New Wi-Fi from a USB port
A USB Wi-Fi adapter replaces or upgrades your laptop's built-in Wi-Fi. Plug it in, pick your network, and the computer uses it instead. It is worth having when the built-in Wi-Fi has failed, when a laptop is too old for the faster bands on a new router, or for a desktop PC with no wireless. Most adapters here are listed for Windows 10 and 11, and several need no driver.
The kinds here
- Wi-Fi 5 adapters (802.11ac), dual band on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, labelled AC600 to 1300.
- Wi-Fi 6 adapters (802.11ax), labelled AX300 to AX1800, small ones and ones with an aerial.
- A Wi-Fi 6E adapter, tri band, which adds the 6 GHz band, with a high-gain aerial and a desk base.
- Adapters with Bluetooth built in, for a PC that has neither.
- Larger adapters with four aerials, for a desk far from the router.
How to choose
Match your router. The Wi-Fi Alliance numbers the generations, and you get a generation's gains only when the adapter and the router both support it. A Wi-Fi 6 adapter still joins a Wi-Fi 5 router, at Wi-Fi 5's level. Wi-Fi 6E needs a router with a 6 GHz band, which Ofcom allows for Wi-Fi in the UK.
Read the number as a ceiling. The figure in the name, AC1300 or AX1800, is the maker's top rate. What you get depends on your router, your broadband and the walls between.
Size or signal. A tiny adapter can stay in a laptop. An adapter with aerials, or on a short USB extension cable, reaches further, and the extension also keeps it away from USB 3 ports, which can give off noise in the 2.4 GHz band.
The port. The faster adapters are USB 3.0. In a USB 2.0 port they work, but slower.
Questions people ask about USB Wi-Fi adapters
Will it work on a Mac?
Many USB Wi-Fi adapters do not work with recent versions of macOS. Only buy one whose listing names your version.
How do I check my laptop's Wi-Fi?
On Windows, type netsh wlan show drivers in a command window and read "Radio types supported": 802.11ax means Wi-Fi 6 or 6E.
Can I keep my laptop's own Wi-Fi?
Yes. Two Wi-Fi adapters can sit side by side; pick the network on the new one, or turn the old one off in the network settings if it keeps taking over.
Linux?
One adapter here lists Linux, with manual set-up.
See the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters guide, or for a wired link an Ethernet adapter.
Delivery is included in every price and tracked to your door. Each product page says when it usually arrives.
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