WiFi USB sticks don't last!

[Pacific Blue IT]

My experience with WiFi USB sticks is they always die within 12 months.
Anyone else experience this? what brands do you use? I've used TPlink, Netgear, edimax. I've looked for enterprise quality sticks but there doesn't appear to be any.

 

[TAPtech]

I don't think I've sold a single one of them. I have bought probably 3 of them over the years to keep in my bag... they are all garbage. If its a desktop it gets plugged into the wall, and if its a laptop it already has a good wireless card in it.

I have a wifi/bt card in my personal desktop because the mobo came with it. I use it to setup new routers/AP's. Very handy. Has not failed me yet. Plugs into the USB header on the mobo.

So... can't recommend a good external USB!

 

[brandonkick]

I have some great ones, they were made by Rosewill (newegg brand name basically).

Plug and play compatible with windows XP, Vista, 7 and MAC OSX. Great range, worked great.

My mother had been using one for about a year and a half to two years when she started having issues...
some diagnostics lead me to the wireless being bad and sure enough it was causing problems. They are
great for "temporary" internet access but shouldn't be used full time as a network adapter. I paid $10 each.

 

[Pacific Blue IT]

I have some great ones, they were made by Rosewill (newegg brand name basically).

Plug and play compatible with windows XP, Vista, 7 and MAC OSX. Great range, worked great.

My mother had been using one for about a year and a half to two years when she started having issues...
some diagnostics lead me to the wireless being bad and sure enough it was causing problems. They are
great for "temporary" internet access but shouldn't be used full time as a network adapter. I paid $10 each.

Yeah that's the conclusion I've come to is that they're temporary

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

Been using a Beldin one for close to two years now and no problems. Thinking of getting a new one so I can take advantage of the ac speeds.

 

[frase]

TP-LINK are good never had issues

 

[JustInspired]

On laptops we use the TP-Link Nano
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL...8&qid=1462873648&sr=8-4&keywords=tp-link+nano

and desktops (if we need something a bit more than the Nano) we use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL...d=1462873768&sr=8-1&keywords=tp-link+usb+wifi

Been using these for years without problems.

 

[Diggs]

I don't think I've sold a single one of them. I have bought probably 3 of them over the years to keep in my bag... they are all garbage. If its a desktop it gets plugged into the wall, and if its a laptop it already has a good wireless card in it.

Actually, that's not quite so. Old laptop WiFi hardware did not support modern encryption (WPA2, etc.) Adding a USB WiFi dongle/nano enables these old machines to access WiFi networks with newer encryption.

 

[kwest]

We sell 10 to 15 a month of the tp link nanos. No issues so far. We sell for $40 a piece so if anyone ever had an issue I would have no problem giving them another one for free.

 

[sapphirescales]

My experience is, ironically, the cheaper they are, the longer they last. Belkins, Netgears, they don't last. TP-Link, Keebox, & other off brands seem to last forever.

We used to sell only name brand expensive WiFi adapters and it was a nightmare. Failure rate was about 20%/year. Now that we go with the cheapies, it's less than 1%/year. It's mind boggling.

 

[cypress]

I use the D-LINK ones and have them on a couple systems for about 4 years now with no issues. I resell them for about $40.

 

[fencepost]

I'm probably going to be putting one in on a PC for a client that I should be running away from. Running fast and far.

The thought of trying to run cable in this building gives me the heebie-jeebies, the client is cheap (not broke, but not swimming in $$ or even $), the current cable is almost certainly Cat3 but it suffices for the half-duplex 10baseT that was connected to a hub (not switch, not switching hub, hub), and the current PC is running Windows 98 with a 13" CRT. It's also stapled along the baseboards as it runs from the back area up to the front of the office, going up and over a couple of doors on the way.

Got a new PC, monitor, printer for them because they were going to switch to a cloud-based Practice Management system; got up there last week and found that A) Those plans got cancelled (their billing service said "we can convert those codes before passing your bills to insurance") and B) They're sticking with their existing Medisoft, running on Win98 via a shared directory (one PC is the server where that lives, the other runs the DOS-mode executables from that network share).

I suspect I'll end up letting them run Windows 98 and their software in VMs in VirtualBox, but I haven't tracked down install media yet. I also haven't checked whether the printer we got for them actually supports PCL which I suspect may be needed for printing.

That or I'll run.

 

[glennd]

I'm probably going to be putting one in on a PC for a client that I should be running away from. Running fast and far.

