Amazon.com: Customer reviews: 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

Fresh Install, Easy install with Linux, NO tech support needed.

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2024

I bought a refurbed Dell Optiplex 990 which came without wireless or Bluetooth capability. I have installed Linux Mint on it as a learning platform. My existing Windows based dongles worked (sorta), Mint tries to adapt to whatever wireless it finds. But neither my "no-name" POS or my elderly and slow Netgear dongle worked all that well.. Mint would spend a good hour connecting and disconnecting (trying different stuff, I guess) before it settled down to work slowly but properly. Heh, Heh, I wanted to LEARN!

I got tired of all this and looked for a direct Linux support wireless dongle. Note: There isn't much out there.

But I did find BrosTrend, which appears to go out of its way to support the Debian/Ubuntu line of Linux Distros. I had never heard of BrosTrend, but when I went to their web site, they impressed me with their professional looking and complete sales and support efforts. This isn't some fly-by-night junk vendor, this is a serious company that wants to make a good name for itself.

It came with an install CD, but I didn't use it. I normally just download the latest drivers from the website and follow the instructions I find there, It's the best way to get the latest drivers and instructions.

Installation was real easy for Linux you just copy the Install instruction you find on the Web page, then open the terminal on you Linux machine, paste the instruction, into the terminal Window, and press enter.

It may ask you for your password that you use to boot your computer (Depends on what folder you open the terminal in). If so, just enter it and press enter again. After that, it takes about 2-3 minutes to install.

Reboot your PC, and after the reboot, it will ask you for your network's security Password and connect to your home network.

It's fast and stable, everything I was looking for. Highly recommended for experienced and Newbies alike.

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David Schatz

Well Built and Functional

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2024

Verified Purchase

This is the third USB adapter I tried. TP Link didn't have Linux drivers and would drop connections after a few hours. D-Link had drivers but there were no instructions and they wouldn't install and would drop connections. The BrosTrend supported my Ubuntu installation perfectly and has been working for a few days straight now. Ubuntu 22.04.4 kernel 6.5.0-35-generic.

Build quality is good.

I initially avoided this one because I had not heard of the brand but am very pleased and would recommend.

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Paul Hawkins

Worked great, but even better support with issues

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2024

Verified Purchase

This product worked fine out of the box. Due to a config issue from previous wifi adapter I go confused on my Linux wifi config page. When down unneeded path and downloaded, compiled, and installed the Linux kernel module for this adapter. Vendors docs had an easy to follow steps to do this.

At same time I reached out to support with questions and their response was fast and to folks who could answer more technical questions since I am an older embedded software engineer. From this discussion I soon realized the unneeded path I took (but no harm since I now had the latest kernel module), but more importantly they showed me something new I did not know about Linux wifi config. This came in use the next time I saw the issue and understood it cause.

Their support response was above and beyond what I have come to expect, and it is much appreciated.

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Been

many issues, different usb layout then shown

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024

Verified Purchase

first off, and most importantly, the product i got and what was shown don't match, in the product info, an antenna going upward perpendicular to the usb port

what i received has an antenna parallel to the usb port that cannot be rotated, meaning it goes straight out away from the port or directly into my other usb devices, defeating the entire point of having a long range antena on a laptop

on top of that, it says it works with linux, and it might, but didn't right away for me, the institution booklet mentions a cd that it did not come with, and gives little to no info for a linux connection, i only found anything about how to connect by reading through other peoples reviews

it possibly still working on linux is a minor point to me at most, as its angle means it won't work on a laptop unless i remove it from its one adjustable point and glue it in at an acceptable angle on a laptop, something non ideal

i shouldn't have to email a support team to get info on how to install something if you are a windows or mac user, get a different antenna that can rotate in 2 directions

One person found this helpful

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terag0

Easy to install for Linux Mint

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2024

Verified Purchase

Works fine with Linux Mint 20.3. Only difficulty is that you must connect the computer with a wired network connection to download and install the driver. After that, reboot, and you have wireless capability. Only down side is the antenna cannot be rotated for the most convenient position but the hinge allows it to be set to 0, 45, and 90 degrees. Recommend if you have a Debian distribution of Linux.

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CEddy470

Great USB WiFi adapter for Linux/PopOS that's fast, stable, easy to set up, and headache free

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2022

Verified Purchase

I bought this since the WiFi card in my laptop was threatening to die for good and I needed something that was both fast and stable enough to do zoom calls on a laptop in a basement connect to a WiFi base that is on the floor above. This thing is definitely up to the challenge and since installing + testing it I have not had any issues at all and can say that this is easily $20 well spent.

