Asus USB-N53 - 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless USB Dongle. 802.11n, (Win7), 3 Year Warranty

Dammit Jim, I'm a wireless dongle, not a miracle worker
I've had a Wireless `n' router for some months now and although the speed benefits of upgrading to wireless `n' from wireless `g' were obvious from the moment I made the switch, the connection between the router and my old wireless dongle was unreliable and the signal strength was patchy. Not wanting to do away with the faster connectivity that `n' brings, I instead decided to do away with my old kit and buy brand new - in this case, Asus's USB-N53U Wi-Fi dongle to accompany their DSL-N55U modem router (ASUS DSL-N55U - 300Mbps Dual Band Wireless N Router ADSL 2/2+ Modem Router, 802.11n, Gigabit Lan, Gigabit LAN, 2x USB, Print FTP UPnP Server, HD Streaming, 3 Year Warranty).

In appearance, the N53 dongle is.... well, it's a dongle - a black plastic slab that plugs into a USB port on your PC and then protrudes somewhat annoyingly from it. As with the N55 router, the N53's styling is slightly...
Extremely Fast Wireless
Excellent wireless dongle, with no issues so far.

When used in conjunction with the ASUS dual band router, achieved wireless INTERNET speeds of over 160 Mbps, and this is with approximately 2-3 bars of wireless signal in windows 7.

When used in conjunction with the virgin superhub, speeds were significantly poorer on wireless (only ~50 Mbps), so if anyone is experiencing less than excellent speeds, double check that it's not due to poor router performance.

Also note that due to the nature of the 5g signal, 5g signal range will be less than 2.4Ghz.

In practice, this 5g capable dongle out-performs high speed home-plugs.
Great When It Works!!
This wireless dongle was purchased to go with the ASUS RT-N66U wireless router and I like that it has matching a design pattern. There is also included a very short but flexible USB attachment lead for better positioning of the dongle. On the side of the dongle is a small button for quick pairing to a wireless router if you have a supported device. When in operation, I achieve excellent signal strength on both the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands.

The dongle works very well using the 2.4ghz band and has been very stable using the latest drivers from the Asus website. There is however a problem that I am encountering when using the 5ghz band. It would work great for a while, but then the speed would drop intermittently to a complete halt requiring reconnection of the dongle either through the software or by removing and reinserting into the USB port to make it work again.

I have had two of these dongles and they both exhibit this same issue. I can verify that my router is...

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