Context: this is a legit screenshot I took on my workplace around 1.5 years ago. Hopefully it’s been patched by now? Completely ridiculous behavior
This is the answer.
Some early wifi routers with USB ports on them had the same issue.
I’ve seen this exact problem on other laptops. Not saying it’s okay, but it’s not exactly an Apple only problem. It’s a “let’s cram everything into this single port and hope it doesn’t interfere with anything” problem.
It’s also a common problem with 2.4 GHz Zigbee USB sticks. It’s recommended to connect them to a longer usb cable.
Better laptops tend to put the wifi antenna in the display, so it’s far away from the USB ports when in use. Obviously that’s not compatible with ultra thin laptops.
But if the antenna passes the usb port then it doesn’t really matter.
A friend of mine had a $2500 gaming laptop that couldn’t use WiFi when he used an external display. He ended up having to use two separate dongles, one for DisplayPort and another for Ethernet. It worked, but was pretty dumb. In the end, though, I was happy that at least he was using a wired connection.
