Raspberry pi wifi adapter with antenna

Top 10 WiFi Dongles for the Raspberry Pi

Setting up a Raspberry Pi with wireless is easy enough with the right USB WiFi dongle.

Not just any dongle will work since the Chipset must be compatible.

Common Chipsets are RTL8188CUS, RTL8187, and the Ralink RT5370 and others.

There are other compatibility issues when it comes to the Pi mainly the power supplied to run the dongle.

This has become less of a issue than the early days of the Pi when USB hubs often were used to boost the USB power.

Many wireless dongles have been used with the Raspberry Pi and have been confirmed as working.

Remember depending on the Distro that is used there can still be compatibility problems. While one Distro can be Plug and Play with one adapter another Distro may have problems.

As always be sure to read the reviews on Amazon or elsewhere to be sure a adapter fits your setup.

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Our Picks for Top 10 WiFi Dongles for the Raspberry Pi

It is a widely used chipset with Linux and wireless penetration testing.

It is a good low-cost unit that works well with the Pi.

It works only in the 2.4 GHz range.

The chipset is the Realtek RTL8188CUS which also is compatible with many other operating systems.

If you need a small cheap WiFi dongle for your RasPi than this is a good one to get.

The Panda PAU03 is another small cheap RasPi compatible WiFi dongle.

It is a basic wireless-N, 2.4 GHz dongle.

The thing that makes it stand out is the variety of operating systems it is compatible with from the Raspberry Pi to Windows 10.

It is a good USB adapter to have around to get quick wireless on most any machine.

It is able to go into monitor mode which is necessary to hack WiFi signals.

It is only a 2.4 GHz wireless-G USB adapter which uses the Realtek RTL8187L chipset.

Different sized dBi antennas can be used with the AWus036H which gives it good distance. While it is starting to show its age it is still a good USB adapter to use with a RasPi.

It uses the Ralink RT5572 Chipset and is a Wireless-N adapter.

If you need an adapter to work in the 5 GHz range than this is worth taking a look at.

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Alfa AWUSO36NH High Gain USB Wireless G / N Long-Rang WiFi Network Adapter

The Alfa AWUSO36NH is another Pen Testing USB adapter that works good with the Raspberry Pi.

It uses Wireless-N at 2.4 GHz.

Like most Alfa adapters the antenna size can be swapped out for better range.

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Wifi With Antenna For Raspberry Pi – Instructions Included – PLUG and PLAY

This generic USB adapter was built specifically with the Raspberry Pi in mind.

It uses the RaLink RT5370 chipset and has been tested with a variety of operating systems form Raspbmc to OpenElec.

A 2dBi antenna is included and is a 802.11n, 2.4 GHz dongle.

Some distos it will work out of the box while others it doesn’t.

For those looking to get a 802.11ac USB dongle working with the Raspberry Pi this one is worth looking into.

Remember the RasPi has a USB 2.0 socket which can only move data at 433Mbps. While this is a faster speed than Wireless-N max of 300Mbps, USB 2.0 cant take full advantage of 802.11ac speeds.

This small dongle has been around awhile and works with many setups.

Summary
Since the the operating systems that run on the Raspberry Pi are based on Linux most USB adapters that run with Linux are also RasPi compatible.

Keep in mind that the operating system being used can effect the dongle in some cases. While most driver libraries are simply loaded into most distributions there can be compatibility issues in some scenarios.

For this reason be sure to read the reviews on Amazon or the forums to be sure an adapter is the right for for the distribution you will be running.

5 thoughts on “ Top 10 WiFi Dongles for the Raspberry Pi ”

1. guywithanEMPgun September 7, 2017 Lack of 5Ghz chipsets, which is surprising because to be WiFi certified devices now need to be 5Ghz complient, and 2.4ghz is so crowded now it is almost unusable.

1. just lost October 11, 2017 Agree.
   I just lost one of my WiFi Dongles and want to buy a new one. Searching to find a good dongle for 802.11ac for PC and Pi and find there are still no information for 5Ghz chipsets, just like 5 years ago.

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5 Best Raspberry Pi Wifi adapters for you media center

Raspberry Pi Wifi adapters can help reduce clutter and help bring content to your XBMC (nka Kodi Entertainment Center) wirelessly. As we have previously written, there are 4 different Raspberry Pi OS that are media center focused. We have shown you how to install OpenELEC and Raspbmc the normal way and also using New Out of Box Software. [Read: Raspbmc vs OpenELEC comparison revisited in 2014]

Whether you using OpenELEC, Raspbmc, or Xbian on Raspberry Pi B or the newer Raspberry Pi B+, these Raspberry Pi USB Wifi adapters should help reduce the wires and make your Kodi Entertainment Center more «wife-friendly» :-).

Raspberry Pi Wifi Adapters

Understand that a Raspberry Pi Wifi dongle does not come close to the reliability and performance of a wired connection. Even though wireless adapters are rated at a higher speed (with Wireless N) than the 100 mbps Ethernet that is available on RPi, real-world conditions (interference) reduces the performance of USB wireless cards. But I run two of my RPis wirelessly and have had absolutely no problems streaming content wirelessly to my XBMC media center. Just make sure you have a good wireless router and implement our strategies to fix XBMC buffering issues on Raspberry Pi.

