Hello,

I see deals all the time for cheap USB wifi cards but I never buy any since I don't know if they'll work in linux.

I run ubuntu 11.10 on 5 of my computers and a few could use an upgrade from 802.11g. I did buy a card once that was 802.11n but actual speeds were the same if not slower than by 802.11g card.

So anyhow, please suggest a sub $20 usb 802.11n 300mbps card.

-Thanks

ASUS USB-N13 is 19.99 USD on Amazon and people had success using in Ubuntu with some easy tweaks: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi..._Natty%2011.04

I have one of these:
http://www.langtoninfo.com/showitem....=4260113571767
It works very well with the Realtek staging drivers. It's not under $20 on the site, but it cost me under $20 at the store. It has excellent range and speed. I also bought a 1 Watt antenna to go with it ... it pretty much doubles the range.

Thanks for the info. Newegg has the ASUS USB-N13 today only for $15 with free shipping. What a deal. I bought 4 of them.

OK well I got the adapters in today and plugged them in. They are SLOW. Super slow. I was able to transfer a file from my linux server and it went at 400kb/sec. My old 802.11g usb card goes about 1.5mb/sec. So a 10 meg file now takes about 25 seconds whereas it used to take about 7 seconds. This is only about 10 feet in direct sight of the router.

What could the problem be? Does this adapter just plain out suck? I get only half the signal bars compared to my old G adapter. Iwconfig reports i am connected at 60 Mb/s. I am using Ubuntu 11.10, Kubuntu 11.10 and Xubuntu 11.10 on my computers, all act the same.

Thanks for any help.

What is the output of lsusb? Some wireless devices just don't have the best drivers. There may be a downloadable driver that you can install that's better. Like how it is with the broadcom cards. But to help you further, we need to know which chipset it uses.

If you have to, maybe you can RMA them. Hopefully you can get them to work better though.


This one works very well. It's only 150Mps, but it performs well under linux. (Uses ath9k)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833704045

LSUSB reports:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0b05:1784 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N13 802.11n Network Adapter [Ralink RT2870]
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04e8:3413 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd SCX-4100 Scanner
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 15d9:0a4c Trust International B.V. USB+PS/2 Optical Mouse


-Any ideas?
-Thanks

I think you can get improved performance, but it will require some research. I'd start by blacklisting the conflicting modules of other ralink wifi adaptors. It's all covered in a thread I found. It's quite long, but full of different solutions.

http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=852.0

One guy claims he can get up to 270Mpbs with that dongle in Linux.
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-...pter-list.html

But he seems to be using an older driver.

What does this mean? What do you recommend I do?


I think that's with the older kernels and not with the 3.0 kernel. Not sure I can do that anymore since the driver is built into the kernel.

If you're using Ubuntu, it would be a module unless you built your own kernel.

At a terminal, you can type lsmod to see the loaded modules. If you see more than one ralink module, you should blacklist the ones that aren't for your card.

You can find out how to blacklist them from here:
http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2009...necessary.html

Your card uses the rt2870sta module. If other similar modules are loaded, they can cause problems on any kernel. (Such as rt2800usb) There are other options for troubleshooting in that thread I posted earlier as well.

Furthermore, here are my modules in use:


Module Size Used by
des_generic 21191 0
md4 12523 0
bnep 17923 2
rfcomm 38408 0
bluetooth 148839 10 bnep,rfcomm
pci_stub 12550 1
vboxpci 22882 0
vboxnetadp 13328 0
vboxnetflt 27211 0
vboxdrv 251814 3 vboxpci,vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt
nls_utf8 12493 1
cifs 248799 2
dm_crypt 22565 0
arc4 12473 2
rt2800usb 22222 0
rt2800lib 48909 1 rt2800usb
crc_ccitt 12595 1 rt2800lib
rt2x00usb 20092 1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib 48146 3 rt2800usb,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb
mac80211 393459 3 rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
cfg80211 172427 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
snd_hda_codec_realtek 254125 1
ppdev 12849 0
snd_hda_intel 24262 2
snd_hda_codec 91859 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80435 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
snd_rawmidi 25241 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
w83627ehf 29165 0
coretemp 13188 0
adt7475 21887 0
hwmon_vid 12658 2 w83627ehf,adt7475
nvidia 10390874 42
asus_atk0110 17742 0
snd_seq 51567 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
parport_pc 32114 1
snd_timer 28932 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 55902 13 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,sn d_seq_device
soundcore 12600 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14115 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
lp 17455 0
parport 40930 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
vesafb 13489 1
usbhid 41905 0
hid 77367 1 usbhid
floppy 60310 0
atl2 27979 0
$ sudo rmmod rt2800lib
ERROR: Module rt2800lib is in use by rt2800usb
$ sudo rmmod rt2x00usb
ERROR: Module rt2x00usb is in use by rt2800usb

Well, I blacklisted it and tried to do a sudo modprobe st2870sta but it said Fatal: Module rt2870sta not found.

Seems like that would be the right module to use. Any idea why it's doing this?

-Thanks

I took a poke into my kernel config and I believe the right drivers are loaded for your usb adaptor.

The rt2870sta module is the staging driver that is available from the Ralank site. That might work better, but you might have to modify it in some way to compile with a newer kernel. (It's dated 7/2010)

That first thread I posted involves a lot of solutions. One might work for you. I believe there is even some customized drivers someone had there that improved download speed. Most of the relevant info is on the last three pages or so.

You might also have better luck using ndiswrapper.

btw, I also have an older ralink usb adaptor. It was practically useless with a newer kernel. I thought I was using a 2400 baud modem. I never did look into improving it, as I just switched to a Wireless N adaptor.