Do Usb dongles become outdated/newer ones detect signal better?

BenCannibal · 27 Sep 2014 at 20:23

I've got an old virgin media wireless dongle that worked in my previous house but since I moved out it only works when I'm right next to the router which is impossible for me since its locked away.

If I was to buy a new dongle, would that increase my odds of connecting to our WiFi? If so what do you recommend?

Rroff · 27 Sep 2014 at 20:24

Wireless tech has been improving generally so chances are a newer dongle would be better.

If the router is locked away maybe the signal is being blocked by whatever its locked away in.

BenCannibal · 27 Sep 2014 at 20:41

Yeah glad to have a second opinion on it, its driving me crazy its just a rented property with other people so they lock it so nobody messes with it, this one was working when I tethered my windows phone as an adapter but then it used my data plan over the WiFi and it wont tether again. When it tethered it was allowing me to see my WiFi 24 hours later but now I have a brand new pc and absolutely nothing to do on it.

leezer3 · 27 Sep 2014 at 22:45

Rroff said:
Wireless tech has been improving generally so chances are a newer dongle would be better.

If the router is locked away maybe the signal is being blocked by whatever its locked away in.

Speed yes, range not necessarily.

I'm assuming that this is Wireless N, so my immediate guesses would be that this router us using the 5ghz band rather than the 2.4ghz band.
5ghz doesn't penetrate walls nearly as well, so try forcing the router/ dongle to use 2.4ghz.

In general terms the only difference between two wireless dongles of the same type (ABGN) will be caused by the aerial in each. If you can't change the router to 2.4ghz, investing in a dongle with a decent sized external aerial is likely to be your best chance- Not a neat little slimline thing....

-Leezer-

BenCannibal · 25 Oct 2014 at 10:54

Hi guys,

Just going to gravedig this to shed a little light on what I did to sort out my issue.

Bough a pair of Network extenders, not sure what they're called to be honest but went into a PC store and the guy there told me it'd guarantee to sort out my issue and I was blatantly sceptical because he sounded about as genuine as old gill off The Simpsons.

So you get these two little router looking plugs with ethernet holes in and what you do is plug one into a socket near your pc, and connect an ethernet cable between the two (Mine was £25 and it came with two), then went to my router and plugged another one into that and as soon as I restarted both my wifi and everyone elses was detected, massively improved and flawless.

So fool proof, felt bad on the guy I doubted because he got me exactly what I needed, and he agreed with the USB dongle being upgraded hardly making a difference. If you have connectivity issues buy what I bought!

Good luck

TheVoice · 25 Oct 2014 at 18:12

Powerline adapters. They're great for situations exactly like this where wi-fi isn't working well and putting down network cables isn't feasible.