Both a NetGear 6120 and two TPlink A600 (T2U+) have died after I connect them to USB extension cords.
The 6120 died within 6 hours afedtr I used it for a day without the entension cords. It kept disconnecting from W10 and needed adapter resets.
The TPlinks lasted almost a week, then started crapping out the same way.
The extension cords are 6 foot + 12 foot, stapled across windowsills and floorboards with a "U" staple gun and lead out of the man cave into the the loft and provide 2X the speeds of just plugging them into the USB ports on the mini-tower case.
When the adapters start to fail on the extension cords, they now no longer work plugged into the case either. Well, they do, but keep disconnecting just like they do on teh extensions. 3 of them never started disconnecting UNTIL I used them in the extension cords. Then they don't work on either he extension or the case ports.
I've blown up 2 TPLink T2U+ and possibly a Netgear 6120 (but the
6120 has terrible reviews saying the same problem). The only thing that has survived the extension cords are the NetGear 6100's (one I blew up myself <clapping>, the other has persevered). The T2U+ and Netgear 6120 all generated a bunch of heat at the farthest point female connector. It didn't matter which female connector it was - the 6-footer or the 12 footer. But the 6100 generate no heat there and work fine.I really liked the Netgear 6120 for the 24 hours or so that it worked - I got 240Mbps (190 without the extension cords) which is what I get right next to router. Otherwise I get 110-120 with the Netgear 6100's and T2U+ and extension cords, and 60 while plugged into the case.
Three USB thumb drives work on the extension cords, one of them shows a drive is connected in Windows 10, but when you look at the drive in Explorer, says "No device connected" (but it assigned it a drive letter in W10).
Yeah, the cables are old 2.0 and spent 6-10 years as part of "The Ball" (that big box of cables that when you pick one, you pick 30-40 pounds worth of cables, that all started with 2 8-foot cheap speaker cords 40 years ago). But they both work independently but not connected together in either order. They're sehileded and there no length issue according to specs(?)
So WTF?
-sw