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

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 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.

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.

Update: April 20, 2021. I had been using this PAU09 device with Fedora 33 Xfce because it always worked. However, after some time has passed, some how this PAU09 works just fine now and with any operating system. I am not sure what the problem is or was, but it got fixed. I have tried it with Fedora 33 Xfce, Fedora 34 Gnome 40, and Windows 10 Education. I have also tried it with three different modem/routers and it worked. So, what was the fix??? I do not know. Chances are that it was an incompatibility issue with the software, and the reason why Fedora 33 Xfce worked with it is that it is an older and more reliable desktop environment. What does that mean??? It means, that this PAU09 is using older software/technology. Update: August 17, 2020. So, after a few months of using it and it just not staying connected. I finally sat down and tried to figure out what is wrong with it. I communicated with Panda Wireless Support and they respond to my emails very quickly and seemed like they knew what they were doing, but they really had no clue what was going on with their own product. However, I was able to figure out what was wrong with the PAU09. I have an older Modem/Router that only transmits 2.5GHz, but the PAU09 is dual band. That 5GHz part of the PAU09 some how causes it to disconnect from the router. It is still connected to the computer and can see all available networks, but cannot reconnect to the router once disconnected. So, the fix is this, if you can access the Residential Gateway (for me it was 192.168.0.1), then you can log into it. Once logged into it, access the Wireless section, and then the Radio section. If you see anything that says "Regulatory Mode", then you need to enable 802.11h. If your router doesn't have this option, I don't know what to do, but this is how I was able to fix the problem of losing connection. Update to my review given on May 14, 2020. Today is June 20, 2020. After using the PAU09 for a while now, I can say that it has one problem with it. It loses connection to the internet after a period of time. The only way to get it to reconnect is to unplug it and plug it back in, or restart the computer. When I figure out the cause of this failure, I will update this post, but one thing is certain, the cheaper PAU06 does not have this problem. This is a minus two stars. But, it gets a plus two stars for great customer service from Panda Wireless. I purchased the PAU09 and received it on May 2, 2020. Today is May 14, 2020. Therefore this is a 13 day review. First, the advertised picture is not the "exact" same product; and by that I mean the main housing in different, there is no WPS button, and the USB stand/extender is shaped different. See pictures. Second, My daughter will be using this for K4 next fall, and my 4 year old son has already tested it out with his K4 online HD teaching videos. He has no problem getting on the computer, accessing the internet, and streaming the videos. Over all, the PAU09 works just as good as the PAU06. When I plugged it into three different computers, it worked immediately. However, there is one noticeable bottle necking occurring. Windows 10 somehow is definitely slowing down the download speeds, while Fedora 32 workstation has no problem. See below for more info. The primary computer that this will be used with will be a DELL OPTIPLEX 9020 CORE i7vPro with 32GB of RAM and a 80GB HDD( it was free and I have two of them: one with the PAU06 and the other with the PAU09). It is running Fedora 32(Workstation Edition). I have not had any issues with it getting to hot, but that is because I only use it in the USB 2.0 port. I have no intentions of trying it out in the USB 3.0 port to see if it gets hot like the PAU06. Caveat , the picture is that of the ASUS Zen AiO Pro 23.8".....CORE i7 with 12GB of RAM and 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD (model number Z240IEGT-16). I was trying to see if I could get a better download speed for my wife's computer because it is about 20 meters away from the Zoom 5352 router and with two separate walls between. So, Speedtest by Ookla showed that the onboard wifi had download speeds of 20Mbps. However, for the PAU09, it showed only 7Mbps with the USB stand/extender. Although, when the PAU09 was directly plugged into the computer, it had a download speed of 40Mbps. Double that of the onboard wifi card. Extra Notes: Uploads speeds are constant at 6Mbps anywhere in the house, and the download speed at the router is 200Mbps. Two things to get from this. One, make sure it works with your Windows 10. Otherwise, use Fedora 32 workstation instead. Two, upload speeds are constant, so you don't have to worry about your own live video feed messing up. Which is very important if you are a teacher with video students. Finally, this product is different from the PAU06 because it has bigger antennas which will allow for a longer range one can be away from the router. I have yet to test that.

[back from the future] 3/4/19 Great Wi-Fi device for Windows. Would tell the "past me" to buy it again :) [back to the past] I wanted to FINALLY get 5Ghz working... 2.4 "monitoring" (wink) is becoming so yesterday.. Well I'm here to say it WORKS! And it was drop dead easy.. My setup is a Pi 3 + Raspbian (box stock except for updates)... and the Panda 09. No additional drivers or dicking around to get it up and running, at least on Raspbian :) To get it to scan the 5Ghz band you just need to add the switch "--band a" (this will scan 5Ghz). or "--band ag" ( 2.4 & 5g). As in: "sudo airodumpt-ng --band a wlan0mon. Or "--band an" for 2.4 & 5ghz. The "man" docs in Raspbian clearly state this however other sources I found on line omitted this small detail. So read the actual MAN pages for the real scoop. P.S. I believe this Panda 09 adapter doesn't support A or AC @5gh. Correct me if I"m wrong. But it does see all the 5Ghz on N on my network. Which is 99% of the battle IMHO. So this still isn't the ultimate adapter.. but I'm glad to finally be out of the 2.4 ghetto for a breath of fresh air. Cheers! Other worthy note. Works under Windows 10 "out of the box". No other drivers or software required. Nice!

Got the adapter with with missing user guide and installation CD even with totally different design of the adapter itself and the dock nothing like the pictures

Just a good reliable brand. Does the job!

Been using this for about a month now. On advice bought a WiFi card (over a USB solution) that was highly recommended and quite frankly, unless you are close to the router, that card didn't deliver good results. So splashed out and bought this product instead. There are 2 main advantages using this product for my use case; a) The lead can extend out the back of my PC and I can tweak the antenna to get a VERY good signal though a thick wall in an old house, I mean as if it were plugged into my Ethernet cable. b) It is fully compatible plug and play with my Linux Mint OS. It is a bit pricey those of us in the UK but in my opinion worth the extra cost.

Excelente antena solo no es la que se muestra en la imagen del vendedor

Great USB network dongle for Kali Linux and has worked well out of the box on multiple Linux hosts; Kali and Ubuntu in VMware guest host operating systems. I am using it for penetration testing and wireless security testing. So far, it has worked great and has been stable. I had an issue with the delivery but it was not the fault of the seller, I contacted the seller immediately and the response was great, they were willing to get me a replacement quickly, however, the person it was delivered to brought it to my place, so there was no need for a replacement.