A $15 USB 802.11g WiFi Adapter For Linux

If you've been looking for a very affordable USB WiFi adapter that works with Linux, you may be interested in the Encore ENUWI-G2. This 802.11g WiFi adapter has a USB 2.0 interface and supports 64/128-Bit WEP, WPA, and WPA2. What makes this USB WiFi adapter to some though is its price-tag, which is less than $15 USD at many online retailers. Does this cheap WiFi adapter work with Linux though? Yep, you can use ndiswrapper if you want to use the Windows driver or you can use the rtl8187 Linux driver.

This 802.11g WiFi adapter, which is backed with a 5-year warranty by Encore, had "just worked" with Ubuntu 8.10. The Realtek 8187B ASIC was detected and the rtl8187 Linux driver was loaded on the Linux 2.6.27 kernel. The mac80211-based version of this Realtek driver has been in the Linux kernel since 2.6.23.

The Encore ENUWI-G2 doesn't have an external antenna or any other unique features, but for $15 USD it's a reputable 802.11g USB WiFi adapter. We've tested it with Ubuntu 8.10 without problems thus far.