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ASUS USB-N53 N600 Dual Band USB Wireless Adapter

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Has anybody got any experience of using the ASUS USB dual band wireless adapyrt to access the 5GHz band on the new virgin wireless hub 2?

For £12.50 at Argos seems a good deal but do they actually do what they advertise as my laptop currently only accesses the 2.4 band and with lots of other people in nearby houses using the 2.4 GHz band, I am wondering if I will notice a significant improvement in wireless speed getting a dual band adapter?

Any comments gratefully received

pwhitf
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Comments

  • GunJack
    GunJack Posts: 11,842 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    depends what you mean by faster.... how fast is your broadband? You should see less interference if you use the 5GHz band, but more speed? not necessarily..
    ......Gettin' There, Wherever There is......

    I have a dodgy "i" key, so ignore spelling errors due to "i" issues, ...I blame Apple :D
  • enfield_freddy
    enfield_freddy Posts: 6,147 Forumite
    however if the packets of data are being scrambled and cross matched with other data , this will make it resend the data until correct data is obtained , so going on a clear channel would result in a clear first time passage , and quicker.
    pwhitf , have you tried wifiexplorer (on android) or similar on windows to look for clear space?
  • tavernman
    tavernman Posts: 575 Forumite
    however if the packets of data are being scrambled and cross matched with other data , this will make it resend the data until correct data is obtained , so going on a clear channel would result in a clear first time passage , and quicker.
    pwhitf , have you tried wifiexplorer (on android) or similar on windows to look for clear space?
    Huh can we have an english translation of what you are trying to say .....scrambled/cross matched how does that happen?
  • enfield_freddy
    enfield_freddy Posts: 6,147 Forumite
    if the data is corrupted it will be resent , thus slowing the connection down


    it may be corrupted due to picking up data from other places ie the data being crossed over from one feed to the other receiver,
  • pwhitf
    pwhitf Posts: 55 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks for replies. I use 'wirelessnetview' to see that there are over 10 connections from pothef people that I can pick up with a fairly even distribution on channels 1, 6 and 11 (the non overlapping ones).

    I was just hoping to find out if the adapter was easy to set up and actually works with a virgin superhub as most of the adapters when I read magazine reviews tend to say that each adapter works differently depending on hub used.

    I know speed is not really the issue but I am looking to reduce interference (which causes slowdown) from other people as not many will be accessing the 5GHz channel (bizarrely my 2012 LG TV will but my 2014 HP laptop won't)

    pwhitf
  • enfield_freddy
    enfield_freddy Posts: 6,147 Forumite
    go for it , sale or return from argos , please remember to turn the on board one off in the bios


    coming up at £22 here tho , http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerm/ASUS+USB+dual+band+wireless+adapter.htm
  • Fightsback
    Fightsback Posts: 2,504 Forumite
    pwhitf wrote: »
    Has anybody got any experience of using the ASUS USB dual band wireless adapyrt to access the 5GHz band on the new virgin wireless hub 2?

    For £12.50 at Argos seems a good deal but do they actually do what they advertise as my laptop currently only accesses the 2.4 band and with lots of other people in nearby houses using the 2.4 GHz band, I am wondering if I will notice a significant improvement in wireless speed getting a dual band adapter?

    Any comments gratefully received

    pwhitf


    What model is your laptop (and internal wifi) as it can work out cheaper (or similar cost) to replace the internal wifi card if it has one and it's not an integrated chipset.

    Something to bear in mind about 5ghz is that it doesn't penetrate walls as well as 2.4ghz so you will experience less range.

    What you may experience is faster throughput as your existing wifi card/chipset may not be MIMO

    MIMO explanation here:

    http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/network-protocols/Evolution-future-Wi-Fi-Part2.html
    Science isn't exact, it's only confidence within limits.
  • wellynever
    wellynever Posts: 908 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    5GHz built into laptop so no dongle but this is the speed i get,

    4273896906.png

    I'm also after a 5GHz dongle for virgin media for partners computer plus to try with Raspberry pi B.
  • pwhitf
    pwhitf Posts: 55 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks for all great replies.

    My network device is Realtek 8188EE (integrated chip I think)

    I am going to order dongle and see what happens.

    pwhitf
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