My dongle is inadequate...

Caporegime
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... so I keep being told ;)

Anyway, just interested in your experience with various USB wireless dongles. I've tried the Edimax EW7711 UAn in a couple places, and have bought them for a few other people. They tend to do the job, but only with 2 or (at best) 3 bars of signal.

I can't help but feel there should be something better on the market... but maybe not for the price? They are cheap, that's true, at about £10 each.

What USB dongles do you swear by and which would you absolutely avoid?
 
What USB dongles do you swear by and which would you absolutely avoid?

USB Dongles are utterly pants based upon my own experiences.
PCI or PCIE ones have much better signal (even though USB ones can be moved around).
Wired is the king of all.

If you cannot wire, get a decent brand pci/pcie wireless card.
 
I should probably have said "USB adaptor" instead of dongle, since I really just mean anything that attaches via a USB port.
 
My Phone does a pretty decent job (WiFi tethering on Android rocks)

Really though it's emergency and travel use only, the latency and Jitter of a 3G connection is terrible compared to a landline, usually on the order of ten to twenty times worse. Fine for streaming data but horrible for HTTP web browsing or gaming.

Can't wait for LTE (3.5G) to arrive, it's specified at less than 10ms RTT. If it delivers, and If I can get a signal (big If there) It'll probably be worth replacing my crappy 2Mb ADSL connection. It won't be here anytime soon though, since in the UK the appropriate wireless spectrum isn't even being sold off until the end of 2011.

Edit - just seen you specify it's a WiFi adaptor - Get a set of Powerline plugs. Mine (The £40 TP-Link 200Mb set that OCUK stock) give me close to 90 Mb measured throughput each direction with 3ms latency. Wireless N between the same rooms barely gets a signal.
 
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powerline?

failing that just a decent branded wireless usb

having said that, i recently got a netgear wnda3100v2

possibly the biggest sack of fail i have ever had the displeasure of using
 
Use a netgear wpn 111 usb adapter on my rig in sig, complete and utter rubbish, regular disconnects and it heats up quite a lot, driver support is also non existent. Hoping to move to a wired setup soon.
 
I've never had any issues with Belkin USB or PCI wireless adapters. USB adapters tend to suffer with less signal but the Wireless 'N' one I have has always had full signal anywhere in the house.
 
Well if nothing else I now know what dBm, dB, bels, S/N ratio, Rx sensitivty, attenuation, etc, means... look at what Google has done to us :p

So I guess I'm looking for a USB adaptor with transmit power + antenna gain as close to 20dBm as possible, with an Rx sensitivity as low as possible, and then add in a healthy does of luck, to get a decent signal :p Not sure if I can affect S/N ratio at all, or whether that's purely down to atmospheric conditions?

One other question: when a unit has advertised specs of "output power: 14 dBm" and "includes 3dBi gain antenna", does that mean that they're including the antenna in the output power calculation? Or is it 14+3 = 17dBm total output power?
 
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