Do I need a better wireless adapter ?

roderz88

roderz88

roderz88

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We currently have BT infinity broadband. However, if I do a speedtest on my mums laptop, it gets around 20-25Mbps. This is wireless.

However when I do a speedtest on my desktop, which is also wireless, I only get around 10-14Mbps, which seems a tad low.

Do you think I need to get a better network adapter ? maybe get an N standard one ?

Finally, if I get an N standard network card, the router I think supports N standard, however, there are devices on the network which are G standard. Would this prevent me from achieving N standard performance on my PC?

Thanks
 
Thanks, I would wire myself into the router but I cant since the router is downstairs and my PC is up in my room. My mum is also fussy about having cables everywhere aswell.
 
which I feel isnt good enough, hence why I want to upgrade. Sometimes I lose a couple of bars of signal and my download speed can drop as low as 5Mbps
 
That's the thing with wireless it is so overused by everyone that competing signals from your devices and dozens of nearby signals and routers interfere with your maximum bandwidth.

Installing a better wireless device at your end may help but if your signal is lower than elsewhere in the house then you may find upgrading one end of the transmission line doesn't help that much. If the device you have purchased is USB you could use an extension cable and locate it in the best hot spot in your room.

Going up to 5Ghz N would really help but I suspect the router BT provide probably won't support that.

Shame to waste all that lovely infinity bandwidth though.

Homeplugs would be the sensible choice.
 
Apparantly homeplugs are a no go in our house since the wiring is too old.

Also, the router is definatly N standard since my brothers laptop picks up a N standard signal, and got around 30Mbps from the speedtests. This was all discovered last night.

Thanks for your advice though, the card I ordered has a 1.5m usb cable aswell.
 
Let us know how you get on with that wireless adapter, might grab one for my dad's PC as his struggles with signal strength at times.
 
You can get 5m USB extensions if that gives you a better signal. You'll find lots of strong and weak points in an area.

Water, metal and other dense materials attenuates 2.4Ghz signals so if you can get the antenna away from such things you should see a better signal.

Use a wifi tool to check your signal in different locations and find the best. I think Inssider does some usuful graphs so you can see what diffference things make.
 
If it's a desktop PC, why didn't you buy a PCI wireless card? I suspect they'd be better than a USB Wireless Adapter.
 
I didnt get PCI one because my graphics card covers both my available PCI slots (poor design by Asus).

@hohum - I will let you know how this thing performs. I suspect it will be better than my current Tenda card, which was only £5 on ******.
 
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