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@morrownr thanks for the reply. Nice but is a Realtek RTL8814U, i was thinking to move to MTK. My Edup AC1621 with Realtek RTL8814U is slowy burning even with a copper plate, 8814au is just too hot. |
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Hi @MR0000001
Yes, it is but that is the only chip for a usb wifi adapter that I am aware of that can actually make use of 4 antennas. I know you see a few others but 2 of those antennas are probably fake. If you want to move to MTK, that should work well for you but tell me what you really need as far as range, speed, features and the like.
Yes, it is a hot chip. The MTK chips run cool. |
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No, that is not how it works. More antennas are only useful if there is something that uses the extra antennas. Almost all modern usb wifi adapters can operate optimally with 2 antennas. The ones with the rtl8814au are the exception.
You can get something more modern and faster for less. Have you looked at The Plug and Play List? |
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@morrownr I’m not hacking or near the router. I’m connecting my home network to my private office in the same building but on different floors, that why realtek is okay if with 4 antennas. To my knowledge, improving range typically requires more antennas or higher wattage. I’m looking at these MT7921AU adapters on AliExpress with 2 detachable antennas: They’re priced low—could you confirm if these are worth it for the price? There’s also this cheaper option, but it lacks detachable antennas, so im not taking in count it: Let me know your thoughts!
Every 2 months i check it for good news, so i know that MT7921au was a cheap solution, but im not sure how the printed board is in those models and the power. |
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This is not true in the case of USB WiFi adapters. The signal strength for WiFi is limited by law and that varies by country and band. Most drivers bring adapters up with maximum signal strength given the country you are located in and the band you are using. The number of antennas has to do with the number of antennas supported and that really has nothing to do with range. It has to do with throughput but not range. What does matter for range: The QUALITY of the AMP and the ANTENNAS. Let me repeat that. Range, given the limitations of WiFi imposed by laws, entirely has to do with the QUALITY of the internal AMP and ANTENNAS. Good quality AMPS and antennas are not cheap so don't expect them on cheap adapters. Several years ago I did a range test with some adapters. It is not listed on the Main Menu as it is somewhat dated, I do need to do a new test when I have but it should show what I am talking about: https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/Performance_Comparison.md Note that there is a LOT of difference in range between the top two adapters and the ones at the bottom. The Alfa ACH and ACHM are too this day are the leaders in range. They are not cheap and likely never will be because of the cost to make them. I am working on convincing a couple of makers to include long range adapters in their initial mt7925u based adapters. We need a more modern long range adapter. Right now, one of the modern adapters with reasonably long range is the EDUP EP-AX1672. I have one and regularly do various things with it. While I have included it in a range test yet, my impression is that it has good range. https://www.amazon.com/EDUP-Wireless-802-11AX-Tri-Band-Compatible/dp/B0CZ82RM5L If you live in the US, use caution ordering from AliExpress due to the unfortunate trade war started by the US.
The EP-AX1672, imho, is a bargain at a price below 30 USD. Outstanding adapter.
With the EP-AX1672, you can expect around 650 Mbps on 5 GHz if you have low congestion and a good signal. I have done long term testing with iperf3 to see how it is regarding thermal characteristics. Basically you can run full speed (650 Mbps) indefinitely without heat issues. The Mediatek chips tend to run much cooler that the Realtek chips. The EP-AX1672 is listed first in its category for a reason. The other adapters in that category are good but I would rank the AX1672 as the best right now. |
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I found the last piece available (though it might be the usual fake scarcity tactic) from a shop on AliExpress for 12,15€. Do you think it’s overkill if I attach copper plates with non-conductive thermal adhesive paste to both sides of the MT7921au chip on the PCB? @morrownr thanks for all the info you shared and for your work on github. |
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I think that is overkill. You should find no need to supplement the cooling of this adapter in my experience. I have tried to overheat this adapter and simply could not do it . I'd say put it in a port and use it. Remember, this is a plug and play adapter unless you are using a kernel prior to 5.19. Kernels 6.1, 6.6, 6.12 and later should work well. Let me know if you have any problems. |
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I am very aware of the thermal issues with the rtl8814au chip. It is a totally different story with the Mediatek chips. I have many adapters. The Mediatek adapters run cooler than the Realtek adapters and much cooler than the rtl8814au in particular. Here are a couple of things to mention to you:
We are seeing more and more of those
When you see those 4 characteristics in a USB WiFi adapter, it is not an accident. The package may not say |
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Did you ever tried to set a fixed power on MT7921 being it cooler? Is useless trying?
