N150 USB2.0 (Linux) wifi adapter $2.78 shipped Newegg Marketplace (china seller)

[VirtualLarry]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67038T0723

They sell these on ebay too, for a similar price. Search for "SODIAL USB wifi", I think.

Anyways, I went looking for cheap adapters to bundle with systems I sell / give away, and Newegg had these listed among their marketplace sellers for $2.78 ea.

I'm currently booted into Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64-bit, on my J1900 Gigabyte Brix mini-PC, and plugged the adapter in, and it was instantly recognized, and I disabled the wired connection, and this little thing is doing alright. It's not super-fast, but not super-slow either. I got 46Mbit/sec down and 18Mbit/sec up on Speedtest.net beta, with a 50/50 internet connection (really 58/60). That's to my access point in an adjacent room.

So if you need a cheap adapter, these work decently, at least in Linux.

Chipset is a Realtek RTL8188. Mini-CD driver disc included for Windows, but the newest version of Windows mentioned on the label is 7, so I don't know if these work in 8/8.1/10 yet. Will try it in my Windows 10 test machine next.

Shipping took around two weeks or a little more.

Edit: I powered on my Skylake G4400 Win10 Home 64-bit machine, disabled the wired ethernet (so it couldn't use it to download drivers), then I plugged this USB wifi in, and it automagically loaded drivers. I connected to my AP, no problems. Speedtest.net shows 26Mbit/sec down, and 28Mbit/sec up. So, lower down than I got with Linux, and higher up. Still somewhat decent, though, for the price.

Doesn't seem to get overly hot, either.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

If it's anything like the Airlink-branded RTL8188S adapters I've used in the past, these should be reliable, albeit nothing astounding speed wise.

In for a couple, thx Larry!

 

[Macgyversite]

In for a couple too. Always need backup.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Your welcome. I saw these, and saw the two 5-egg reviews, and thought, "those don't sound so bad". I've used worse, much, much worse. Ones that would only connect at 1Mbit/sec goodput, if that, even though they were showing "130Mbit/sec" connection rates.

These are much more usable, I think. If your internet connection is higher than 25-30Mbit/sec, and you want to do HD video streaming on your PC, then you might want to think a bit more up-market.

I've also had good luck with the PremierTek PT-8812 (RealTek 8812AU USB3.0 chipset). Those particular ones do NOT work out-of-the-box with Linux (yet, not in mainline kernel), but there are sources out there that you can compile and make it work, and it works OOTB in Windows 10, and has drivers for Windows 7 64-bit. I get connect rates of 500-600Mbit/sec to my AC1200 AP, and transfer rates to my NAS of 18-23MB/sec over wifi.

 

[Macgyversite]

As long as they work. Like you said. Good for a non WIFI mobo to give people that option.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, now I am confused. I went out, doing some errands and getting food. When I came back, the apt complex was having a blackout. Thankfully, the power turned back on soon.

Later tonight (now-ish), I turned on my Windows 10 / Skylake PC to do some more testing with this adapter. But for whatever reason, it seems to be acting up now.

Before I was getting 25Mbit/sec up and down, approx.

I tried re-enabling the wired connection, and I got 55Mbit/sec up and down.

So it wasn't using the wired connection accidentally, when I tested it the first time.

I used fast.com, and beta.speedtest.net, and I was getting around 1Mbit/sec up and down now.

I tried rebooting, unplugging and re-plugging, and checking Device Manager to "roll back" the drive, if it had installed a newer one that didn't work right. It apparently didn't, as there was nothing to roll back to.

So, who knows what's going on. Did the adapter get damaged, does my wireless AP need to be rebooted, is it just that time of night where nothing wireless works right? I don't know. I know my backup connection, I could barely connect to. It would associate, but I couldn't even get beta.speedtest.net to load properly.

I'm going to try a fresh adapter and re-test the speed.

Edit: I tried another adapter, I got 5.2Mbit/sec on fast.com, and around 3Mbit/sec down on beta.speedtest.net. WTF.

Edit: Rebooted my AP, basically, no change. WTF.

