what speed wireless card for asdl?

winalot2

I've just moved into a new place and gotten sky adsl which is coming back at 7.0mbps. my pc is upstairs and i'm trying to understand what sort of wifi card i would need to get for my pc(always plugged in the cable before). i see the tp-link wdn 4800 which says it gets 450 mbps gets really good reviews fora about £30 but is that massive overkiill for the speeds i get - would something like 15mbs which seems to be the lowest, or less work ok for my set up .i 'd like to try and get equal speeds to those acheived by wired connection.

penrhyn

Wireless N is probably best, although I'd use a pair of homeplugs and not bother with wireless.

macman

You will never get the speed of ethernet with wi-fi. As a rough guide, you'll be lucky to get even half the 'theoretical' rate of the wireless card, even stood next to the router. So a standard wireless 'N' card (which is not expensive anyway) would give be more than adequate for a 7MBps broadband service, assuming that moving data around the LAN is not important. However, bear in mind that using a cheaper and slower card will not give you any future proofing (should you upgrade to FTTC, for example).
I'm not clear if that TP-Link card offers simultaneous dual band connection or not, if it doesn't, look elsewhere.

Cisco001

I don't see the need of spend £30 on that. £10 usb adapter should do the job.
I personally would get usb adapter over internal card. Since most people put desktop under the desk or at the corner, usb extension with adapter on the desk would receive better signal.

kwikbreaks

macman wrote: »

I'm not clear if that TP-Link card offers simultaneous dual band connection or not, if it doesn't, look elsewhere.

Surely on the client side you can only connect to one band at a time be that on 2.4GHz or 5GHz. SFAIK the only point where concurrent dual band is significant is at the router.

Jemma-T

Less than £4 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310574944823 Windows 7/8 will install automatically.

I always expect to see 60-70% of the wired speed via N wireless but it's dependent on distance and obstructions.

I use a similar dongles on laptops around the house. With wired I get 35mbps and wifi coughs up 27mbps.

Jemma-T

...and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360528866684