Making a desktop PC capable of Wifi, how?

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 19:32

I have a desktop PC, currently connected via an ethernet cable to my BT hub/router thingy. Want to move the PC to a bedroom upstairs without any hard wiring, so need to use the hub/router's wifi connection.

So how do I go about this? Can I just buy a USB Wifi dongle like this one? Or should I be using a PCI card like this one? These two I've picked somewhat randomly, maybe there's other hardware I should be looking at?

Which would be best for me to take advantage of the new super fast fibre connection I signed up for?

tamzzy · 3 Jan 2020 at 19:38

the small usb dongle will have a weaker signal - unless it is one with a massive antenna - so less range/speed

jfyi: considered a powerline adapter?

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:33

tamzzy said:
jfyi: considered a powerline adapter?

No I haven't actually, do they perform well/better?

233 · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:36

powerline is fine if your connections are on the same circuit, otherwise not so great.

get a decent wireless pcie card and install it in your pc rather than a dongle

went powerline>dongle> pcie card for mine rather than running cables and it was 30mbs/100mbps/300/mbps although my iphone still pulls a far better speed at just shy of 400 mbps sitting on top of my pc

WJA96 · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:36

1. What is the motherboard in your PC? What free PCIe slots does it have?
2. What router do you have?

Can I suggest another option - Mikrotik Wireless Wire?

WJA96 · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:37

i know nothing said:
No I haven't actually, do they perform well/better?

No. They’re pants.

matt100 · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:41

More to the point what are you using it for? If you're not gaming or transferring big files argueably any adapter that works will be fine.

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:44

WJA96 said:
1. What is the motherboard in your PC? What free PCIe slots does it have?
2. What router do you have?

This is the motherboard I have, all slots currently free, only have a graphics card in there.
Just the router that BT provide.

If it helps, the PC will be about 5-7 metres away from the BT hub.

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:45

matt100 said:
More to the point what are you using it for? If you're not gaming or transferring big files argueably any adapter that works will be fine.

I use it for my photography, so will be transferring lots of files to my cloud a/c. Most photographs (files) are in the 10-30Mb range, there tends to be lots of them though.

Holst1981 · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:52

i know nothing said:
I use it for my photography, so will be transferring lots of files to my cloud a/c.

Wi-fi speed should easily exceed your internet upload speed.

I prefer a PCIx card but usb will be ok as well.

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:55

WJA96 said:
Can I suggest another option - Mikrotik Wireless Wire?

Whilst I have no doubt that such a solution would be fantastic, bit too expensive for me I'm afraid. Hadn't expected to be looking at something that would cost more than £50 to be honest.

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:56

Holst1981 said:
Wi-fi speed should easily exceed your internet upload speed.

I prefer a PCIx card but usb will be ok as well.

Could you suggest a PCIx card for me to look at? Thanks

b00merang69 · 3 Jan 2020 at 20:58

I posted in a similar thread.

"If it is a desktop then I have this: https://www.gigabyte.com/uk/Motherboard/GC-WBAX200-rev-10#kf

I used to have this : https://www.gigabyte.com/uk/Motherboard/GC-WB1733D-I-rev-10#ov

Both will give you very fast Intel WIFI AC (the later one WIFI 6 AX) + BT 5.0"

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/network-card-dongle.18873230/#post-33230840

WJA96 · 3 Jan 2020 at 21:07

i know nothing said:
This is the motherboard I have, all slots currently free, only have a graphics card in there.
Just the router that BT provide.

If it helps, the PC will be about 5-7 metres away from the BT hub.

if it’s only 5-7m is there no way to run a cable?

if you can’t run a cable then the BT Hub is probably only 3x3 so I’d use this WLAN card.

i know nothing · 3 Jan 2020 at 21:16

WJA96 said:
if it’s only 5-7m is there no way to run a cable?

No easy way of getting a cable upstairs without it getting messy going up the wall.

WJA96 said:
if you can’t run a cable then the BT Hub is probably only 3x3 so I’d use this WLAN card.

What is 3x3 WJA96? Just trying to make some sense of all this.

Alex34 · 4 Jan 2020 at 08:40

I have been using an Asus PCE-AC68 wireless adapter in conjunction with my Asus RT-AC68U router for years and it works brilliantly for a wireless alternative. I get about 80% of my max speed with it.

WJA96 · 4 Jan 2020 at 09:45

802.11n and 802.11ac both increase the basic speed of the WLAN radio by adding channels together.

802.11a and 802.11b only ever had one channel, so they max out at 22mbps and 11mbps on the 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels respectively. 802.11n allowed two channels to be combined for 54mbps which requires 2 transmitting and 2 receiving antennae (2x2). 802.11ac gets you up to 4 aggregated channels but only if both sides of the conversation are 4x4. Your BT hub is most likely 3x3 802.11ac so there is no point getting a 4x4 802.11ac or 802.11ax card, because your router won’t be able to do anything with the extra channels. Hence I suggested a 3x3 WLAN card. It’s also worth noting that because 802.11ac is a ‘listening’ system, if you have anything 1x1 or 2x2 on your network, the hub will drop back to the speed of the slowest signal. That’s the major improvement with 802.11ax - it can use its radios to have multiple speed conversations with multiple speed clients at the same time.

This is one reason why wireless wire would be a good solution for you. You’ll get the full 1Gbps speed on a cable with no contention from slower WLAN devices.

i know nothing · 4 Jan 2020 at 10:08

Thanks WJA96 for the explanation. :cool: