Are wifi adapters running off USB m/b header rare?

[Member anti-ewaste]

I have a mini ITX build from an old HP Pavillion case that had a b/g wireless adapter which plugs in to a USB motherboard header, and I just ran the coaxial connector to the back of the case and I kind of like this setup. Is this rare though? I seem to only see external USB adapters or cards, and I like the fact this is internal and doesn’t take up a slot.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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anti-ewaste wrote:

I have a mini ITX build from an old HP Pavillion case that had a b/g wireless adapter which plugs in to a USB motherboard header, and I just ran the coaxial connector to the back of the case and I kind of like this setup. Is this rare though? I seem to only see external USB adapters or cards, and I like the fact this is internal and doesn’t take up a slot.

I’ve not seen this often but I have a couple of HP systems. The laptop has USB ports for connecting serial interfaces, keyboards, mice and networking. The desktop has a black plastic device that looks like a wireless antenna that plugs into a round connection on the back of the desktop chassis.

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Brian Masinick

[Member Xecure]

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Do you mean something like this?

My Desktop computer has BT, Wifi and mouse connected to a “front port” and they all work in antiX.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member fatmac]

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Very rare, I’d say, normally internal wifi use mini PCIe slots, as per laptops, or other motherboard slots, PCIe & the prior ones, (whatever they were), I still have cards for them in amongst my bits & pieces.

Linux (& BSD) since 1999

[Member anti-ewaste]

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Internal. This is it, very minimalist and just saves space as long as you have a place to mount it. Hmm, I don’t think I have that other wire going to the bracket connected – a ground or internal antenna?

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by anti-ewaste.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by anti-ewaste.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by anti-ewaste.

[Member fatmac]

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The 2 wires on the right of your picture would be the antenna wires, (on a laptop they often go around the screen edge under the bezel) – I’ve not come across a wifi card like that before.

Linux (& BSD) since 1999

[Member seaken64]

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Yes, that is unusual to have a wifi adapter directly connecting to the USB header. Usually there would be a hub connecting to the header and then a wifi dongle would have a USB connector to make the connection to the USB port. Your device just bypasses the hub or port.

Seaken64

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