While for me it wasn't quite "plug-and-play" directly out of the box all I needed to do was google the model number + "linux drivers" and the first result that pops up is the BrosTrend website with the installation instructions. Then all you have to do is copy and paste a one line bash script from the website into your terminal, hit enter, type you password, reboot, and voila you are done. The whole process can be done in <3 minutes provided you either already have access to an internet connection or have a cd drive to get the drivers from the included cd they packaged it with - which I didn't test, because I don't have a cd drive - but that is an option if you don't have an alternate way to access the internet to set it up. It does look like some other customers had plug-and-play success so your-mileage-may-vary as usual with Linux & connecting to the internet. That being said, if you are on an Ubuntu based distribution that is up-to-date you are probably good to go with this usb adapter.

Relevant System Specs for the computer I'm using it on:
OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS x86_64
Host: GF63 Thin 9RCX REV:1.0
Kernel: 5.19.0-76051900-generic

2 people found this helpful

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RichardFromWantagh

Good Value, good install

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

I installed this on a Dell Optiplex 755 desktop which had no wifi. It dual boots Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux 18.04.
On Windows, the enclosed CD had all the files needed to install. As the quick start advised, I ran Setup.exe, it ran fine, and that was all.
On Ubuntu, it is necessary to download a package from the vendor's repository. This is less secure than supplying it on CD. It also means you cannot install unless you already have internet access on the machine before you start.
So I had to run an ethernet cable to the machine in order to install the wifi. The installer script ran smoothly but ended with an error message, which happened after the script reported a successful install. I didn't follow up with tech support because, after the script ran, the wireless worked fine, so I didn't care.
Faster speeds are available with other hardware , of course, but for my older machine with USB 2.0 and an older (Comcast) wireless modem/router that has 802.11n and not 802.11ac, this is a great cheap solution and close to the fastest possible. I did the March "Patch Tuesday" Windows 10 Update with it, and it seemed about as fast as it used to be on my wired 1Gb connection. (The internet and Microsoft's servers probably are the bottlenecks anyway.) I stream 1080P video from the internet now, and see no problems.
For the antenna, you need a little clearance around the port, it's a few inches long. It can be set from 90 degrees to 180 degrees, but you may want to position it wherever you get the highest speed.

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Kish

AC5L: Overall good, but doesn't meet spec

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2020

Verified Purchase

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.

2 people found this helpful

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RScott

Works... but no monitor mode for Windows (Realtek RTL8811CU driver doesn't support it)

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

I'm planning to return this, since I bought it solely in an attempt to get "monitor mode" for Windows (if you don't know what it is, or you use Linux, you can ignore this review). Getting wifi "monitor mode" support for Windows is nearly impossible: most websites discuss devices that have the support for Linux. It seems the only reliable way is to buy a bunch of products and see if they work, and if not, return them (something I'm not going to try).

A couple reviews of this device say it doesn't support monitor mode (with no further details), but others say it does. It seems clear that the device itself does support monitor mode, and it will work with the correct driver on Linux. But not Windows.

I bought this one since it specifically mentioned "monitor mode", mentioned Windows support, and uses a chipset that one website says has monitor mode support. Silly me assumed that if the device supports monitor mode, Realtek would have included the support in their drivers. I was wrong. I had to take a star off for the description mentioning monitor mode, mentioning Windows support, but not saying "Don't buy this if you want monitor mode with Windows".

First, I tried plug-and-play: no go. My Windows 10 doesn't recognize this.

Next, I tried installing the driver from the BrosTrend website. It's a RealTek-signed package, but no go. Wireshark won't recognize monitor mode, WlanHelper errors, and "netsh wlan show wirelesscapabilities" shows "Network monitor mode: Not supported". I even tried a reboot, and tried running netsh with admin privileges, still no go.

All that said, if you're just looking for a USB wifi device, as far as I can tell, it should do a great job.

UPDATE: About 3 months after returning this, I've finally traced down a problem that caused my computer to lose 3GB of committed memory PER DAY: it was the Realtek driver (RunSwUsb/RunSw/SwUSB). KEEP THIS IN MIND if you use a Realtek driver and later have memory leak issues ("Committed" memory in Task Manager continually growing, perhaps needing to reboot every few days/weeks). I'm not going to lower my star rating, as I attribute this to Realtek (the cause of the problem) and Microsoft (the cause of my frustration, for showing RunSwUsb as such a well-behaved service in Task Manager and Process Explorer, not showing the 40GB+ of committed memory Windows assigned to it).

4 people found this helpful

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schotty

Plug and play on Red Hat and Fedora linux.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2024

Verified Purchase

Plug and play on Red Hat and Fedora linux.

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