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Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless N Nano USB Adapter Great WiFi adapter for Raspberry Pi + other PC

I have been using the Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter on my Raspberry Pi mini PC, and the Wifi adapter works great. It got recognize by the Pi’s Raspbian operating system after I plugged it into a USB port. I didn’t need to install software drivers to make it work. I just need to type in my Wi-fi SSID username and password to connect my Pi to a wireless network. The adapter also worked in Rasbmc, OpenElec, and other operating systems after I set up the Wifi settings in those operating systems. Now I can use the Raspberry Pi in a different room away from my router’s wired ethernet network connection.  Edimax’s wifi adapter is pretty fast on my 10 Mbps cable internet connection. I can use Raspbmc and OpenElec to stream HD 720P-1080P videos from YouTube video app, and other sites without any noticeable slowdown while playing HD videos from the internet. The Wi-Fi adapter also connects quickly to my Medialink 150Mbps Wireless 802.11N Wi-Fi router, so I can start using the internet, or my network after my Pi’s boots into Raspbian, or other operating system I have installed on the Pi. This Wi-Fi adapter also never disconnects in my experience, so it is very stable to use.

I like the compact size of the Edimax wifi adapter because it does not block other unused USB ports like bigger Wi-Fi adapters. The cheap price of $9.99 from Amazon is also very affordable compared to $20 USB Wifi adapters. Edimax’s WiFi adapter also seems pretty well built for an affordable USB wireless adapter. I like the shiny black color of the adapter, and gold colored USB port. The adapter is easy to insert, and pull out of my USB port as well. This Edimax USB Wifi adapter is also compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.  I can use it on other desktop, and laptop computers by plugging it into a USB port to easily add a wireless Wi-Fi connection to my desktop computer or laptop.

On the box, and instruction manual for the Edimax Wifi adapter, it claims that the adapter uses very little electricity, and have power saving features, so this adapter would be good for low powered computers, and battery powered computer like laptops where power is limited. You also save some money on your electricity utility bill.

You may need to get an USB 2.0 hub with  2 or more USB ports since the Pi only has 2 USB ports which are usually use for USB keyboard and mouse. There are cheaper USB 1.1 hubs which are good enough for keyboards, and mouse, but may slow down your USB Wi-Fi adapter and storage drives speed because of its slower 1.5 Mbps and 12 Mbps transfer speeds, so a newer USB 2.0 hub is better because it has 480 Mbps transfer rate.  A USB 3.0 hub would work on the Pi as well because USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports which are found on the Pi, but USB 3.0 hubs are more expensive. The Edimax Wifi adapter also does not use a lot of power, so using a cheaper un-powered USB hub is possible in my experience when I also have a flash drive, USB keyboard, USB mouse, and the Edimax Wi-Fi adapter plugged into the same unpowered USB hub. I recommend a powered USB hub if you plug in USB powered hard drives, USB cooling fans, USB lights, etc plugged into a USB hub.  If you subscribe to very fast internet like 100 Mbps internet, or do a lot of network intensive tasks like using the Pi to stream video from another computer, it may be better to plug the Wifi USB adapter into an individual USB port, so it can use all of a USB port’s power, and bandwidth instead of sharing the bandwidth and power with other USB accessories like USB flash drives,  hard drives, keyboards, mouse, and external sound cards which may all use a lot of bandwidth, and power when you are using them all at the same time.

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