Wi-Fi Upgraded—This Plugable Wi-Fi USB adapter for PC connects to the USB port on your computer (USB-A to USB-C adapter included). Upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 on systems with an older, slower PC Wi-Fi antenna, or no antenna at all. Perfect for folks building a PC
Faster Wi-Fi—Easily upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 speeds with link rates up to 1,201Mbps when connected to 5GHz networks and up to 573.5Mbps on a 2.4GHz network. Use included 45” (115cm) extension cable to get the PC Wi-Fi adapter away from potential interference
Strong and Stable Connection—Featuring a 2x3dBi Omni Directional Antenna with multiple arrays, the USB Wi-Fi adapter for PC ensures a stronger, more stable connection than you’ll find on Wi-Fi 5 or older. That means faster surfing with fewer dips in data rates
Compatibility—USB wireless adapter is compatible with Windows 10 and newer. Not compatible with macOS or Linux. Driver download required
2-Year Coverage, Lifetime Support—Every Plugable product, including this Wi-Fi Adapter, is covered against defects for 2 years and comes with lifetime support. If you ever have questions, contact our North American-based team - even before purchase
It doesn’t matter if you need a Wi-Fi adapter for a PC you’re building, or you just want to upgrade to the latest Wi-Fi standard on your laptop for a jump in performance, the Plugable USB-WIFIAX is your simple solution for upgrading to Wi-Fi 6. And with more of our work being done online, upgrading with a USB WiFi 6 adapter is a cost-effective way to extend the life of a computer.
Get speeds up 1,201Mbps when you connect to a 5GHz network, and 573.5Mbps on a 2.4GHz network. Connect directly to your computer through USB, or USB-C. If interference is an issue, an included 45-inch (115 cm) extension cable lets you move your adapter to find the strongest signal. It even folds flat so you can take it with you.
Go Fast with Wi-Fi 6
The first thing you’ll notice when upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 with this wireless adapter for desktop computer is speed—and a lot of it.
When connected to a 5GHz network, work, play, and stream to your heart’s content with speeds up to 1,201Mbps. And should you find yourself connecting to a 2.4GHz network, you’ll still be humming along with up to 573.5Mbps.
Features
Upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 with this Plugable WiFi 6 adapter isn’t just about speed.
You also get a more stable connection over Wi-Fi 5 protocols.
With the included 45-inch (115 cm) extension cable, you can elevate the WiFi USB adapter for a better signal.
The WiFi 6 USB adapter folds flat so you can get connected on the go.
Plus, it looks pretty cool, something you don’t usually expect from a Wi-Fi adapter.
Compatibility
The USB-WIFIAX is a USB network adapter compatible with Windows 10 and newer. It is not compatible with macOS or Linux.
Connect to host through USB 3.0 or USB-C (USB-A to USB-C adapter included).
As is the case with any wireless technology, your actual speed will depend on environmental factors, your host system, and your access point (router).
Driver download is required.
Supported Features
OFDMA
Allows your router to efficiently communicate with multiple devices simultaneously, reducing latency on networks with multiple devices
MIMO
Allows the adapter's two antennas—and multiple antennas of your router—to work together for sending and receiving more data, more reliably, over greater distances compared to single-antenna solutions
1024-QAM
Packs more data into each radio transmission, increasing data throughput by 25% compared to the 256-QAM of Wi-Fi 5, when using the same radio channels
45 in (115 cm) Extension Cable
Moving adapter away from potential interference can result in a better signal
Follow the steps below to install the Wi-Fi 6 adapter on your Windows PC.
Windows 10 and 11
Plug the Wi-Fi 6 adapter into your PC
To start plug in the Wi-Fi 6 adapter into your PC. You can either plug it in directly to
your computer's USB 3.0 port or use the USB Cradle to position the Wi-Fi 6 adapter in an
elevated position such as a shelf or the edge of a table for optimal reception.
Extract the files from the driver .zip file.
