Can I switch from internal wifi card to USB adapter?

First off I would like to say I am extremely new to any Linux OS so I’m not quite sure what I’m doing yet. My current wifi card has almost no range (dropped the laptop and I have to be less that 5 feet away for it to keep a connection) and I would like to switch to my USB wifi adapter. The USB adapter I bought is the TP-Link AC600 (Archer T2U nano). I have tried googling and figuring it out on my own but I just can’t get it. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Based on https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download/archer-t2u/#Driver I find https://static.tp-link.com/2018/201812/20181207/Installation%20Guide%20for%20Linux.pdf posted there. You could use the terminal commands on pages 4 and 5 to install and see if it works. I haven’t used a usb wifi adapter, so I can’t confirm the general procedure.

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This is where I get a little lost. They say things like “Use Terminal to go to the driver directory and run the following commands to compile the driver.” and I have no idea how to do that. I’ve really only used windows and even basic stuff I’m not sure how to do yet. It also asks for my kernel version and I’m not sure how to tell that either. I’ve never felt so computer illiterate.

I know the feeling. When I first started using Zorin, I had never used any Linux distro before.
It was a couple weeks of chaos.
Now that I have learned a lot more about the system, I could never deal with Windows, again.

To open a terminal, hit the keys ctrl+alt+t at the same time.
Enter into the terminal

uname -r

This will tell you your kernel version.

Yes, I have that command memorized. Soon, you will memorize a bunch, too. But no one has all commands memorized, we just look them up or keep a handy reference in Documents folder.

I took a look at their instructions and yes- those instructions are very vague.
You do not need to install gcc, Zorin comes with it, as well as "make". I was about to type out a detailed walkthrough, but looking over the Archer Page, I can only see packages for Mac and Windows. Where did you find the Ubuntu one?

Thank you so much for the ctrl alt t tip. I was searching every time I needed to open it. I did find this guide but I’m not sure it’s made for Zorin. It’s late so I will try it tomorrow.

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That is a much better guide.
It sums it up in four commands:
The first command ensures you have "git" installed.

sudo apt install git dkms

The second uses git to clone the package to your computer

git clone GitHub - jeremyb31/rtl8812au-1: RTL8812AU/21AU and RTL8814AU driver with monitor mode and frame injection

This command changes directory of the terminal to the package directory (cd). Keep in mind that if you download a package using your browser, it will go to your Home ~/Downloads folder instead of just your Home folder as the above did with git. In that case, you would want to "cd ~/Downloads/rtl8812au-1" instead.

cd rtl8812au-1

This command instructs to install

sudo ./dkms-install.sh

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From RDVS86 post above, the link about configuring Archer T2U nano works fine for Ubuntu 18.04 with kernel 5.4...
But will not work on Zorin 16x [Ubuntu 20.04] with kernel 5.11 nor 5.15.

You need first to identify the chipset, device' Vendor&Product ID
lsusb
(like in the example of that Archer T2U)
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:011e ...etc...
and if we find the vendor ID: 2357 and Product ID: 011e

From that page

you have many details explained on each
look into the several supported-device-IDs (one per chipset profile)
for 8812au chipset

[no 2357:011e there]

for 8821au chipset

[yes compatible with 2357:011e listed there] so use this one

then follow their procedure

sudo apt install -y build-essential dkms git 
mkdir -p ~/src
cd ~/src
git clone https://github.com/morrownr/8821au-20210708.git
cd ~/src/8821au-20210708
sudo ./install-driver.sh

just in case, to blacklist rtl88XXau if it was ever installed
echo "blacklist rtl88XXau" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl88XXau.conf

reboot and it should be there

dkms status
rtl8821au, 5.12.5.2, 5.15.0-41-generic, x86_64: installed

Enjoy

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