RF 2A5R1B4
Wi-Fi 5 + BT 4.2 USB 2 Wireless Adapter
Dual-band Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth on one USB 2.0 adapter, for deployments that need 5 GHz to escape a crowded 2.4 GHz band, a Bluetooth radio, or both from a single port.
- 2.4 + 5 GHz 802.11ac, up to 433 Mbps
- Bluetooth 4.2 dual-mode (BR/EDR + LE)
- WPA3 SAE and 802.1X
- Plug and play on Linux 6.2+
Sold on Amazon. Current price and stock are shown there.
Overview
RF 2A5R1B4 puts both radios on one port. The Wi-Fi side is dual-band 802.11ac at a single stream; the Bluetooth side is dual-mode, so both BR/EDR and LE peripherals work rather than LE alone.
The 5 GHz band is the reason most deployments choose it. A 2.4 GHz-only adapter is at the mercy of every other radio in the building, and on a congested site the achievable rate collapses regardless of the adapter’s own specification. Moving to 5 GHz is usually a larger real-world gain than any spec-sheet difference between adapters.
It is single-stream deliberately. Wi-Fi throughput on one 802.11ac channel peaks below USB 2.0 bandwidth, so a USB 3.0 interface would roughly double the power draw without improving the link.
Specifications
Radio
- Bands
- 2.4 + 5 GHz
- Standard
- 802.11ac/b/g/n (Wi-Fi 5)
- Max PHY rate
- 433 Mbps at 80 MHz · 150 Mbps at 40 MHz
- Spatial streams
- 1T1R
- Antenna
- 2 dBi integrated
- Bluetooth
- 4.2 dual-mode (BR/EDR + LE)
Security
- Encryption
- WPA3 SAE · WPA2
- Access control
- 802.1X
Interface
- Bus
- USB 2.0 Type-A
- Power budget
- Within USB 2.0 500 mA
- Dimensions
- 33 × 15 × 8 mm
Software
- Stack
- mac80211 / cfg80211
- Modes
- Station · AP · monitor
- Linux
- 6.2 and newer, no install
- Other
- Windows