ASUS (RT-AC68U) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router Find out why it is rated the best wireless router in its class.

eLinux.org has a big list of compatible Raspberry Pi Wifi adapters and we have even reviewed many Linux-compatible wireless adapters. I tried a few of them and listed below are the ones that I thought worked well with Raspberry Pi and didn’t break my wallet.

Note: All adapters were tested at the time of writing this article. The driver support and/or the hardware may have been revised. Therefore, use this post for guidance but do you your due diligence before purchasing. Also, read the comments to learn from other’s experiences.

1. Panda PAU05 Wireless-N USB Adapter

I am currently using this Raspberry Pi Wifi adapter and all I can say is it is awesome. I am able to stream HD content wirelessly without any performance issues. But I have also implemented these Raspberry Pi performance tweaks, which may be helping with that. Key features of this adapter include:

• Works with 2.4 GHz Wireless g/n
• Max speeds up to 300 Mbps
• Multi-OS support including Linux
• Security: WPA2/WPA-PSK (AES, TKIP) WEP 64, 128-bit

2. Panda PAU06 Wireless-N USB Adapter

I can’t imagine this USB wireless adapter being very different from the first one as they are both practically the same. The only difference is that this Raspberry Pi Wifi adapter has an external antenna to boost signal reception. Other key features include:

• Works with 2.4 GHz Wireless g/n
• Max speeds up to 300 Mbps
• Multi-OS support including Linux
• Security: WPA2/WPA-PSK (AES, TKIP) WEP 64, 128-bit

3. Wi-Pi Raspberry Pi 802.11n Wireless Adapter

This is the official Raspberry Pi USB Wireless adapter from Element 14, the makers of Raspberry Pi. Therefore it is guaranteed to work and it is no surprise that it is one of the highest rated Wifi adapter for Raspberry Pi. Features include:

• Works with 2.4 GHz Wireless g/n
• Max speeds up to 150 Mbps
• Multi-OS support including Linux
• Security: WPA2/WPA-PSK (AES, TKIP) WEP 64, 128-bit

4. Edimax EW-7811Un 150M 11n Wi-Fi USB Adapter

If you prefer a «nano» sized Wireless adapter for RPi then this might be it. At the time of compiling this list, it is also one of the cheapest Raspberry Pi Wifi adapters in 2014. Features include:

• Works with 2.4 GHz Wireless g/n
• Max speeds up to 150 Mbps
• Multi-OS support including Linux
• Security: WPA2/WPA-PSK (AES, TKIP) WEP 64, 128-bit

5. AirLink101 AWLL6075 Wireless N Mini USB Adapter

I have had positive experience with this Raspberry Pi wifi adapter. Just plugin, wait for a few seconds, and that is it; you are now ready to connect to your wireless network. Key features include:

• Works with 2.4 GHz Wireless g/n
• Max speeds up to 300 Mbps
• Multi-OS support including Linux
• Security: WPA2/WPA-PSK (AES, TKIP) WEP 64, 128-bit

Note that none of the above best Raspberry Pi Wifi adapters in 2014 work well with 5GHz band or Wireless AC. On the good side, all the media center operating systems for Raspberry Pi make it very easy to connect to wireless networks using these RPi Wifi adapters. All you have to do is choose your wireless network and enter the passkey. Read: 8 Raspberry Pi OpenELEC tweaks to do after installation]

Wireless adapters are one of 7 Raspberry Pi accessories I have recommended in the past. But remember that using a Wifi adapter reduces USB ports available for other uses. This is not a problem if you are using the newer Raspberry Pi B+ revision which as 4 USB ports. So if you want to go Wireless on your Kodi media center you wouldn’t go wrong by choosing from any of the above 5 best Raspberry Pi Wifi adapters.

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Adding An External Antenna To The Raspberry Pi Zero W

Putting a complete WiFi subsystems on a single-board computer is no mean feat, and on as compact a board as the Zero W, it’s quite an achievement. The antenna is the tricky part, since there’s only so much you can do with copper traces.

The new Raspberry Pi Zero W’s antenna is pretty innovative, but sometimes you need an external antenna to reach out and touch someone. Luckily, adding an external antenna to the Zero W isn’t that tough at all, as [Brian Dorey] shows us. The Pi Zero W’s designers thoughtfully included solder pads for an ultra-miniature surface-mount UHF jack. The jack pads are placed very close to the long, curving trace that acts as a feedline to the onboard antenna. There’s even a zero ohm SMT resistor that could be repositioned slightly to feed RF to the UHF jack. A little work with a soldering iron and [Brian]’s Pi was connected to an external antenna.

[Brian] includes test data, but aside from a few outliers, the external antenna doesn’t seem to offer a huge advantage, at least under his test conditions. This speaks to the innovative design of the antenna, which [Roger Thornton] from the Raspberry Pi Foundation discussed during last week’s last week’s Hack Chat. Check out the archive for that and more.

Thanks to [theEngineer] for the tip.

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Posted in Radio Hacks, Raspberry Pi, Slider Tagged antenna, external antenna, Raspberry Pi Zero W, wifi

22 thoughts on “ Adding An External Antenna To The Raspberry Pi Zero W ”

Usually the best part about an external antenna is that you can position it at a place which has a stronger inherent signal. That test antenna doesn’t look very high gain either (nominally 4-6dBi), external antennas could let you use up to 24dBi or so.

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