Wireless usb adapters- using prepackaged software vs. chipset drivers

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MazerRakham

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Feb 22, 2012
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Title says it all. Do any of you prefer the prepackaged software over the chipset drivers or vice versa? In doing my testing (i.e. my sample size of 2 wireless adapters) I've found that that the chipset drivers are more up to date and seem to have a bit better performance. Is using them a bad idea for my cpu/adapter long term? Are they less stable?

For reference, when I'm referring to prepackaged software, I talking about the installer disk that comes with the adapter. This usually consists of some kind of client with a GUI that shows me available wireless networks. The prepackaged software also automatically selects and installs the correct driver. In my case, I have an Alfa AWUS036AC, which comes with an installer disk.

When I'm referring to chipset driver, I'm referring to the chipset of the usb adapter itself, and nothing more. No client programs or anything else fancy. In my case, the AWUS036AC uses the RTL8812AU chipset from RealTek. I'm manually installing the driver by going through the Computer Management console/snap in, right clicking to update driver software and then browsing to a folder that has the chipset driver info (.inf and .sys file, etc).
 
Chipset here too. I'll usually just pull the driver off the media if there one. As long as it works that's good enough for me in most cases.
 
Any concerns with using non WHQL drivers? Whenever I go to install them, I'm getting the following warning:

"Installing this device driver is not recommended because Windows cannot verify that it is compatible with your hardware. If the driver is not compatible, your hardware will not function correctly and your computer might become unstable or stop working completely. Do you want to continue installing this driver?"

I've been stress testing them with iperf off and on for the last few days and so far no performance/reliability issues- the speed is stable and my system isn't bluescreening.
 
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