Review on Edimax EW-7811UTC AC600 Dual-Band USB Adapter: Compact, Portable, and Powerful, 📶 Enhancing Streaming and Download Speeds on PCs/Laptops with 11AC and 11n Wi-Fi Connectivity by Brandon Hilton

Linux Installation: Depending on the age and characteristics of your computer, you may need a faster wireless adapter than this that the factory gave you. I have a Lenovo G-series laptop that isn't that old but has an internal Wi-Fi adapter that runs 802.11N and offers a wireless speed of 72 Mbps. For $14.40 (as of 6/16/18) with Prime shipping, you can buy your next adapter and easily upgrade to 434Mbps. IMPORTANT NOTE. I mentioned the Edimax EW-7811UTC AC600 Dual Band USB Adapter in this post as I have several of these adapters in service and they work reliably with a simple installation of the rtl8812au-dkms software. I have tried higher speed adapters sold by Edimax and other manufacturers at 600, 800, 1200 and 1300 Mbps and have had nothing but problems. Sometimes they don't work reliably. Nano-sized adapters often overheat and die. So this 600AC adapter that delivers reliable 434Mbps in a compact package is my compromise and I'm perfectly happy with it. This was my experience and your mileage may vary! This adapter does not work out of the box because the Linux kernel does not support the chipset. Why? I have no idea. But it's easy to set up and operate. The best way is to open the Synaptic Package Manager and enter "rtl88" in the search field. A search will show you rtl8812au-dkms and let you install it normally. If you use Synaptic or the other software installer that comes with your distribution, you can be sure that the rtl8812au-dkms version is compatible. If you install rtl8812au-dkms it will include the rtl8812au chipset driver in your kernel and will also run depmod and everything else to get you up and running. Depending on the speed of your system, this may take a minute or two. It seems like forever, but that's okay. When this completes, plug or re-insert the customized USB and it should work immediately and also work every time you reboot the system. A NOTICE. You don't need the internal Wi-Fi adapter and the external USB adapter at the same time. They interact in unpredictable ways and can cause problems loading webpages. Find your way to "Edit Connections". and change the adapter settings on the General tab. Check the "Connect automatically” box. for the external USB adapter and disable the "Automatic" lock for the internal adapter. That's it, and you went from 72 Mbps to 434 Mbps for less than $15.