Wireless USB Adapter Reccomendations

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  scrimshaw on 10/07/2017 - 13:55

  +1

  Have you looked into powerline ethernet as an alternative solution? These are adapters you plug into your wall socket. These are normally sold as a pair. You plug one adapter into where your PC is located and another where your router is, then connect the ethernet cables into each appliance.

  Unlike Wifi, these are less prone to dropouts and interference, although the speeds will vary depending on the electrical wiring of your house.

  As for Wifi adapters, I find that PCIE wifi cards have better reception, but they might cost slightly more. At least they don't take up a USB slot.

  But before you do any of that, you might want to test how far your wifi actually reaches. If your smartphone doesn't get receive anything at the other end of the house, most likely a computer won't receive anything either.

  • 

    Diji1 on 10/07/2017 - 14:56

    PCIE wifi cards(ebay.com.au) have better reception, but they might cost slightly more

    Could be wrong about this but I think the reason they make cost more is they have the hardware for a wireless access point. By this I mean that some (all? presumbly not) USB wifi adapters don't have that and this means that the system CPU is used to do what the hardware does. MS calls it SoftAP.

    Not sure about Windows 10 but on Windows 7 this was basically a giant PITA to get working and the performance of the one wireless USB adapter I've used was terrible.

  • 

    aussie1 on 10/07/2017 - 15:36

    Thanks for your comment! Would you recommend powerline over a wifi adapter pcie card?

    • 

      scrimshaw on 10/07/2017 - 16:21

      +1

      Wifi adapter is less messy and less work, but in the end both options have their pro's and cons.

      Pro with wifi is you don't need to alter your setup, just plug into your computer and enjoy Wifi
      Con is that you are subject to interference and random dropouts could happen if there is a lot of other signals in the air, and you are also subject to things obstructing your wifi signals.

      Pros with powerline is there's lesser chance of dropouts, your latency will be much better and the more recent powerline adapter kits can do solid 150 megabit transfer speeds, with little to no variation on the speed.

      Con with powerline is that you mileage will vary.. You might have a older house and your wiring could be shoddy, so sometimes you end up with no-so-great speeds, or you might have appliances that have DC motors that put a lot of electrical noise into your power supply and can disrupt the signal.

      Direct connection via Ethernet is the best, but the big con of that is that it usually fails catastophically because of Wife Approval Factors.

      I can't believe this is actually a Wikipedia article.

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  iforgotmysocks on 10/07/2017 - 14:36

  +1

  Try to get one with an external antenna you can position somewhere that isn't behind your PC.

  I use this pcie one https://www.asus.com/Networking/PCEAC56/

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  orangeedu on 13/07/2017 - 18:43

  +1

  If you are looking for the fastest wireless dongle than the ASUS USB-AC68 is worth a look.

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  aussie1 on 13/07/2017 - 19:02

  Legends thanks heaps!