need to install the driver for Panda adapter if **** **** you want to Panda with a Virtual Machine on your Mac **** Preparation before you install the macOS Sierra driver on your Mac 1) Disable the System Integrity Protection (Rootless) on your Mac running macOS Sierra a) Reboot the Mac and hold down Command + R keys simultaneously after you hear the startup chime, this will boot OS X into Recovery Mode b) When the “OS X Utilities” screen appears, pull down the ‘Utilities’ menu at the top of the screen instead, and choose “Terminal” c) Type the following command into the terminal then hit return: “csrutil disable; reboot” d) You’ll see a message saying that System Integrity Protection has been disabled and the Mac needs to restart for changes to take effect, and the Mac will then reboot itself automatically, just let it boot up as normal Note: You can enable System Integrity Protection after you install the software for the Panda adapter. The following are other commands for System Integrity Protection: i) Type “csrutil enable; reboot” to enable System Integrity Protection. Just as before, a reboot of the Mac is required for changes to take effect. ii) Type “csrutil status” to check the status of System Integrity Protection. 2) Disable Gatekeeper on your Mac running macOS Sierra Launch Terminal from /Applications/Utilities) and issue the following command to turn off Gatekeeper: “ sudo spctl --master-disable” Hit return and enter the administration password as usually required by sudo, and Gatekeeper will instantly be disabled. The following are other commands for Gatekeeper: i) Type “ sudo spctl –-status” to check the status of the Gatekeeper ii) Type “ sudo spctl --master-enable ” to enable the Gatekeeper 3) Uninstall the previous software driver for Panda Wireless-N Adapter a) Unplug the Panda Wireless-N USB Adapter b) Double-click the “Uninstall.pkg" to uninstall the driver for the previous version of OS X and click “Continue” and let the software to run until it finishes. For example, PandaWireless-ElCapitan-Uninstall.pkg is for OS X 10.11 El Capitan. c) Reboot your Mac