Cisco Valet AM10 300Mbps 802.11n Wireless LAN USB 2.0 Adapter w/Extension Cable

Paying as little as I did for this product, I had a feeling the thing wouldn't work at all. When it came, it was just plug in and follow the directions. The little thing works great.Wish the directions were a bit clearer though. For example, when setting up, the directions say to plug in the valet. I plugged in the product (extension and all) into the computer. the computer wouldn't setting it up. I removed the valet from the cradle and plugged it directly into the computer (without the aid of the extension), and the computer set it up very quickly.all said and done, I have to say I'm very pleased

It works great. The device includes a 128mb storage for the firmware & drivers. It did not work on XP which is not so important now that XP support is ending from Microsoft and others are already stopping driver support. Be careful not to erase the drive- I work with a lot of drives and accidentally erased it so I am in the process of RMA --- it is a good performer. I use it with the Cisco Small Business WAP321-A-K9 Wireless-N Selectable-Band Access Point w/ PoE and Gigabit Ethernet & Netgear Prosafe VPN firewall/router.

I order this product because my desktop doesn't have internet. The one thing that don't understand is the installation program on the adapter. It take over 5 min to work and when it does work it freeze up my desktop. I have try it on my laptop and does the same thing. So I just gave up on trying to used the program because it work fine with out it.

Update 6/2015: I have been using the AE2500 that Linksys sent me to replace the AM10, for 3 weeks. It was very easy to setup and has a solid 4 bars versus the 2 or 3 bars from my AM10. My laptop has 5 bars from the same location as my desktop with the AE2500. Both the AM10 and the AE2500 have a normal operating temperature of around 105 F. I recommend the AE2500 over the AM10, and use an extension cable to get the best signal strength. The AM10 is one star, the AE2500 is four stars.Update: The first one started to lose signal strength as it become uncomfortably warm to touch in an hour of continuous use. Linksys Technical Support said it needed to be replaced. I received another one from Amazon, and it had the same problem. Linksys is going to send me a new one, and I will post a new update after I verify that it works properly (or not).I've had this for 3 days and the performance has been rock solid. It was easy to install and it is a huge improvement. I have a Dell XPS 8500 Desktop with a Dell 1703 internal wireless card. The signal strength ranged from poor to good, and the connection often dropped. My desktop is in a different room about 30 feet from my Linksys E1200 wireless router. With the Cisco Valet, signal strength is consistently in the excellent range, always connected, and my internet browser is definitely faster. The extension cable is a big plus because you can place Valet in a safe place away from interference. I wish I had purchased this long ago!The Cisco Valet requires that the wireless connection is managed by Microsoft Windows Wireless Connection Manager. My default was the Dell Wireless Connection Manager, but it was fairly easy to figure out how to make the switch.

It works in Win8/7 fairly well, but prepare for it to Overheat and Not be recogized with an error stating " a USB Device has Stopped working, and cannot be Recognized"....Making you have to reboot and Completely Uninstall the driver and RE-install driver..I Took the plastic cover off of the stick so it's a bare PCB board exposed to open-air and my signal hardly ever drops now and It hasn't overheated since. It's only OK for the money since it's not for everyone and It WILL fail Eventually because of bad Design and No Cooling for the device...these should at least have a small 1/2cm fan or something to cool them...It's just logical...Just more Shovelware crap from Cisco/Linksys.....

This USB WiFi adapter dongle includes flash storage with setup files and a nice USB extension cord with mounting pedestal. It works fine, but I noticed it gets pretty hot to the touch after being on a while. That indicates that it is drawing more power than it needs to from the USB port. However it works well, is super easy to install, it's by Cisco/Linksys, and it's cheap and comes with Prime shipping. There's enough flash memory space to use it as a thumb drive too.

This USB powered wireless device is perfect when you don't want to run Ethernet cat 5 cables to your PC or should your laptops wireless card go bad. All software is actually installed within the Cisco and is a breeze to install. If you want, you can remove the valet drive from it's base and plug it directly into a USB port. We have one in use now on a tower that's in a remote location in the back of our attic and its picking up our wireless router signal located 2 stories down in the front of our first floor. The speed might be slightly down, but not significantly. We can still do our emails, downloads, Facebook, YouTube, etc. I carry one with me in my laptop bag for "just in case" and have shown it to several friends who used it and immediately went to Amazon and bought there own.

If you get this, there are no instructions. What I didn't realize was it works like a thumb drive in that the drivers are on the device. Head to your "My Computer" and click on the new Cisco drive to install this thing. I downloaded the latest version from their website instead. Once the drivers were up and running. This found my router quickly and had an incredible signal. I have 30 Mbps internet. A speedtest showed full 30 Mbps on this wireless receiver. Very nice. Network speed was great. I am very happy with the device and would recommend it so far. If I have issues, I will report back with updates.