Find the setup.exe in the files that were extracted, and run it with administrator privileges.
Continue through the install process of setup.exe
Once driver installation is complete you will need to restart your computer and you will
be able to connect to a wireless network
If you get an error, please contact Plugable Support. If there are still issues,
please contact us so we can help.
Please be sure to extract the contents of the .zip file. Running the setup.exe without completing this step will result in the driver not installing.
Platform
Important Notes
Date
Version and Download
Windows 11 and 10
Please be sure to extract the contents of the .zip file prior to running the setup.exe.
Setup.exe requires administrator privileges.
If you are having trouble installing the adapter with this installer, please contact support.
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3. Extract the compressed folder, you can Right Click then select the "Extract All..." option
4. Next we will want to navigate to the Device Manager application and expand the Other devices section. To open the Device Manager application you can simply type this in to the Windows Search Bar
5. Right Click the "802.11ax WLAN adapter" and select "Update Driver"
6. Select "Browse my computer for drivers" then navigate and select the folder that we de-compressed in Step #3
7. Windows will then proceed to install the drivers and prompt you to restart your PC, go ahead and restart the computer and you should see the ability to connect to a wireless network upon reboot.
Computer networking is a complex topic. In this article, we'll be taking a deep dive on the nuances of network performance for those who need some additional explanation while striving to be concise, and to educate users of various experience levels relating computer hardware and computer networking.
If you just need to know how to perform a network performance test/benchmark, jump down to configuring iPerf.
Core Network Concepts
LAN vs WAN
With regards to network performance, it is crucial to first separate whether an issue is with Wide Area Network (WAN) performance, or if the issue is with Local Area Network (LAN) performance.
Your LAN is essentially the network inside your home or business. Many homes use a combination modem/router device provided by their Internet Service Provider (ISP). In some cases, especially in businesses, you may have a separate modem and router, along with other equipment connecting to the router such as a network switch.
Your modem, and the connection it establishes to your ISP—whether through coaxial cable, fiber, phone lines, or long-range wireless—essentially marks the point between the WAN and the LAN. The connection your modem makes to your ISP is the WAN, and any devices you connect through your router behind that modem belong to the LAN.
Link Rate
Almost every type of connection your computer makes to any piece of hardware will have a link rate of some kind. The link rate establishes how fast data can possibly be transferred across any given connection, but it does not guarantee how fast the hardware on either end of the connection will actually transfer data.
The concept of link rates, and their related bottlenecks, is likely best conveyed by giving an example of what connections might be involved in transferring a file from one computer on your LAN to another.
800Mbps—The file source is a USB 3.0 thumb drive capable of 100MB/s (800Mbps) read/write.
480Mbps—The USB 3.0 thumb drive is plugged into a USB 2.0 port on the PC, which has a maximum throughput of 480Mbps
1000Mbps—PC1's Ethernet connection establishes 1Gbps (1000Mbps) link to the router via Ethernet
300Mbps—The router connects to a second PC (we'll refer to this as PC2) via Wi-Fi, and it has established a 300Mbps link to the Wi-Fi adapter on PC2
480Mbps—The Wi-Fi adapter on PC2 is connected via a USB 2.0 port. The link rate of the USB connection to PC2 is at 480Mbps
6000Mbps—PC2 is going to store the file on an internal hard drive with a link rate of 6Gbps
1600Mbps—File Destination: SATA hard drive capable of 200MB/s (1600Mbps) read/write.
Following this chain, we see that 300Mbps is the slowest link rate established. This means that, regardless of the link rates established elsewhere, the absolute maximum the data can possibly be transferred is 300Mbps.
if we were to change the Wi-Fi connection to a wired Ethernet connection capable of 1Gbps, our performance bottleneck would then become the USB 2.0 connection to the USB drive where the file is stored.
Ports and Interfaces
Interfaces
A network interface represents connections, whether wired or wireless, that are made to form a network between devices.
