Edimax EW-7711MAC AC450 Nano USB Wi-Fi Adapter for MacBook Upgrade to 11AC for Faster Performance, Plug it and Forget it, Support Mac OSX 10.7~10.11 (5 Ghz ONLY)

Initially this worked great. Now it can't see any of the 5Ghz hotspots in my home. I have tripled checked that it isn't the router or repeater causing the problem. The computer can "see" the hardware but this simply can't pick up the 5Ghz spots so all it does now is take up a USB slot. Hopefully the seller will see this and can work something out so I can exchange it even though its 'out of warranty' but only about 6 months old.EDIT: Apparently this device wasn't working after I upgraded to Win10 like I thought it was. Edimax was very helpful in helping me locate the Win10 beta drivers. See my reply below for the link if you need it. Thank you Edimax support!!!

OK, I'm REALLY confused.This is aimed at Mac users, right? Apple has been putting 5 GHz WiFi adapters in their MacBook products for nearly a decade.I recently tested this on a MacBook Pro from *2006*. Even systems from back then had 5 GHz 802.11n WiFi, which connects at up to 300 Mbps. With this adapter, it's still on 5 GHz, but 802.11ac. It only connects at up to 390 Mbps. It never hits 450 Mbps. So you can gain ~90 Mbps in speed. But at what cost?Sticking out the side of the MacBook Pro isn't such a big deal. It is a small, "nano" device, after all. The problem is the software. It doesn't install as a native WiFi adapter in OS X. Its drivers make it appear as a "plug-in" Ethernet adapter. So that means the native OS X WiFi software does NOT work with it. You cannot view the signal strength as you can other WiFi adapters, 3rd-party apps don't work with it (as they also don't see it as a WiFi device), and it requires the silly Edimax WiFi client to be running all the time. If you check the system Console, you'll see that the software is quite chatty and has a lot of stuff logged.Basically, this is NOT a good device for Mac OS X!!!But for Windows? It works well. Even with Windows 10! Pop it in, install drivers, and you have a nice 5 GHz WiFi adapter. It works with the native Windows WiFi software. No silly Edimax tool to run. Also, unlike Apple systems, many Windows laptops only supported 2.4 GHz WiFi, so this can actually help upgrade an old system.Basically, get this if your Windows system needs 5 GHz. Your Mac probably doesn't need this.

My Mac tech found the wireless card shorting out on my 2009 MacBook Pro. After she disconnected it, it would reboot and function normally except there would be no wireless. I bought the Edimax after trying another adapter that would not work. This worked like a charm. The MBP had Mountain Lion or some such at the time before I upgraded to Yosemite. Then the Edimax stopped working (bogus!). I was able to find a beta driver for Yosemite at the Edimax support site. That made it work again (excellent!). I can't configure wireless through System Preferences any more (which is expected). I have to use the Edimax user interface to discover and save my connections. It won't find weak access points like my wireless card did, I can't seem to connect to my iPhone hotspot via wifi, and the Edimax GUI is a little quirky (it pops up without notice sometimes). Those are why I couldn't give it 5 stars. Overall, it suits my purposes. It gave my Mac a new lease on life for not much $$.Get the beta driver here:http://www.edimax.com/edimax/download/download/data/edimax/id/download/for_home/wireless_adapters/wireless_adapters_ac450/ew-7711macUpdate: Since my first review, I have upgraded to El Capitan and it quit working again. There are no drivers at present for this adapter (bogus!). I also took my laptop on a trip where it would not work with the access point. I think it was because this card does not support dual bands and the AP was broadcasting on the unsupported band. Therefore, I have downgraded to 1 star (I hate it!). I am going to Microcenter today to look for something that works.Another issues is that whenever my laptop went to sleep, it would disconnect (since it works in user space, not OS space). Most of the time, after coming out of sleep mode, it would refused to connect. I would have to disable wifi from their utility then re-enable again which would *sometimes* work. I would unplug the adapter then plug it in again which would crash my MBP. Seriously, this adapter is a PITA. Don't buy it!

When used in Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.10, connection was fast and stable to 802.11AC access point. Upgraded to Win10, beta drivers would lose connection every few minutes. OS X 10.11 would not detect at all. Signed up to for notifications from Edimax for updated drivers. Went back to Edimax AC1200 for now.