Loss of wifi connection

My setup, testing-stretch-rtpreempt, linuxcnc 2.7.15 and Mesa 7i76E.
About 2 weeks ago, after sudo apt-get update / sudo apt-get dist-upgrade, the usb wlan didn't respond anymore. lsusb showed the device, and that was it. I have one spare, and same problem. Another linuxcompatible small dongle, i was able to setup wifi, but it was impossible to access network, internet, and it didn't show up in the log of the AP.
Leaving me at a loss, making a mess by trying get it run again without any chance. Lan is configured in interfaces.d, wlan by networkmanager.
Then i came across this nice little router box on sale together with a usb lan adapter. Did the box setup as client, only had to make the entry in networkmanager, it restored network access. I should have done this from the initial setup.



The retired USB adapter with antenna had a good signal strength and working for 6 Years, and the new Nano Router

tommylight wrote:

Or you could use Mint as it has no such issues ever, i have both of the TP-Link ones, both work on any PC with Mint.

x 2. Mints built in driver support is just outstanding! I use an Asus Nano wifi dongle. It required compiling the driver on Wheezy, problematic on Precise (Stretch was not around) and just worked on Mint.