Ports
Some may refer to physical hardware connections as "ports". For the purposes of networking, ports are logical constructs that can also be referred to as "network ports". Each network interface has 65,535 of these logical ports. Each port on a network interface is a separate data connection.
Benchmarking Network Adapter Performance
To properly benchmark network adapter performance, we need to:
Use a simple LAN configuration
Eliminate bottlenecks, especially link rate bottlenecks
Websites like speedtest.net, fast.com, and other performance tools in your web browser are going to use your WAN connection, and are not appropriate for determining if a network adapter is working well.
Transferring files from one computer to another on your LAN is typically not the best way to benchmark a network adapter. File transfers are bottlenecked by a number of things, including performance limitations of the disk the data is on, and often times a lack of establishing parallel network connections to perform the task.
One of the most accurate ways to benchmark network performance on a LAN is by using iPerf . To more effectively benchmark network adapter performance, it is best to establish a point-to-point connection between two PCs, rather than connecting through a router or switch.
Next, you'll need to run iPerf in client mode, targeting the IP address of the server/interface where iPerf is running in server mode. Additionally, we'll run the test for 30 seconds using -t 30 and with four parallel connections using -P 4. Running 4 parallel connections is optimal for saturating a network link.
Windows
Open Command Prompt
Press Windows Key + R or + R, then enter cmd in the window that appears
Search the Start Menu for Command Prompt, and open it
Navigate Command Prompt to the directory the directory where iPerf is located
The cdcommand is for 'change directory'
If you have a folder named 'iperf' on your Windows desktop, you can reach it in command prompt with the command cd %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\iperf
Run iperf in client mode via Command Prompt (replace 192.168.0.200 with the IP address of the server/interface where iPerf is running in server mode)
iperf3.exe -c 192.168.0.200 -t 30 -P 4
macOS / Linux
Open Terminal
Run iPerf in client mode (replace 192.168.0.200 with the IP address of the server/interface where iPerf is running in server mode)
iperf3 -c 192.168.0.200 -t 30 -P 4
iPerf should start performing a network performance test. If the test fails to start, make sure that iPerf is not being blocked by your PC's/Mac's firewall.
Why iPerf is Ideal for Benchmarking
Unlike a file transfer, iPerf runs in memory on the PC and generates data to send using the CPU directly. This alleviates potential bottlenecks generated by storage devices, and allows you to explicitly control how many parallel connections are being used to transfer data rather than being unsure if parallel network connections are being used by other means.
Conclusion
There's a lot more to networking that isn't covered in this article, but we hope this helps explain enough to get an accurate measure of your network performance.
The Windows Firewall may block some networking features when the local network is not set to Private. This article will describe the process for setting the local network, either wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi to be a Private network.
Windows 11
1 - Connect the computer to the network, either wired or wireless
2 - Open the Windows Settings - right-click on the Start Menu and select “Settings” from the pop-up menu
3 - On the left column select “Network & internet”
For Wired Networks
4 - Select the “Ethernet” option
5 - The connected network should be expanded, if not click on “Network Connected" to expand the section
6 - Select the “Network profile type” either “Public network” or “Private network” to suite your needs
For Wi-Fi Networks
4 - Select the “Wi-Fi” option
5 - Select your Wi-Fi network name “properties”
6 - Select the “Network profile type” either “Public network” or “Private network” to suite your needs
Windows 10
1 - Connect the computer to the network, either wired or wireless
2 - Open the Windows Settings - right-click on the Start Menu and select “Settings” from the pop-up menu
3 - Select “Network & Internet” fro the bottom section
4 - Select the “Ethernet” option from the left pane
5 - Select the “Connected” network from the right pane
6 - Select the “Network profile type” either “Public network” or “Private network” to suite your needs
Windows PowerShell
If the option does not show up in the Windows Settings GUI, or if you prefer to use the terminal.
1 - Open a new terminal: Right-click on the Start Menu and select “Terminal”
2 - Run the following command to list the available networks