Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

obankobi · 2010-09-22 22:57:15

Anyone have any experience setting up USB Wifi dongles? I need to get one, and I'm not sure which one to use. I've seen the pages that list compatible models, but every one that I Google comes up with forums posts about something going horribly wrong with them. What do you use, or know that others use?
Thanks.

tomk · 2010-09-22 23:53:50

I used to have one with a Ralink chipset, worked well with the rt73usb driver. Manufacturer was Canyon.

xdemo · 2010-09-23 02:09:39

Heres the one i've been using for the past 2 years:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D8053-Wi … B000RMRU5Y

Has a ralink chipset, uses rt2870sta module, works *out of the box* except you have to blacklist the rt28* and rt2x* to get it working:

MODULES=(!rt2800usb !rt2x00usb rt2870sta)

to your /etc/rc.conf

Works really well though.
I'd say, ralink chipsets are the best to go for. Only ones i have used with Linux however, drivers are open source and easily available, works perfectly on the *BSD's too.

moose jaw · 2010-09-23 02:24:00

I had pretty unreliable performance from a TP-Link TL-WN821N, which uses the ar9170 chipset and the ar9170usb driver. Then I replaced it with a TP-Link TL-WN722N, which uses the ar9271 chipset and the ath9k_htc driver, which is apparently newer and more actively developed than ar9170usb, and it's been totally reliable and great. Drivers and firmware for both of these are in the 2.6.35 kernel and Arch's firmware package; both work out of the box. If you haven't yet, you should check out the Linux wireless site for details on hardware models, chipsets, and drivers: http://linuxwireless.org

dugan · 2010-09-23 20:05:53

My TP-Link TL-WN321G works great with a 2.6.33 kernel. However, it does *not* work with a 2.6.35 kernel (rt73usb driver). It's detected, it can scan for wifi networks, but it won't connect.

Searching the forums for "rt73usb" indicates that anything using that driver should currently be avoided.

Last edited by dugan (2010-09-23 20:21:13)

BurntSushi · 2010-09-23 20:17:42

The Netgear wireless adapter works out of the box as well. (WG111.)

Last edited by BurntSushi (2010-09-23 20:19:33)

obankobi · 2010-09-25 17:18:58

Thanks everyone, I'll have to comtemplate a great deal. My dad bought one yesterday for $6 (?..suspicious) off of Amazon that supposedly uses one of the Ralink drivers. If that doesn't work, I think I'll try xdemo's, it sounds promising. Thanks again.

netmanny · 2010-09-30 20:48:50

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170

Is the new module for Netgear WN111v2 among others.

Any one has had any luck making this Driver?

The home for driver
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developer … esting.git

The firmware
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170
I really don't know how to use git......
So any help Appreciated.

Loafers · 2010-10-03 18:02:45

xdemo wrote:

Heres the one i've been using for the past 2 years:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D8053-Wi … B000RMRU5Y
Has a ralink chipset, uses rt2870sta module, works *out of the box* except you have to blacklist the rt28* and rt2x* to get it working:
MODULES=(!rt2800usb !rt2x00usb rt2870sta)
to your /etc/rc.conf
Works really well though.
I'd say, ralink chipsets are the best to go for. Only ones i have used with Linux however, drivers are open source and easily available, works perfectly on the *BSD's too.

I've had a different experience. The driver that comes along by default is extremely slow and I've never got rt2870sta working for me. In fact it causes me to fatally crash when I connect to a network using WICD.

thelucster · 2010-11-27 19:10:00

xdemo wrote:

Heres the one i've been using for the past 2 years:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D8053-Wi … B000RMRU5Y
Has a ralink chipset, uses rt2870sta module, works *out of the box* except you have to blacklist the rt28* and rt2x* to get it working:
MODULES=(!rt2800usb !rt2x00usb rt2870sta)
to your /etc/rc.conf
Works really well though.
I'd say, ralink chipsets are the best to go for. Only ones i have used with Linux however, drivers are open source and easily available, works perfectly on the *BSD's too.

I attempted to get one of these, however it turned out to be a newer model, a Belkin F6D4050 V1(000). For some reason the device IDs aren't included in the config, however it is easy to setup (I wish I had found this guide an hour and a half ago). After following this (and the rest of the stuff re RT2870: firmware and the /etc/Wireless files) it works like a treat:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Setting_Up_Belkin_F6D4050_Wireless_USB_Dongles

If anyone is trying to get hold of this (there are about 4 different Belkin Wireless N dongles that all look the same), the one I got is called "Enhanced Wireless USB Adapter", says "N 150" on the packaging, and comes in a rather big oversized box. I got it from PC World for £19.99.

Last edited by thelucster (2010-11-27 19:10:44)

3]) · 2010-11-28 09:55:31

My lsusb states : Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., I got a E1820.

Connects flawlessly with the Sakis3g script.
Check it at http://www.sakis3g.org/

mariusmeyer · 2010-11-30 11:19:42

netmanny wrote:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170
Is the new module for Netgear WN111v2 among others.
Any one has had any luck making this Driver?
The home for driver
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developer … esting.git
The firmware
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/carl9170
I really don't know how to use git......
So any help Appreciated.

I built this driver yesterday, and it works great!! I have the NetGear WN111v2 as well, and suddenly realized how incrediblt slow my connections were.
So I tried building it, and (for me at least) the carl9170 driver rocks.

What I did: Download the compat-wireless tarball from here: http://wireless.kernel.org/download/com … eless-2.6/ and choose the newest one.
Untar it somewhere, like ~/build/ or something. Then, from a terminal, cd to the directory you untar'ed, and type

./scripts/driver-select carl9170

as a normal user.
Then

make

and

sudo make install

should install it just fine remember to have kernel26-headers and linux-api-headers installed first!
Now you only need to get the firmware from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/ … l9170-1.fw and put it in /lib/firmware/
And to be on the safe side, add !arusb_lnx and !ar9170usb to your MODULES() in rc.conf, so the drivers don't conflict. Good luck!

EDIT: I found some time after all you can find my PKGBUILD here: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=44100

Last edited by mariusmeyer (2010-12-02 23:14:15)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-22 22:57:15

Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#2 2010-09-22 23:53:50

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#3 2010-09-23 02:09:39

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#4 2010-09-23 02:24:00

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#5 2010-09-23 20:05:53

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#6 2010-09-23 20:17:42

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#7 2010-09-25 17:18:58

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#8 2010-09-30 20:48:50

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#9 2010-10-03 18:02:45

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#10 2010-11-27 19:10:00

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#11 2010-11-28 09:55:31

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

#12 2010-11-30 11:19:42

Re: Experience with USB Wifi dongle?

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