AC650 USB WiFi Adapter for Linux (Model # AC5L)

This device worked seamlessly out of the box on an older Dell Micro PC running Zorin OS 18, with no configuration required. Installation was truly plug-and-play, and the compatibility with a Linux-based operating system was excellent. Overall, it delivered exactly as advertised and effectively extended the useful life of my desktop system. A solid, reliable product that I would recommend.

I don't usually write product reviews but this BrosTrends wifi adaptor deserves one. I am assembling a new desktop computer to dual boot Win11 and Linux Debian. A new motherboard with a Wifi-7 chip on board. Works great for Win but no drivers available for Linux. Thus the need for a USB wifi adaptor. This is the fourth usb adaptor I purchased. The other three....no Linux drivers. So, I selected this AC5L adaptor because the description said it "works with Linux". If you are considering one of these because of the "works with Linux", go to BrosTrends website to verify that your particular Linux distribution is shown as compatible. Most are but there are some aren't yet compatible. As these drivers make it into more kernels, I believe more and more distributions will work with this adapter. So, I received this late Friday afternoon and began the installation and testing. Win11 setup was easy and it connected to my router. In Linux it was not immediately recognized. After doing all that I knew how to do, I decided to contact their Customer Service. This was about 10:00 pm Friday evening. I expected to get a response Monday or Tuesday. I got a response in about 10 minutes! I followed their instructions, we emailed back and forth a few times and by Saturday noon it was working just like I wanted. BrosTrend Customer Service is the best I have ever worked with. Now, for you guys who bought an 870e Crosshair Hero motherboard and are finding out the wifi-7 onboard will not work with Linux, this adapter is a nice workaround. By the way, my installation is working fine with Secure Boot and Fast Boot enabled. A big THANK YOU to the BrosTrend customer service team that helped me!

UPDATE AT BOTTOM: Only issue i have is that it only folds a certain way so the antenna extends only a certain direction when plugged in ( bends to the right when plugged in, not mulitdirectional) . other than that, AFTER INSTALLING THE DRIVERS, it worked fine. No plug and play, you have to go to the site and download the drivers (meaning you need wifi prior to getting it set up). 100% after that. 4 stars because i went from a tiny edemax usb wifi dongle that was 10 years old. UPDATE: great upgrade from a small usb wifi dongle that i had for almost a decade. i was looking to update as components got better. This antenna will get some nice speeds for my starlink. its just heavy on the usb port and i was having connection issues so i pulled out an old usb dongle with a ribbon cable connection. puts out 200mbs upload handing in the position. im happy. old connector with a new antenna... cant argue. starlink as well so its all comparable. .

I bought this adapter for my computer so I could use my phone’s hotspot connection. It runs smoothly with no issues so far, though I haven’t tested its full throughput yet. There is one small quirk during driver installation — you can’t just download the drivers directly. Instead, you have to visit the company’s website and run their installation script, which handles everything automatically. I was a bit hesitant to run unfamiliar code on my PC, so I had AI analyze the script first, and it all appeared to be legitimate. The only downside is that if you ever need to reinstall the drivers in the future and the company goes out of business, you might lose access to them. They do include a small mini CD with the package, but I can’t confirm what’s on it since I don’t have a CD-ROM drive to check. Overall, it’s a solid purchase for the money and works flawlessly with Linux.

Had a 2 year old laptop with Win11 on it with a dead WIFI card. I resurrected it for one of the grandkids to load up Steam for his games, installed Linux Mint 22.2. Did a quick search on Amazon for a USB dongle for Linux and BrosTrend AC650 came up, ordered it, got it the next day, plugged it in and was instantly recognized. Did not need the mini CD. Works Great! LOL, now I have my Desktop back.

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

It was a little fidhat sadly getting it to work in Kubuntu 24.04, but I got it. Command line and google are your friend. That said, I will be buying another for my desktop. Took my laptop from not working on the hotel wifi, so solid signal. Dual booting between Win11, and Kubuntu. Doesn't miss a beat.

I installed this on a Zima single board computer that is running OpenMediaVault on a Debian distro. I followed the instructions on the included installation guide card that came in the package. The install went without issues and it works great. This solved a backup issue for a wifi connected laptop. So far it is very stable and has a good transfer rate (I have not measured it, but it is on par with expectations for the time it takes.) Update: This suddenly stopped working on my OpenMediaVault installation. I have done everything I can to get it working, including wiping and reinstalling the OMV distro. No luck. I tested it on a windows laptop and it worked great. So, am not sure what the issue is, but I don't think it's the Wifi device. So, just be aware. 2nd Update: I reinstalled the driver (linux.brostrend.com) and got an error. Per the instructions on their troubleshooting page, I ran dpkg --configure -a This corrected the issue and it is working perfectly again. I can only assume an update to my OMV instance caused the issue, not the BrosTrend WiFi adapter.