Low signal when using USB Wi-FI adaptor with hAP Lite

I’ve got a generic USB Wi-Fi connector that I occasionally plug into my PC so I can do “wireless” stuff. However, it’s getting a very poor signal with a hap Lite. The router is currently 3m away from the PC/adaptor but this is the strengh:

So note how low the Mikrotik is compared to my other Wi-Fi network Middle-Earth which is on the other side of the room. But my mobile phone has a perfectly good signal and that’s right next to the USB adaptor:

Any ideas?

I’ve just plugged the USB adaptor into my laptop and same problem. Use the laptop inbuilt Wi-Fi and totally strong signal. Use the USB Wi-Fi adaptor and very low signal. Can get a slightly better signal if I move the laptop right next to the router but still only one bar.

So this particular USB Wi-Fi adaptor is struggling with hAP Lite Wi-Fi…

I’ve got a couple more Mikrotik routers in the cupboard. Will give them a go.

Sounds like the USB adapter is bad.

Hmm, sort of - it works fine with every other Wi-Fi access point and I live somewhere where there are lots of access points:

It’s perplexing but does seem to be a problem between the USB adaptor and the hAP lite alone.

In post #2 you said the laptop with built in wifi got a strong signal but that when you plugged in the USB wifi it got a poor signal.

It got a strong signal when using the in-built Wi-Fi interface but low when using the USB-adapter. So the signal is clearly strong but something else is causing it to report/run low signal. It’s very weird.

Change the channel on the hAP and see if that improves things. You could be "auto"ing to a channel your USB dongle doesn’t work with.