USB 802.11ac adapter recommendation

Soldato
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Guess I am going to need a USB 3.1 port to get the maximum speed from this USB WIFI device. For the time being whilst I only have USB 3.0 and soon an up to 250mbit/s fibre service I should be able to get downloads of 24 Megabytes a second from the Internet as I can transfer data from my USB 3.0 ext HDD to my internal HDD over USB at something like 75 Megabytes a second.

Not quite enough for gigabit internet which needs transfer rates of around 99 Megabytes a second but enough for now. Also not sure if my Router would be capable of sustaining 99 Megabytes a second over WIFI as its only a cheap one.
 
Caporegime
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If it's not for a portable device I'd usually recommed something like the Asus EA-AC87 connected to the network port but that Asus A7000 looks pretty good on paper.

USB3.0 has more than enough bandwidth, you're likely to limited by the signal strength/quality.
 
Soldato
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Well I bought a USB 3.0 one to use on 2 Desktops and 2 laptops. The 2 desktops have USB 3.0 but the laptops only USB 2.0. I tried transferring a file from my USB 2.0 ext HDD to the internal drive and the transfer rate was about 20 to 24 Megabytes a second plenty for an up to 250mbit/s service and better than the built in 802.11n.
 
Soldato
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Found these reviews which sound promising...

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Of course you shouldn't take everything you read on the Internet as gospel.
 
Soldato
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If you're sat right on top of the router (so close that you may as well plug a network cable in),

and there aren't any other networks in range,

and you're the any one using the network,

etc. etc.

An AC1900 router is going to be 600Mbps on 2.4GHz and 1300Mbps on 5GHz.

You can't be using both at the same time so you're down to 1300Mbps.

As a rule of thumb, under perfect conditions, you can half the rated speed; so 650Mbps or 80MBps (ish).

It should be fast enough for your planned 250Mbps connection.

Don't forget that Gigabit is full duplex (2000Mbps) not half duplex and that every connection has that full bandwidth available all of the time.
 
Soldato
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Most I've seen on wireless is 300mb/s but that was with business grade stuff.

Does it have to be USB? PCIe would ensure the bottleneck is not the USB connection as it'll offer more bandwidth.
 
Soldato
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Yeah as an afterthought I considered PCI-e but the reason for going USB was the ability to share it amongst machines. It should be good enough for my planned 250mbit/s service and I can't see myself ever going gigabit for £ 40 a month more.
 
Soldato
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The one good thing about this USB adapter is that I can place the antenna wherever I like whereas with a PCIe one the antennas are at the back of the PC which is not always the best place. Also it's a Netgear USB stick connecting to a Netgear Router. I don't think Netgear make PCIe cards.
 
Soldato
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Just went round to my brother who has the FttH fibre service already. Using a droid box connected over gigabit ethernet with speedtest.net he got 500mbit/s down 500mbit/s up. With his iPhone X over 5G WIFI 380mbit/s down 478mbit/s up in same room as router.

With my iPhone 6 Plus over WIFI got about 250mbit/s down 250mbit/s up. My AC1900 WIFI adapter will most likely be the same as his iPhone X at best. Might just connect up with an ethernet cable after all.
 
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