EDIMAX EW-7318USG Wireless LAN Hi-Gain Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g USB 2.0 Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: Works flawlessly, gain is far better than my laptop's internal card. Works with XP (unpatched! ;) if you use ralink's included utility (otherwise, get SP2). Works with Ubuntu Badger/Edgy on my desktop/laptop (laptop on Edgy works fine with two concurrent cards). Works fine with aircrack suite. see other thoughts.

Cons: None I can identify

Overall Review: This is based on the rt73 chipset, which is quite desirable for linux usage. If you want to use aircrack, see http://scrutator.lo2k.net/uri38875-text.html (includes a link in replies with drivers that I found easier and better to use than those provided by edimax/ralink). Again, works awesome with kismet/aircrack suite, and I've successfully cracked a WEP key with only this single adapter using the monitoring and injection described in the given link. Have fun!

Pros: Worked right on boot with Ubuntu. Other drivers were somewhat easy to install also. I get great reception in my area.

Cons: Came with too short a usb cord

Overall Review: I would recomend this Adapter. I have used over 12 usb Wifi's over the years and I am very pleased with this performance.

Pros: plugged this into my desktop about 2 months ago and it has worked perfectly ever since. no problems with dropped connections.

Cons: its a bit on the big side, tho i imagine that is why it gets good reception.

Overall Review: works great with aircrack-ng

Pros: Like the title says, this adapter works like a charm. Easy install, high signal. I recommend downloading newest drivers from website once getting connected with the disc or else signal might be lost. Detachable antenna is a nice touch. Low price, highly recommended. Better than buying a wireless pci-adapter.

Cons: cant think of any

Pros: Excellent reception, on a somewhat large home it literally finds a strong signal anywhere, I am currently using it to write this review on Linux Fedora 10, I am connecting it to a WRT54g (using WPA2) wireless router and (once configured) runs perfectly!

Cons: The CD has the linux drivers included, but for a ancient version of Fedora (and probably all linux kernels), even downloading the latest version of the drivers it wouldn't recognize it properly, I ended up downloading one of the latest "CVS" snapshots for the drivers and finally got it up and running, not for the faint of heart that is for sure, in addition, the adapter seems to loose connection at random intervals (runs for 2 days straight, then it fails the next morning, asking to type in the password for the router again, just disable your wireless connections and re-enable them again and the connectivity will be re-established. I am running kernel 2.6.27.9-159 x86_64 on an AMD Phenom 8450 System.

Overall Review: I will probably ditch this USB adaptor and get me a wireless bridge, just so I can access my apps remotely in a more reliable fashion, however, I believe this USB adapter is great (and cheap!). Maybe the newer versions of Linux are the ones causing all the headaches, recommended nevertheless.

Pros: Product works great... used it Linux, & Win XP PcLinux08,Backtrack 3 & others, BT3=Hacked a bit. Great product.

Cons: After about 1 to 2 months, it stoped working. took it apart, and found Main Processor RT2571** that gets really hot, found Pin 1 and a few others to be desoldered.(i put some hot glue in there,and put it back to gether, and it seem to work intermitly) i'm going to guess, its because of the HEAT problem... I work for an electronics co., and i solder, and desolder these problems every day. so i think i'm going to contact the Edimax co. and suggest them to put an heat sink on that chip, to prevent overheating, and causeing solder to weaken.

Pros: Linux Compatible. No wrapping of drivers needed, plug and play. Can attach another antenna or a pigtail to the RPSMA connector. Good price and good card, I'll by from Edimax again.

Cons: Sometimes disappears from the system and cannot be re mounted until the computer restarts. I'm sure I would find a solution or workaround if it were more of a problem but once every month or two is not bad enough to worry about until I'm bored. The packaging required scissors to open and guess what, the driver disk was hidden right in the path of the scissors so I snipped a good chunk out of it.

Overall Review: Why aren't other inferior cards cheaper than this one? Those driver disks are never used for anything anyhow so don't worry if you cut it like I did. You can just download them anyhow.

Pros: This card DOES work out of the box in BackTrack 4, either Live or Installed. It does NOT work out of the box for BackTrack 3. It did NOT work out of the box for me in Ubuntu 9.04, but I WAS able to get it working with minimal effort. Packet injection works fine. Monitor mode works fine. The range is decent. I pick up about 30 networks from my bedroom in my apartment. You can also connect a bigger antenna since it uses a standard connector. Not a bad card, especially for such a low price.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: This device is 50mW. The ALFA is 500mW. This device works fine. I would, however, like to see a live demo of these two devices side by side though, just to see how much better a 500mW device compared to a 50mW device.