2.4GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) Band. Antenna: Internal Printed Antenna. Security: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP, AES.
Note: Performance degrades significantly with interference from other 2.4 GHz devices (microwave, Bluetooth, cordless phones).
If the connection is unstable, install the necessary building utilities to compile the stabilized community driver:
Realtek RTL8188CU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Network Adapter
This is the most critical section of the article. The RTL8188CU is famous—and infamous—for its driver support. Because it has been around for so long, modern OS support is a mix of "plug-and-play" and "manual labor."
Its tiny physical footprint makes it the perfect "it just works" backup tool to keep in your IT repair bag when a laptop's internal wireless card fails.
Because the chip is small and cheap, it has been used in Android set‑top boxes, IPTV receivers, and media players. The same Linux kernel drivers (especially or the older rtl8192cu ) are used in these environments. For FreeBSD, the urtwn driver provides support for the RTL8188CU as well.
It's essential to set proper expectations for this chip. While it is marketed as a 150 Mbps adapter, you will rarely, if ever, achieve that speed in real-world conditions.