Sorry if I mislead anyone, they were working better when I initially tested them, both on Linux and Win10.

Edit: There might be something to do with the time of day. I used to have awful problems with one of my laptops, after like 11PM-1AM, wireless speed would drop down to nearly nothing, AT forums pages would take forever to load, etc. Never quite figured it out, although I accused the powers that be at AT forums of discriminating against Linux users.

Edit: Re-tested the Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64-bit on Brix J1900 rig again. Got 17Mbit/sec down on fast.com, got 13Mbit/sec down, and only 2Mbit/sec up, on beta.speedtest.net.

Sigh. Not quite sure what's going on, other than there seems to be some sort of time-of-day thing going on here.

Edit: OK, I tested all three of these Realtek RTL8188 Wifi adapters, and my PT-8812AU adapter on my Win10 / Skylake box.

Initially, I had adapter #1 in my Linux box, plugged into my powered USB3.0 hub. It gets 20Mbit/sec+, on both PCs.
Adapter #2 was initially in the Win10 64-bit box, in the front-panel USB2.0 port. Initially, it got 25Mbit/sec in both directions, but is now benchmarking at 1Mbit/sec.
Adapter #3 that I took out of the package, benchmarks at 2-5Mbit/sec down on the Win10 PC.

Oh, yeah, I tried all three of them in my powered USB3.0 hub, in case they weren't getting enough power. Didn't seem to make much difference.

Enabling my PT-8812AU (AC1200) wifi, and connecting to my same 2.4Ghz AP, I get 55Mbit/sec both ways, on speedtest.net. So it's not my AP, per se.

I guess the quality or performance of these cheap adapters is highly variable. I may have partially burned some of them out, when the power went out here too.

Sigh. I feel bad, I was so hyped when I was getting 25-30Mbit/sec with these adapters, but now the one I originally had in my Win10 machine, is only getting 1Mbit/sec in both directions, if that.

Edit: I tried all three adapters in my Win10 / Skylake box's front USB2.0 port.
#1 (originally the one from my Linux box): 35Mbit/sec on fast.com, like 40Mbit/sec on beta.speedtest.net.
#2 (may be damaged from power outage? originally from Win10 box): 2-3Mbit/sec on fast.com and speedtest.net.
#3 (fresh from package): around 14Mbit/sec on fast.com and 25Mbit/sec down and 10Mbit/sec up on speedtest.net.

So, maybe these don't suck, but they are sensitive to overheating or power glitches?

 

[Sonikku]

If it's dirt cheap and ships out of China...

 

[Harrod]

Thats a good deal, I would get a few also if I didn't already have 3 from various other companies.

 

[Macgyversite]

I think we have all spent $5 on stuff that dont work.

DWAI

Dont worry about it

 

[Macgyversite]

I got mine today. Installation was a breeze. Win 7 Ultimate. Interface was really good. I averaged 12-15mbps down and 5 to 8 up. Speedtest.net to two different local servers. I have Comcasts 150mbps plan. The WIFI strength was at 70% to 75% and link quality 80% to 100%.

They work. Great for back up and or an inexpensive system lacking a wifi card or if your laptop wifi goes bad. Simple solution. Sometimes my Comcast goes out and I hot spot my Tmobile(free with my plan) to a wifi adapter. This will work just fine as well as the other Asus and Trendnet deals posted here.

Great deal as far as I am concerned.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I got mine today. Installation was a breeze. Win 7 Ultimate. Interface was really good. I averaged 12-15mbps down and 5 to 8 up. Speedtest.net to two different local servers.
They work.
Great deal as far as I am concerned.

Thanks. I'm glad I could point out a deal. I was a little disappointed that performance between my different units was so inconsistent, but at that price point, that's unsurprising.

 

[Macgyversite]

I just got done streaming some 4K stuff from Youtube. Yeah I have a Sony XBR 900C. I use it as my monitor. My desktop screen is at 4k. The adapter works. Its nice to have 4 little adapters in my drawer. Two are these. That I can throw in systems or whatever. Cant beat the prices of these.