The Best USB Wi-Fi Adapters

Plugging in a USB adapter is one of the easiest ways to add 802.11ac Wi-Fi access to a desktop PC, especially if you don’t want to (or are unable to) install an internal card yourself. After 50 hours of testing 20 models against a high-end laptop’s internal Wi-Fi, we are confident the TP-Link Archer T4U is the best USB Wi-Fi adapter for most people.

The TP-Link Archer T4U is inexpensive, had excellent throughput performance all over our test home, didn’t drop connections while we were testing, has a two-year warranty, and works with Linux computers, Macs, and Windows PCs.

The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is a little bulkier than the Archer T4U, due to its 6-inch external antenna, and it didn’t perform as well. But it’s still very good and was the only sub-$25 adapter to complete all of our tests. It has an identical two-year warranty and is just as compatible with Macs and Windows or some Linux PCs.

The Netgear Nighthawk A7000 is a bulky USB adapter that costs almost three times as much as the budget Archer T2U Plus. However, the trade-off is worth it if your broadband connection is faster than 200 Mbps. It posted our top throughput scores all over our test home, significantly outperforming other Wi-Fi adapters.