Lived at UMass for 3.5 years. Played PC games all the time. Had a few different adapters, one rose above them all.

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https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CCMUN8C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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This sucker worked FLAWLESSLY! Still using it today with no problems.

I have the AWUS1900 and it works good. Not as good as i expected but maybe it could be due to house construction? As far as catching probes yeah it works pretty dang good. About 50-60 networks in a suburban neighborhood. I can pull 1MB/s through two houses when connected to a pi hotspot.

Also works with Kali linux using Aircrack-ng's rtl8814AU driver

I actually got a handful of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CCMUN8C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

for the price you cant beat it. rtl8811AU chipset with decent range and even better with a patch antenna pointed in the direction of your choosing