Suggestions for WiFi solutions for desktop PC

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Steve
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Howdy folks,

We are plaaning to rearrange the house a little and where my desktop PC is going to end up there's no chance of me running an Ethernet cable. I've used home plugs in the past but they slow the LAN down too much and that has a knock-on effect to everything connected to it. I'm currently on VM's 200Mb/s connection and regularly get full speed, with no throttling to shout about.

I'm thinking about a WiFi card or USB adaptor but know absolutely nothing about these things so I'm looking for advice and suggestions, please.

My PC is about 8 months old with an ASUS Z370-P mobo, i5 8400 processor, 16GB of RAM and more hard drive space than you can shake a stick at :) I'm running W10 Home x64

So whaddya think?
 
You could look at something like a Google WiFi Twin Pack. Put you VM router into modem mode and plug it into one puck on the WAN port (the other LAN port can then be used for a multi-port switch if required). The two ethernet ports on the other identical puck will then act as LAN ports when the puck is configured as a MESH point, extending both the WiFi and also providing a hard wire connection.

You need a smartphone to configure Google WiFi which may or may not be an issue to you and a twin pack isn't exactly cheap (~£220 for a twin pack) but in my experience they 'just work'. Depending on the size of you house and the wifi coverage you can scale it very easily too by adding extra pucks.
 
You can buy a £10 USB wifi adaptor from Argos that will do the job.

I use one myself.

Dougie.
 
You can buy a £10 USB wifi adaptor from Argos that will do the job.

I use one myself.

Dougie.

Hi Dougie, is it better to get a USB3 one or will a USB2 model give similar speed performance?
 
Is there something specification wise that I should be looking for to get the best performance?

Sorry should have done the search a tad differently

https://www.google.co.uk/search?cli...........0j0i71j0i67j0i13j0i8i7i30.EA_DLkeee3c

IMO a key feature is buying a dual band card I e. It covers both the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz bands.......this gives you the option to pick the strongest signal and channel from your router.......your router is dual band? If not such a card should cover you for the possibility of upgrading your router to a dual band one;)
 
Depending on the distance to your router you may want to look at high gain adapters. Also personally I'd prefer something with a cable rather than a direct USB plug-in as it will allow you to position it away from the base unit if needed. The less objects between the transmitter and receiver the better.
 
Few questions first :)

How well does your phone work on WiFi in that area? Are there any problems etc. Run speediest on your phone will give you an idea from the area you are planning to move your PC.
Does your current router support both 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands? If so, check which one your phones on (assuming test works well) and just get same for PC. Should cost pennies.

Is things are not straight forward - then you can look at mesh networks to extend range (the BT Whole Home linked above is an example), preferring 2.4 (for penetration) over 5GHz (for speed / interference) etc; lots of options.

:(200mbs. I can only dream!
 
Sorry should have done the search a tad differently

https://www.google.co.uk/search?cli...........0j0i71j0i67j0i13j0i8i7i30.EA_DLkeee3c

IMO a key feature is buying a dual band card I e. It covers both the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz bands.......this gives you the option to pick the strongest signal and channel from your router.......your router is dual band? If not such a card should cover you for the possibility of upgrading your router to a dual band one;)

Thank you for that. My router is dual band so that makes sense [emoji106]
 
Depending on the distance to your router you may want to look at high gain adapters. Also personally I'd prefer something with a cable rather than a direct USB plug-in as it will allow you to position it away from the base unit if needed. The less objects between the transmitter and receiver the better.

The distance isn’t all that far it’s the route for a cable that puts me off doing it. My laptop gets a good signal in that area so with the right adapter the pc should work fine.
 
Few questions first :)

How well does your phone work on WiFi in that area? Are there any problems etc. Run speediest on your phone will give you an idea from the area you are planning to move your PC.
Does your current router support both 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands? If so, check which one your phones on (assuming test works well) and just get same for PC. Should cost pennies.

Is things are not straight forward - then you can look at mesh networks to extend range (the BT Whole Home linked above is an example), preferring 2.4 (for penetration) over 5GHz (for speed / interference) etc; lots of options.

:(200mbs. I can only dream!

Hi Furtim,

I get an average of 140Mb/s on my phone on the 5GHz channel. If I can get that with the pc I’ll be happy. The router is dual band.
 
The distance isn’t all that far it’s the route for a cable that puts me off doing it. My laptop gets a good signal in that area so with the right adapter the pc should work fine.

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I meant a USB Wifi device that has a lead like this https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/prod...xyyxTPHqIPGAFjuVtEn5rrw4kpMtpDMRoCpzgQAvD_BwE ; that would then allow you to move it to the place of best reception rather than immediately out of a USB port. I didn't mean throw in a CAT5e cable to the router, you'd already said that wasn't viable.
 
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I meant a USB Wifi device that has a lead like this https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/prod...xyyxTPHqIPGAFjuVtEn5rrw4kpMtpDMRoCpzgQAvD_BwE ; that would then allow you to move it to the place of best reception rather than immediately out of a USB port. I didn't mean throw in a CAT5e cable to the router, you'd already said that wasn't viable.

Actually, I did get the message - just didn't reply very clearly, so my bad :( I appreciate what you say about being able to locate the antenna away from the base unit (and all the other electronic gubbins tucked in next to it) so that idea looks a winner :)

That device looks pretty good but I need to do a bit more research before I pull the trigger.
 
On a slightly different, but closely allied, thought. My ageing i5 HP laptop (about 8 years old) is running W7 X64 and has a Ralink RT3090BC4 WiFi/BT dual band adaptor fitted. The specs suggest this should be good for speeds up to 600Mbps, which I guess needs 5GHz band to achieve this. Can I improve the WiFi speed of the laptop simply by fitting a newer/more up to date adaptor or is speed actually limited by the laptop hardware/firmware?
 
Thanks for that. Looks kinda Sci-Fi lookin' :)

It is pretty funky .. I also got extension cables for it too. You can either use the cable supplied, or screw the ariels directly into the back of the card. I just needed a bit more reach for the signal :)
 
Just thought I'd wrap this thread up. I decided to go with a USB device so that I can use it with my laptop as well.

I've purchased the TP-Link AC1900 which is dual band and plugs into either USB3 or USB2 with almost identical results. It's this one - https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-5520_Archer-T9UH.html

So far the performance is as I'd hoped for. The download speed on my PC has gone from around 65Mb/s to 221Mb/s (upload is clipped at 12Mb/s) and my laptop from 40-odd Mb/s to over 200Mb/s. There doesn't appear to be any difference between having the adapter plugged directly into the computer's USB or the little docking station they supply with it. Location makes a big difference though and somewhat counter-intuitively the best spot I've found is on top of the PCs case. Put it anywhere near my Seagate Go-Flex Desk USB hard drive and the download speed drops by almost 50% :eek:

Thanks for all the help folks ... much appreciated :)
 
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