BrosTrend 650Mbps Linux Compatible WiFi Adapter Supports Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Kubuntu, Zorin, PureOS, Raspberry Pi 2+, Windows, Dual Band USB Wireless Adapter w/ Long Range WiFi Antenna

I don't usually write product reviews but this BrosTrends wifi adaptor deserves one. I am assembling a new desktop computer to dual boot Win11 and Linux Debian. A new motherboard with a Wifi-7 chip on board. Works great for Win but no drivers available for Linux. Thus the need for a USB wifi adaptor. This is the fourth usb adaptor I purchased. The other three....no Linux drivers. So, I selected this AC5L adaptor because the description said it "works with Linux". If you are considering one of these because of the "works with Linux", go to BrosTrends website to verify that your particular Linux distribution is shown as compatible. Most are but there are some aren't yet compatible. As these drivers make it into more kernels, I believe more and more distributions will work with this adapter. So, I received this late Friday afternoon and began the installation and testing. Win11 setup was easy and it connected to my router. In Linux it was not immediately recognized. After doing all that I knew how to do, I decided to contact their Customer Service. This was about 10:00 pm Friday evening. I expected to get a response Monday or Tuesday. I got a response in about 10 minutes! I followed their instructions, we emailed back and forth a few times and by Saturday noon it was working just like I wanted. BrosTrend Customer Service is the best I have ever worked with. Now, for you guys who bought an 870e Crosshair Hero motherboard and are finding out the wifi-7 onboard will not work with Linux, this adapter is a nice workaround. By the way, my installation is working fine with Secure Boot and Fast Boot enabled. A big THANK YOU to the BrosTrend customer service team that helped me!

Works great. I had issues breathing life back into an old PC from 2009 with linux related issues with wifi adaptors. This game with easy instructions, easy command line install, and then my PC recognized the dongle and I have wifi. It DID require internet connection to start with to get the drivers for me with this method, but it works great.

I was very skeptical about this being a plug and play internet solution for my WiFi-less Dell 7040 mini PC running an old copy of Windows 10. It arrived at my house and I literally plugged it in, and my house network popped up. I connected to the internet with zero problems. I was then able to install Zorin OS with no issues whatsoever. It works great! This is worth every penny for those looking to repurpose a computer they already have but are skeptical like I was. I'm completely happy about this product and I would recommend it.

UPDATE AT BOTTOM: Only issue i have is that it only folds a certain way so the antenna extends only a certain direction when plugged in ( bends to the right when plugged in, not mulitdirectional) . other than that, AFTER INSTALLING THE DRIVERS, it worked fine. No plug and play, you have to go to the site and download the drivers (meaning you need wifi prior to getting it set up). 100% after that. 4 stars because i went from a tiny edemax usb wifi dongle that was 10 years old. UPDATE: great upgrade from a small usb wifi dongle that i had for almost a decade. i was looking to update as components got better. This antenna will get some nice speeds for my starlink. its just heavy on the usb port and i was having connection issues so i pulled out an old usb dongle with a ribbon cable connection. puts out 200mbs upload handing in the position. im happy. old connector with a new antenna... cant argue. starlink as well so its all comparable. .

Worked great on Linux. It was plug and play. .

After installing drivers, returned ever worse performance than my Pi’s tiny WiFi chip. 5mg vs Pi’s 20. Total junk. Dial up modem speeds.

I installed this on a Zima single board computer that is running OpenMediaVault on a Debian distro. I followed the instructions on the included installation guide card that came in the package. The install went without issues and it works great. This solved a backup issue for a wifi connected laptop. So far it is very stable and has a good transfer rate (I have not measured it, but it is on par with expectations for the time it takes.) Update: This suddenly stopped working on my OpenMediaVault installation. I have done everything I can to get it working, including wiping and reinstalling the OMV distro. No luck. I tested it on a windows laptop and it worked great. So, am not sure what the issue is, but I don't think it's the Wifi device. So, just be aware. 2nd Update: I reinstalled the driver (linux.brostrend.com) and got an error. Per the instructions on their troubleshooting page, I ran dpkg --configure -a This corrected the issue and it is working perfectly again. I can only assume an update to my OMV instance caused the issue, not the BrosTrend WiFi adapter.

Install procedure for Desktop Linux (Linux Mint) was straightforward, just run the installer from the website. However, the installer is missing one critical step for Raspberry Pi (Raspian OS): `sudo apt full-upgrade` to upgrade the Kernel after the installer installs new Linux headers. Reboot and re-install the driver and it should be working. Reached out to `trend-tech.net.cn` customer service and they replied quickly and were technical. Quite surprised! (-1 star): Advertised speeds (433 Mbps on 5Ghz, 200 Mbps on 2.4Ghz) do not meet specs. I tested on Desktop on a USB 3.0 port: 2.4Ghz iperf3 speed test: I was able to achieve roughly 50Mbps up/down. 2018 Macbook Pro's internal WiFi was also able to reach 50Mbps up/down, from the same location. My 2.4Ghz's channel width on the Access Point is set to 20Mhz, so this is the limiting factor here. So in this case, I would say my AP is the limitation here, not the AC5L. 5Ghz iperf3 speed test: I was able to achieve roughly 200Mbps up/down. 2018 MBP internal WiFi: 450Mbps up/down. My 5Ghz channel width on the AP is 80Mhz, so the AP is not the limitation here. I ran the speed test several times and with parallel connections, but it still limited to ~200Mbps. Looks like this is a hardware limitation of the AC5L, so they should advertise it as maybe a 200Mbps capable unit, not 433Mbps. (I have not tested with 160Mhz channel width, but it's likely not the limitation here) (-1 star): The antenna does not rotate. It's fixed in place/glued down. If you're using it on a Desktop computer with vertical USB ports, then it's probably OK. But if you're using it on a laptop or a Raspberry Pi with horizontal USB ports, know that the antenna will be horizontal. This is especially an issue because the Raspberry Pi has the power connection on the side, so you can't even place the Pi sideways (antenna would be pointing down). Overall, I bought this to extend the signal strength/attenuation of 5Ghz network to my Raspberry Pi. For that, it works perfectly. I only need about a stable ~100Mbps connection to stream uncompressed video from the Raspberry Pi. But if you're buying to use for 200-400Mbps, you'll be disappointed.

Branché sur Ubuntu, driver déjà présent car pas besoin de télécharger quoi que ce soit, opérationnel immédiatement, bonne réception :-)

La BrosTrend Linux Chiavetta WiFi USB AC650 è davvero un ottimo dispositivo di rete. La utilizzo su un PC dedicato a Linux e riesce a captare segnali anche piuttosto lontani, con velocità e potenza molto buone. L’installazione su Linux è semplice grazie al comando fornito dai produttori, mentre su Windows tutto avviene automaticamente, senza complicazioni. L'antenna della chiavetta forse è un pò troppo lunga, ma comoda da usare e costruita con materiali di buona qualità. In generale, offre prestazioni affidabili sia per Linux che per Windows, rendendola una scelta consigliata per chi cerca una soluzione versatile e funzionale.

Después de probar otros 2 adaptadores con diferentes inconvenientes con mi Linux Ubuntu, este funcionó a la primer y sin necesidad de configurar nada ( solo la contraseña del wifi obviamente) Muy recomendado

Ha sido enchufarlo en mi equipo con Linux Mint y funcionar sin nada más . Buen alcance.

I needed wpa3 on my old 2015 MBP running Linux Mint so I purchased this adaptor. Linux Mint recognised it, installed the drivers automatically and connected to the wpa3 wifi straight away. Amazing !!!!