Linux Hardware: Wireless-N on Linux (USB Device)

This little guy is smaller than a US 25¢ and is Wireless-N

I wanted to plug this great little device, a USB 2.0 adapter that gives good wireless performance:

Edimax EW-7811Un 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wireless Nano USB Adapter with 150Mbps Data Rates


This USB Wireless device gives me good speeds (limited by USB 2.0, not the device itself) and works out of the box with my Debian Linux (and Ubuntu should work) setups that are running the Linux Kernel 2.6.39 or higher.  This uses the Realtek RTL8188CUS chipset and the Linux driver rtl8192cu and this Wireless USB adapter has made my older laptops usable again.  I was tired of having poor wireless performance on my Linux laptops with older cards, or no wireless networking on some machines, and this USB adapter has changed all of that for the better.

Small extension wire
keeps it cool!

The speed is limited by the USB 2.0 interface and the radio power isn't awesome due to the incredibly small size, but overall I am quite pleased with the device.  It is inexpensive but not cheap and it works well.  EDIT: One thing I've noticed, on one of my older small laptops, is that this device can get very hot due to the location of the USB port, and the heat causes the connection to drop.  I've fixed this with a small extension wire, which keeps my Wifi USB device cool and also helps to boost the reception ever so slightly by raising the antenna.  Extension wire: 6 inch, 12 inch, 18 inch.


So, Linux users, if you need a good Wireless USB 21Adapter for your Debian or Ubuntu or Fedora or probably most any Linux distro, and you're current enough to run 2.6.39 or Linux 3.0 or newer kernels, I suggest giving this device a try.

What did I do with this perfect USB wireless card?  Check it out!