My USB Wi-Fi adapter tends to overheat and when it happens, it stops working until I pull it out and plug it in again. Since I often access my machine remotely from other places, when it happens, my machine gets inaccessible for me until I get home to fix it.

I'm thinking, I have another USB Wi-Fi adapter in spare. Would it be possible to plug it in that too but tell Ubuntu to only use it when the primary Wi-Fi adapter becomes off-line?

(I won't use the other Wi-Fi adapter as primary because it provides significantly less quality.)