Wireless adapter

Kannon

Can anyone receommend a wirless adapter for a desktop? I'm getting 16MB DSL broadband next week with a free wi-fi router included. I do some online gaming so I need good speed.

Thanks in advance.

Eboggles

Kannon wrote: »

Can anyone receommend a wirless adapter for a desktop? I'm getting 16MB DSL broadband next week with a free wi-fi router included. I do some online gaming so I need good speed.

Thanks in advance.

If you're doing online gaming, you should look at homeplugs instead. They're easy to set up and give consistent connection speed, but are about €70 for the pair.
EDIT: These are the ones I have, picked them up half price in-store. PenguinMan's ones look great for the money, I'd go with them.

PenguinMan

I'd highly recommend these homeplugs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-PA211KIT-200Mbps-Powerline-Ethernet/dp/B004INVKP4/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1326746953&sr=1-1

Kannon

Thanks for that.

So the way they work is that i plug one into a socket and connect it to the modem by ethernet, and I connect the other into a socket beside my pc and connect that up by ethernet?

I have to share the connection with another guy in the house. Is it ok to connect the wi-fi router to one of the other modem ports for him also? He won't be doing any online gaming.

ShadowHearth

Is modem far away from pc or is there alot of other crap in its way? USB wireless adapters are more then enough no matter what you do.

20eu vs 70eu for same function.

Kannon

It's upstairs, so only a ceiling really.

ShadowHearth

Kannon wrote: »

It's upstairs, so only a ceiling really.

can you borrow one so you could just to check? if it is just a sealing then you could get away with cheap usb adapter. its 20eu in soundstore or yo could get one online for less then 10eu.

i would just buy one online for 10eu, even if there is way too much interference you can buy those things suggested above.

its up to you, buy for 70eu now, or try 10eu way, if it fails ( i cant see it failing thought) you can buy that 70eu solution.

ozmo

Eboggles wrote: »

If you're doing online gaming, you should look at homeplugs instead. They're easy to set up and give consistent connection speed, but are about €70 for the pair.
EDIT: These are the ones I have, picked them up half price in-store. PenguinMan's ones look great for the money, I'd go with them.

Guess success varies - For myself - Ive tried lots of different usb and pci wifi dongles, all brands - and none were suitable in my desktop. They would work some days - other days be slow or often wouldn't connect properly or quickly when pc was switched on.


For me wired was the only way to go and only way Id connect a desktop.
Especially if there is more than 1 pc and you want to transfer anything from one pc to another.


If its just one pc connecting to broadband - If you have a second phone connection point upstairs - why not put the modem there, upstairs near the pc? or use a phone line extender cable. And then you only need a short bit of ethernet cable to connect to pc?

Kannon

Ok thanks for that. So there would be no difference in speed really?

Would there be more of a risk of the conenction dropping with the wirless adapter? Have they advanced much in recent years?

Kenny Logins

I'm using one of these - http://www.adverts.ie/peripherals/mini-wireless-n-wifi-usb-wlan-network-adapter-dongle/1248144

Can't fault it, has been working really well with no drop-outs, and I use a 1gig NAS at home, so plenty of data passes through it.

They are only €7.60ish from Hong Kong, but will take a couple of weeks to arrive.


IMHO the next step up would be the powerline kit PenguinMan posted above.

ozmo

Kannon wrote: »

Ok thanks for that. So there would be no difference in speed really?

Would there be more of a risk of the conenction dropping with the wirless adapter? Have they advanced much in recent years?

There would be an increase in ping times on wifi than there would be over a wired cable - so yes - quality of gaming might be affected over wifi.


Ordinary web surfing/internet download shouldnt be as affected, where your max modem speed will be less than what the Wifi can do... if you get a good stable signal with no interference from neighbours.

PenguinMan

Kannon wrote: »

Thanks for that.

So the way they work is that i plug one into a socket and connect it to the modem by ethernet, and I connect the other into a socket beside my pc and connect that up by ethernet?

I have to share the connection with another guy in the house. Is it ok to connect the wi-fi router to one of the other modem ports for him also? He won't be doing any online gaming.

Yep, that's exactly it . One thing to note, if your house has two fuse boards they will only work in sockets that are connected on the same fuse board. Not many houses have more than one, but seemingly some do. Furthermore, using the homeplugs with extension leads can reduce quality/speed of the connection (tried this once myself and they seemed to work fine, but a lot of people have reported that it doesn't work for them).

And yep, assuming the modem has more than one port that won't be problem .

ShadowHearth

well no argueing there, that direct connection is better then wireless. thats why i have very very very very long phone cable to go to my office where i have moden and then direct connection to pc, though i got cheap 20eu soundstore wireless for pc in bedroom and it has very good connection so far.

i would really recomend trying wireless usb adapter first ( they are cheap ), before those butt plugs.