R7800; adding USB WiFi adapter

[r7s]

I will be adding a USB adapter for a PC on our home network. Devices on wireless are being served by an R7800 router using Voxel firmware.

Older AC USB WiFi adapters are still available, but since they are older issue, they cost as much or more than similar current AX USB WiFi adapters.

I intend to continue using the R7800 for the future.

My question:
Will the newer AX adapters perform as well for AC wireless use with my R7800 as the older but still available AC adapters?

AC adapters considered: Netgear A7000 AC1900, TP-Link Archer T9-UH AC1900

Vs

AX adapters considered: TP-Link Archer TX-21UH AX1800 or similar.

Thanks!

 

[Tech9]

Archer T3U is $20-25. It's small, USB 3.0, reliable and 2-stream AC with Beamforming and MU-MIMO support. I have 3 in use, none failed.

AC1300 Mini Wireless MU-MIMO USB Adapter

Archer T3U USB Adapter delivers efficient AC1300 wireless connections with its SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port. Dual-band for flexible connectivity. Mini-sized for convenient portability.

www.tp-link.com

No driver needed for Windows 11. Plug-and-Play. If connected at 866Mbps link speed does >500Mbps throughput with AC Wave 2 router.

 

[dev_null]

AX-class adapters are all backwards-compatible with older wifi standards, so compatibility should not be an issue.

Performance of USB wifi adapters has, in my experience, been subpar compared to those with internal connectivity (PCI, etc), so it will depend on the combination of the adapter, its location in relation to the router and the driver quality.

Buy from a place that lets you return it without penalty if the performance isn't what you expect.

 

[sfx2000]

This one is fun - bit spendy, but fast...

ALFA AWUS036AXML 802.11ax WiFi 6/6e 3000 mbps Tri Band WiFi USB Adapte

AWUS036AXML is a new WiFi 6E (802.11ax) tri-band 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz / 6 GHz WiFi USB adapter. It supports speeds up to 3000Mbps when used with a compatible WiFi 6E router (there are various stream models of WiFi 6E routers, 800-1200 mbps will be a more common speed with most routers).View full data...

store.rokland.com

 

[dev_null]

@sfx2000 's post triggers another thought: the chipset, in addition to what I listed above.

My experiences with MediaTek chipsets is mixed at best, particularly in Linux. I've had a number of these (mostly in Lenovo hardware) that simply didn't play well with Linux (low speed, dropped connections, low signal), regardless of what was done with drivers, etc. Windows with MediaTek was somewhat better but still, in my experience, inferior to Intel-based wifi cards.

Depending on the underlying OS, you may wish to evaluate different chipsets too.

 

[L&LD]

Yes, when I saw MediaTek, I didn't think it was worth its asking price either. Worst chipset for WiFi I've ever used/seen (on a broad selection of platforms).

 

[sfx2000]

I think one of the challenges with any USB 11ax adapter is that the kernel used on the R7800 is pretty old, and it would take a fair amount of work to get things working...

 

[sfx2000]

Yes, when I saw MediaTek, I didn't think it was worth its asking price either. Worst chipset for WiFi I've ever used/seen (on a broad selection of platforms).

Depends - the newer chips are getting much better support from the FOSS community, as well as direct contributions by Mediatek employees...

Challenge is that with the high rate of changes/commits on mt76, most linux distros are not current with the drivers...