I will use the MT7921 as client to the main ap, for the ap lan i will use realtek dongles (88*2au/8852au) that i already own, i plan to 5-7 devices not more anyway. |
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Currently it is useless typing. It is good to be able to reduce txpower in some situations so it is something I would like to see.
5-7 should be no big deal. Are you using hostapd? If so, I can put you on a good hostapd.conf for the mt7921 based adapter. |
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In case you need it, here is a link to an example hostapd.conf for your adapter: https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/AP_Mode/hostapd-WiFi6.conf In case you forget where this message is, the link is also on the site Main Menu. |
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Hi @morrownr i found this on aliexpress: I initially thought it was an RTL device but, from reviews, i saw that it was shipped with a mini-CD. SuperCheap! |
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Thanks. I added the link to this adapter in The Plug and Play List. I already had some links but this is a different link to the Fenvi FU-AX1800. This is a very cheap adapter that seems to hold its own. It probably does not have range that could be considered anything but average but that works for a lot of use cases. |
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@morrownr today i got Edup ax1672 but is doing very bad. I usually get almost three times that bandwith even with a RLT8812au, the signal quality is good but seems underpowered. |
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It will be running at the max power allowed by your country and band. The -3 dBm is not correct. It is an output mistake in the driver that has not been corrected. The signal level at -62 is concerning. What band are you on? |
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Additional: your AP/router should not be running on channel 9 on the 2.4 GHz band. Use channels 1, 6 or 11. Find the channel of those 3 that has the least traffic and set it. If you use any other channel than those 3, you will be subject to congestion from 2 heavy use channels and that is not good. |
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Hi everyone, i already buy Edup 1672 wifi usb card and now i want upgrade the antenna on this usb card 1- ARS-25-57A ..... 2.4 ghz 5 dBi / 5ghz 7 dBi https://alfa-network.eu/antennas/wi-fi-antennas/ars-25-57a 2- APA-M25-6E Tri-Band ....2.4ghz 8 dBi / 5ghz 10 dpi / 5.9 ghz 9 dBi > i m thinking to buy 2 of this antennas 3- ARS-NT5B 2.4GHz/5GHz .... 5dBi https://alfa-network.eu/antennas/wi-fi-antennas/ars-nt5b |
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Tested on same floor, connected to 5ghz but at half speed of 8814au even from Windows 10. |
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Searching on web, i found out similar situations, so is not probably faulty but just garbage. |
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I've been following the mt7921au chip since it was released. Has the Linux driver for it been perfect? No. You can find bad reports for almost any wifi related device and driver out there. It does have a track record better for most uses than the Realtek out-of-kernel drivers and it continues to improve. I am only too aware that device drivers are blamed for all evil in the world but device drivers and the chips they support are not always at fault. Is it possible that the Edup adapter that you got is faulty. Yes, certainly. When it was described as the last one in stock, that causes me to think it could have been a faulty return that was simply shipped again. However, you are of the opinion that the device is 100% at fault. I am not convinced but it is your issue so you handle it as you please. With more information, I could have suggested additional things to look at but it is what it is. |
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Explain to me what to do to get a Wi-Fi antenna with an MT7921 working when it won’t connect to a 5GHz signal with an RSS of -69 and Link Quality of 75, because I really want to figure this out. However, please avoid unnecessarily questioning whether the RSS and Link Quality are insufficient, as with those same values, I download/browse/game without packet loss, high ping, or other issues using various Realtek Wi-Fi cards. Here’s the situation: I read here yesterday in another thread about setting power management to “off” to resolve the issue on distros like Fedora—something I was hoping you’d suggest upfront. I’ll try that today and keep reading through other discussions (which you’re already aware of) about identical MT7921 problems. |
