Usb wifi/ PCI wifi adaptors.
Anyone use a wifi adaptor before are they any good?
Moving to a place where I don't want to add ethernet cable,
I normally use my laptop to supply my desktop with wifi for internet but since this is going to be for a bit longer would rather outfit my pc with wifi capibility.
You know since win 10 sees the connection as ethernet and not wifi it can't be metered.
Evil meet my Sword. Sword, meet Evil!
I've used both USB and PCI WiFi adapers. It's all the same really, what I don't like about USB based is that you end up sacrificing a USB port on a near permanent basis. Unless you have super fast WiFi 802.11ac and a crappy USB 2.0 port/adapter you won't actually notice anything.
For reference I have a Netgear USB WiFi adapter (802.11n) and a cheap 802.11ac USB adapter and they both perform equally well.
I also had a Netgear 802.11a/b/g PCI adapter which performed reasonably well. The drivers we the biggest issue as it required some bloatware to work well.
And to add to this...
Some USB WiFi adapters will not work correctly under Linux no matter what you do.
The biggest constraints you will have is :
- OS support (as mentioned above)
- Operating frequencies (cheaper devices will be 2.4 GHz only)
- External/User replaceable antennas (most USB devices will not have these)
If you just want a cheap thing that will work :
http://www.dx.com/p/k11-mini-ieee-80...8#.We3jqWiCyUk
Last edited by PsychoFish; 23-10-2017 at 02:44 PM.
I agree with Psyco, added to that I think that unless you are going to be near the Wifi AP get a PCI Card so you can get bigger antennae if you need to its also more future proof if you end up in a different setup distance etc..
I have a PCI Wifi adapter. A Dlink its terrible.
T A N S T A A F L
You can force your LAN to be seen as metered by fiddling with your registry. I've done it on my machine, useful for capped accounts
Otherwise yea I have used the netgear usb dongle that comes with some of the routers, and it worked ok. We've had some clients have usb wifi dongles break on them, but I reckon thats a client issue since they tended to not be very gentle with hardware.
Also want to agree that drivers can be a pain sometimes...
Does it stay like that if windows updates?Originally Posted by mottamort
You can force your LAN to be seen as metered by fiddling with your registry. I've done it on my machine, useful for capped accounts
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Thats a good question. I did manually do the fall update this weekend, so I'll have a look when I'm home and update here (if I remember to :P)
If you want more control over your network you can get Glasswire or Netbalancer. They allow you to limit, track and block applications from using your data.
I personally use Netbalancer and it really helps out a lot. When I game I just limit all the other applications so I know im save.
Also as for a a USB WiFi adaptor, I just like it because I can use it on other devices. But the internal WiFi cards are stronger and more stable.
I'm really interested in this thread. My PC is also too far away from my router to have a cable. At the moment the wifi barely reaches the PC though, so speeds are severly slowed down. This is due to it being upstairs and my router being down stairs. Perhaps I should look at a USB wifi device with an antenna.
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