The thought of trying to run cable in this building gives me the heebie-jeebies, the client is cheap (not broke, but not swimming in $$ or even $), the current cable is almost certainly Cat3 but it suffices for the half-duplex 10baseT that was connected to a hub (not switch, not switching hub, hub), and the current PC is running Windows 98 with a 13" CRT. It's also stapled along the baseboards as it runs from the back area up to the front of the office, going up and over a couple of doors on the way.

Got a new PC, monitor, printer for them because they were going to switch to a cloud-based Practice Management system; got up there last week and found that A) Those plans got cancelled (their billing service said "we can convert those codes before passing your bills to insurance") and B) They're sticking with their existing Medisoft, running on Win98 via a shared directory (one PC is the server where that lives, the other runs the DOS-mode executables from that network share).

I suspect I'll end up letting them run Windows 98 and their software in VMs in VirtualBox, but I haven't tracked down install media yet. I also haven't checked whether the printer we got for them actually supports PCL which I suspect may be needed for printing.

That or I'll run.

You're a glutton for punishment

 

[fencepost]

You're a glutton for punishment

Well, I did confirm with them that they run backups daily.

Of course, they're doing those to floppy.

 

[glennd]

Well, I did confirm with them that they run backups daily.

Of course, they're doing those to floppy.

aarrggghhh!!!

 

[fencepost]

If I can track down Win98 install media to get it running in a VM, I may offer to try putting their "server" PC on new hardware in a VM as well - so far I made it clear that I really didn't want to touch it. I was set to install a new system based on their moving away from this old software.

And of course, I haven't managed to test whether it'll actually still run under Windows 7 (it's possible....) because.... 64-bit Windows won't run 16-bit programs, hence the need for a VM. I'm probably going to drop in there with a refurbed box with a 32-bit version of Win7 just to see if it'll run - if so while not ideal it provides a possible better upgrade path at least for a few years.

edit: I did try DOSBox, but no go there and I wasn't going to try to debug.

 

[mickybee]

have some d-link ones for some years now still working

 

[NYJimbo]

I have only had one stick fail in the past few years so I can't offer any help with that. HOWEVER, if you find sticks dying after a certain time instead of trying to go enterprise, go in the opposite direction and buy very cheap but good sticks.

A while back I posted a thread about how some WIFI devices will stop connecting to a router but others connect fine. I figured out it was most likely a protocol issue ( 802.11a/b/g/n) or an ability to switch from 2.4 to 5.0 gigahertz when the router did (for whatever reason it did) or detecting a channel if the router switched to something the current wifi device couldnt detect.

I started testing WIFI sticks and found a few generic ones that seem to adapt to this "no longer connecting" issue and have been using them since. Just last month I replaced a customers internal wifi card with one of these sticks. He called me recently to tell me his phone was not connecting to his router but the new stick and other devices were, so he rebooted the router and everything connected from there on. He wanted me to help him with the WIFI on the phone, but of course all he can do is get a new phone.

So I would say buy cheap but good WIFI sticks so when they do die, you just replace them like you would an umbrella that gets destroyed in a bad rain storm.

If it helps anyone, right now I am buying these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300Mbps-2-4...552498?hash=item5675eb7472:g:JzcAAOSwstxVc5Cm

Yes, they are big, but they have much greater pickup of signal and the extended antennae folds up or down or can rotate if needed which helps when trying to put your laptop/pc in a cramped area.

Probing it comes back as a Ralink device. "Fing" sees it as "Cameo Communications" as the vendor. Mac address shows Cameo Communications, INC., TAIWAN. The device comes with a mini CD for install that just has the letters "RT3572" printed on it.

 

[cypress]

Well, I did confirm with them that they run backups daily.

Of course, they're doing those to floppy.

OMG!! Before inheriting a doctor office, they had backups on CD's that were 4 years old. Day after I installed four new machines for them and went to wipe the XP box it died. That would have been a disaster. Thank goodness I already had all their data taken care of after they agreed to the contract lol.

 

[cypress]

If I can track down Win98 install media to get it running in a VM, I may offer to try putting their "server" PC on new hardware in a VM as well - so far I made it clear that I really didn't want to touch it. I was set to install a new system based on their moving away from this old software.

And of course, I haven't managed to test whether it'll actually still run under Windows 7 (it's possible....) because.... 64-bit Windows won't run 16-bit programs, hence the need for a VM. I'm probably going to drop in there with a refurbed box with a 32-bit version of Win7 just to see if it'll run - if so while not ideal it provides a possible better upgrade path at least for a few years.

edit: I did try DOSBox, but no go there and I wasn't going to try to debug.

Curious to know what Practice Management software they are using.