I have some pretty horrible experiences with USB WiFi adapters in high density WiFi environments, they don’t roam well, properly scan for APs and generally don’t handle as well as built in WiFi in laptops, tablets, etc.
Does anyone have any experience with this and could recommend some good model for USB WiFi? Preferably with 802.11ac capabilities and Win + Linux support.
My recommendation is to go wired, but if you must stay wireless then find the one with external antenna option.
Would probably replace the antenna off the standard external antenna but that can be done for pretty cheap.
Yeah, I agree but not always possible.
the device you are using has no internal wifi?
I'm currently using a Netgear A6210 adapter and it's really good, it's 867MB/s AC and 300MB/s N, comes with a weighted base, foldable antenna, many options in the Windows drivers, plug and play on W10 but it's pretty bulky (less than the ones with two antennas) so if what you're going to connect it to is going to be carried around I think would be knocked out 99% of the time. It uses a Mediatek chip so it's okay in that regard.
Just be sure that whatever you end up with has dual band support for 2.4 and 5ghz. I know I made that mistake at least once.
Do you use it in a demanding environment or for home use?
There have been reported issues with the netgear driver and the advice has been to use drivers from Mediatek.
I've used it when I'm at the university and I didn't had any issue. I'm using the W10 drivers so the Mediatek one and performance are really good.
Not exactly, I plan infrastructure and handle some support and this includes checking on wireless performance and coverage. Sometimes users with less then amazing wireless hardware report issues and it gets quite costly and time consuming to investigate it. Ideally I would stock some adapters that I can lend to them or recommend them buying.
oh, i see. i had assumed you were on a laptop with a failed wifi card.
i feel your pain, moving to a BYOD model later next year :-/
It's a mix, some stationary stuff but also some laptops and mobile devices that could use better wireless hardware.