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by ktta 3172 days ago
Note that there are two versions of that dongle. The version 1 has Atheros Chip[1] with the best wi-fi support but version 2 has a Realtek chip[2] with subpar support. AFAIK it isn't possible to get version 1 of the dongle today.

My suggestion is Alfa AWUS036NHA (The last three letters are important!) which has AR9271 chip with great support with the ath9k driver.

[1]: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WN722N

[2]: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WN722N_v2

[3]:http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALFA-AWUS036NHA-802-11n-Wireless-N-W...

1 comments

Hmmn, I wasn't aware. I will have to check and see, but it is probably I have a v1, since I have had it for a while. It has always taken a bit of effort and hunting to find WiFi cards with good chipsets that support monitor mode and AP modes painlessly (for WiFi frame capture, etc.).

Thanks for the info... I am a little disappointed, the ones we have been using are all very reliable and worked out of the box, so we must have the Atheros ones. It also seems impossible to order the older version specifically.

>It also seems impossible to order the older version specifically.

Yep. I've been trying for a while, but couldn't be sure if what I was looking at was version 1. Especially since the Alfa alternative is bulkier.

Arch Linux Wiki and Amazon comments are sometimes the best resources for hardware compatibility and reviews. Sort of amusing.

Also, confirming, everyone even as recent as a few months back seems to have gotten a 1.0 or 1.1 version, but newer ones are now 2.0

https://imgur.com/a/jcnbE (one from my bag).