New desktop wireless adapter, USB or PCI?

satanicguardian · 21 Jan 2014 at 10:07

Hi guys,

My pc's wifi adapter is slowly dying, constant lag spikes and dips in signal strength, I'm in the room above the router and get constant problems recently, to be fair it's almost 5 years old and has probably shifted 100's of TB in it's time, I am look to get a new adapter but am unsure if I'm best getting a PCI card for (faster internal data transfer?) or USB (better external positioning)

Does anyone have any advice? My PC sits in a bay window on a desk, router is central in the room downstairs

Thanks in advanced,

Jamie

Tealc · 21 Jan 2014 at 16:28

If you are concerned about getting a good signal then you can get PCI card and have a 1 or 2M pigtail antenna extension or two to suit. I'd steer away from USB if its a static PC, although to be fair I've only sampled cheap USB wifi adaptors.

Caged · 21 Jan 2014 at 16:31

I'd get a USB adapter and a 3m long USB extension cable so you don't have losses over the antenna cables. Then you can blu-tak it to a wall or somewhere not behind a big metal box.

satanicguardian · 21 Jan 2014 at 17:04

Hmm, do you not lose speed over a long usb cable? (Basing that off the fact that phones charge slower on a longer cable duel to resistance)

I'm genuinely considering a 30m ethernet cable, does speed deteriorate on ethernet past a certain length?

Caged · 21 Jan 2014 at 17:06

No, ethernet will be fine, and a Wi-Fi dongle will work fine on a USB extension.

The USB spec works up to 5m. The reason phones have issues charging over long cables is because drawing 2A through a USB cable isn't in the spec - you can probably get thicker cables to make this a non-issue.

bledd · 21 Jan 2014 at 17:33

Ethernet will be so much better (and cheaper).

It's fine up to 100 metres, either get cat5e or cat6. They're both made for gigabit (1000mbit) speeds.

cat5 is only rated to 100mbit

satanicguardian · 22 Jan 2014 at 09:05

Hmm, I best get measuring then, I'd guess 30 meters will be enough..but I don't want it to be too short!

bledd · 22 Jan 2014 at 17:16

Buy a ball of string and 'run' it where the cable would go. Then measure that string length with a tape measure. Easier than going around the house with a tape measure.

Also, tape measure can easily mark your walls if you're not careful!

satanicguardian · 23 Jan 2014 at 09:04

bledd. said:
Buy a ball of string and 'run' it where the cable would go. Then measure that string length with a tape measure. Easier than going around the house with a tape measure.

Also, tape measure can easily mark your walls if you're not careful!

Ahh! ^^^^^ good plan, I'll do that