Making my PC wireless

ferry · 23 October 2016 at 11:47AM

Easy one i think for you clever lot.
I will be moving my router ,any recommendations on best hardware to use for making my PC wireless?
Are usb dongles really up to the job or should i consider the pci card route?

thank you

Heedtheadvice · 23 October 2016 at 1:02PM

I bought a USB dongle for a friend who's laptop wireless stopped working. It was only a couple of quid or so but worked very well.

However, you do realise that the connection speed via wireless will be much less than an Ethernet connection direct to the router? Can you not use a long cable or a power line adaptor?

John_Gray · 23 October 2016 at 1:23PM

ferry wrote: »

Are usb dongles really up to the job or should i consider the pci card route?

You should consider how far your PC will be from the router, and what is present on the straight-line path between (walls, water tanks, aluminium foil in the walls, etc).

The second thing to consider is what wireless band your router will be transmitting on: purely G? N? AC?

A USB adapter will be the easiest to test, providing you get one to match your router wireless band(s). G gives the best range; N is faster, but has a lower range; AC you would need to look up.
Here are a bunch of 'wireless N' USB adapters.
Note other lists from:
WiFi PCI Adapters (AC)
WiFi PCI Adapters (N)
WiFi USB Adapters (AC)
WiFi USB Adapters (N)

I_have_spoken · 23 October 2016 at 1:26PM

Get a card from the same manufacturer as your router, of possible, and specified for the same wi-fi range, ideally both should be at least 802.11n

Making my PC wireless

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