Built in and USB wifi

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st999
st999 Posts: 1,574 Forumite
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in Techie Stuff
Is there any speed advantage to having a USB wifi adapter plugged in and working along with the built in wifi on a notebook?

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  • rmg1
    rmg1 Posts: 3,131 Forumite
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    As far as I know, the notebook will only use one of them so you wouldn't get a speed increase.
    :wall: Flagellation, necrophilia and bestiality - Am I flogging a dead horse? :wall:

    Any posts are my opinion and only that. Please read at your own risk.
  • Cisco001
    Cisco001 Posts: 4,019 Forumite
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    No, unless your wifi in notebook has poorer spec than USB.

    E.g. your notebook only support to 802.11n, but your router can support to 802.11ac. Then there is an advantage to get a usb adapter with 11 ac
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
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    It won't use two. When there are two network connections Windows is suposed to choose the quickest one.

    In practice I've found it frequently doesn't even after messing about manually setting setting a low adapter metic as mentioned in some tech documents I found. On my machine it would choose a G wireless connection over gigabit ethernet.

    Given my experience you'd probably end up with it using the slower of the two :(

    If you did get a faster adapter you'd need to turn off the internal WiFi to be sure the faster one got used.
  • st999
    st999 Posts: 1,574 Forumite
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    What about a 5 GHz adapter and the built in 2.4 GHz, my Virgin media router outputs both at the same time, for instance I have my Kindle on 5 GHz and my computers on 2.4 GHz?
  • Cycrow
    Cycrow Posts: 2,639 Forumite
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    Technically it is possible, you can load balance multiple network connections together to increase throughput.

    Windows doesn't have this feature built in however.

    It was done alot in the days before broadband, connecting multiple modems together to increase the internet speed.

    its not something thats easy to setup and use however
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
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    Makes no difference. Windows will only use a single internet connection. You might be able to somehow bond the two but I doubt that. If you want faster run a bit of wire...
  • Gloomendoom
    Gloomendoom Posts: 16,550 Forumite
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    I use a USB wireless adapter with an external aerial when the signal strength is poor. In all other situations it is no benefit and just gets in the way.
  • bluesnake
    bluesnake Posts: 1,460 Forumite
    edited 24 October 2014 at 3:16PM
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    there can be no difference, or a huge difference - all depends on the adapter.

    There is also the 2.4 and 5G bandwidths, so plugging in a 5GHz dongle to suplement 2.4G issues could be and advantage too.

    If you plug in an inferior dongle, you will probably see a decreace in speed. However if you use a £15 AWUSO36H (ebay price) you probably will have both an increase range and pick up a better signal
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