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What I can do first that might help more than anything we have done so far is for me to setup and do testing between a rtl8814au adapter and a mt7921au adapter. Head to head testing in a situation where the distance between client and AP are identical, obstructions are identical and AP is identical. I'll plan to use the following cleanly installed distro: Ubuntu 25.04 amd64, kernel 6.14. The driver for both adapters are in Ubuntu 25.04, not need to install anything. What could do if you wish: See Main Menu, item 12 Frequently Asked Questions. Questions 1, 2 and 4 could apply. If you try any of the answers, if you do not see improvement, back the changes out and try another answer. Some of the questions have multiple answers. |
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I installed the MT7921 on the Armbian box I’m using as wifi receiver with the 8812au and turned off power management. Now, both the 8812au (a nano-sized device) and the MT7921 have the same antenna setup (same custom antenna), are running on the same Armbian device, connected to the same 5GHz AP, and positioned identically… BUT the MT7921 has two antennas. Guess what? The MT7921’s signal strength is 5-7% weaker than the 8812au’s, and its intensity values (in nW) are minor and often fluctuate significantly. This reaffirms that there’s some power or capability issue with the MT7921 I currently have. Next week, I’ll receive the second Edup EP-AX1672 MT7921 I ordered from AliExpress. |
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I can also add a rtl8812au based adapter to the baseline testing that I am planning. That will bring it up to 3 adapters in the test. The rtl8812au adapter that I have is the Alfa ACH. Will it have longer range than the other two? Yes. It sells for about twice as much as the other two adapters. |
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I've been doing some tests periodically over the last few days. I averaged the numbers but that was not really needed as the numbers were very consistent. rtl8814au based adapter: whitebox special rtl8812au based adapter: Alfa ACH mt7921au based adapter: Edup AX-1672 Overview: The setup I used: Clean install of Ubuntu 25.04 using kernel 6.15 (so that I could use the in-kernel drivers for all 3) 4 walls and 20 feet distance from client desktop to wifi router. This was designed to be a little bit of a challenge. The iperf3 data from the rtl8814au based adapter is low but that was expected as some optimization patches for the rtl8814au are going into kernel 6.16 which is not available yet. The other 2 were about as good as if they were in the same room maybe 6 feet from the router. |
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Here is the link that shows the wifi router that was used in the above testing: https://openwrt.org/toh/cudy/wr3000_v1 It uses the same chips as the OpenWRT One wifi router. I had identified the SoC/chipsets as really good ones to have in a router and it has exceeded my expectations. I have a mt7922 PCIe card and a mt7925 M.2 card in two of my systems and I see normal speeds with iperf3 of 1.2 Gbps. Yes, exceeding 1 Gbps ethernet. The OpenWRT One has several more features than the Cudy I have. |
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I wouldn't know about the Cudy user interface as I immediately installed OpenWRT. All that I was looking for was a reasonably decent build using the hardware I wanted and it had to have support to easily step over to OpenWRT. If I had known OpenWRT was going to launch OpenWRT One with the same SoC but additional features, I would have waited. I have monitored OpenWRT for years. It is how I figure out what the good hardware is. The one you are looking at also has a good SoC but I needed the additional throughput capability to do some of the testing that I do. I cannot get good testing on USB WiFi adapters if my router limits speed. Not everyone needs what I need to run this site so what works is what works for each person. |
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Here is a link that gives you a list of all WiFi 6, WiFi 6e and WiFi 7 routers that are currently supported by OpenWRT. Maybe the list can be of help. I also did more testing. I simply took the 3 adapters to another computer that is located about 12 feet in distance from the router but is line of sight: rtl8812au based adapter rtl8814au based adapter mt7921au based adapter mt7925 based M.2 card (the card was in the system so I tested it as well) So, the rtl8814au and my7921au based adapters were running at less than peek capability due to the walls and distance in the first test I posted. The speed of the rtl8812au based adapter is basically running as fast as it can in both tests. That specific adapter, the Alfa ACH, has extraordinary range so even what I threw at it in the first test did not slow it down at all. |
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Im searching for good usb dongles with 4 detachable antennas.
Can you help me?
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