@CluelessTech
Hey there, I am an IT tech in Australia and I have found that TP-Link have been distributing US version TL-WN881ND cards in Australia over the last few years (first noticed in 2019 and I have seen more US version cards when I purchased some in the last couple of weeks in the hope they stopped distributing the US ones but frustratingly and obviously haven't).
This has caused major headaches for me and a number of my clients that I have supplied these TL-WN881ND US version cards to as the US cards have frequency restrictions in line with US regulations, they can only use and are restricted to channels 1-11 as when used in the United States that is their regulation for use of wireless frequencies.
After spending a considerable amount of time investigating wireless issues for a client in 2019 and then concluding that the US version WiFI adapters were the cause of the issue when modems/ gateways/ access points were using channel 12 or 13, I I have been forced to spend a considerable amount of time replacing all the US adapters in my client's systems which has seen me lose thousands of dollars in labour and travel costs along with lost revenue to resolve an issue that TP-Link have created.
TP-Link have been very uninterested in discussing this US version adapter issue with me and uninterested in substantiating their choice to distribute US version cards in Australia (and clearly haven't stopped distributing the US version adapters at the time of this post), these US version cards are clearly unsuitable for use in Australia and any other countries that allow use of channels 12 and 13.
Not sure where you are located (what country) but if you live outside of the Unites States I am wondering if you have a US version adapter (US will be on the sticker/ label on the adapter itself) and if so is/ was your WiFi set to or is/ was automatically using channel 12 or 13 to minimise interference and therefore the card could not see it due to it's channel restrictions (card can see Channel 1-11 only)?
Look forward to hearing from you.