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USB WiFi adapter with the best WiFi range under $40?


rambomhtri

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Hi, I use my laptop in a room that is "far" away from the modem. It's like 20-25 meters, and there are walls between the laptop and the modem. The ONLY solution is buy a better WiFi card that has an amazing range and can reach nice speeds (2 MB/s or faster). So please, don't offer me any other product, I'm looking just for WiFi USB adapters.

With my laptop's internal WiFi card, an Intel-N 7260, I can just sometimes connect to my modem, and speed is ridiculously slow, like 20KB/s, and the signal is very poor all the time.

Months ago I bought a high-gain TP-Link 822 USB adapter:

post-25582-14494998676144_thumb.jpg

Using that adapter, I can connect to my modem 80% of the time, and I reach usually 200-300KB/s, that is not bad, but still not enough, mainly because sometimes the signal is so poor that it disconnects from the modem.

300Mbps High Gain Wireless USB Adapter TL-WN822N - Welcome to TP-LINK

This adapter has dual 3dBi omni directional antennas, it's N, Transmit power <20dBm(EIRP), and these numbers:

270M: -68dBm@10% PER

130M: -68dBm@10% PER

108M: -68dBm@10% PER

54M: -68dBm@10% PER

11M: -85dBm@8% PER

6M: -88dBm@10% PER

1M: -90dBm@8% PER

I'm looking for a considerably better adapter, with better specs so I can connect to my modem and navigate without problems most of the time. The problem is that I don't know much about all these WiFi specs, I don't know when they "lie", or what they mean. Do you guys know a better WiFi card under $40?

Thanks!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sounds frustrating. I assume you have determined for sure that it is your signal that's dropping, not your internet? I had an old cable modem that kept re-connecting and causing the router to keep reconnecting so often that it crashed the router, causing loss of connection to my router (I mistakenly thought it was the router). Speaking of routers, I am thinking you might have better luck with a higher powered AC-Class router? (not sure what you're running now?). I have an Asus AC1600, and love it. At least you should have dual band, if you want good range. That 7260 is a really good card (I just upgraded to that card myself). I'm not sure if you will find anything better (although the TP-Link looks like a nice try). Another thing you can try is to put your router as high up as you can (making a small shelf for it and mounting it with drywall anchors isn't that hard). Also, make sure and aim those router antennae in the direction of your problem room (even if through walls). You might also consider a repeater/signal booster, which would be less than the cost of a new router (and fairly easy to setup). Commonly, you would plug this into a hallway power socket, and give it your main router config's.

If you have lathe and plaster walls, you will almost certainly need some kind of repeater to get the signal around corners.

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  • 3 weeks later...

What about powerline adapters? This is what I use for my pc since my room is far from the router. You need two adapters one goes into wall socket and is connected to router via ethernet cable and then the second adapter would be in the room you want to use it in and run a cable from that to your pc or purchase one of the wifi extender powerline adapters which gives you the option to run ethernet or use the boosted wifi

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I'd recommend an Alfa AWUS036H with at least a 7dBi panel antenna. It's cheap and high powered. If you're going to use omni-directional antennas like what your current WiFi adapter is using, be sure to orient them correctly. Imagine the radiation pattern of an omni-directional antenna looking like a doughnut when it is pointing straight upwards - the frequencies radiate out of the sides better than through the top, so you don't want to aim the antennas as if you were pointing with your index finger. Another tip I have would be to buy a better WiFi router with external antennas, preferably one capable of running either TomatoUSB, DD-WRT, or OpenWRT router firmwares. If you want to go really long distances, you can buy a parabolic grid antenna, but that isn't practical for indoors. Yagi WiFi antennas are good by design, but all of them being sold aren't correctly manufactured - the elements aren't spaced correctly, aren't the correct lengths, and aren't made of decent materials. If you want a good yagi antenna, you'd pretty much have to build it yourself.

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I'd recommend an Alfa AWUS036H with at least a 7dBi panel antenna. It's cheap and high powered. If you're going to use omni-directional antennas like what your current WiFi adapter is using, be sure to orient them correctly. Imagine the radiation pattern of an omni-directional antenna looking like a doughnut when it is pointing straight upwards - the frequencies radiate out of the sides better than through the top, so you don't want to aim the antennas as if you were pointing with your index finger. Another tip I have would be to buy a better WiFi router with external antennas, preferably one capable of running either TomatoUSB, DD-WRT, or OpenWRT router firmwares. If you want to go really long distances, you can buy a parabolic grid antenna, but that isn't practical for indoors. Yagi WiFi antennas are good by design, but all of them being sold aren't correctly manufactured - the elements aren't spaced correctly, aren't the correct lengths, and aren't made of decent materials. If you want a good yagi antenna, you'd pretty much have to build it yourself.

Wow, thank you so much for not only recommend one antenna, but for the explanation too.

I've found out that the model can come with a 9dBi omnidirectional antenna.

Isn't it better that one?

Or should I go all the way with panel antenna?

How it works?

Do I have to aim it to the router point?

I've notice too that it's only B/G range, it hasn't N or AC range.

Isn't it bad not to have at least an N range in nowadays adapters?

Will most of the routers recognize or provide B/G range?

What about this one, that seems to be an improvement of that one:

http://www.amazon.com/Alfa-AWUS036NH-Wireless-Long-Range-Screw-On/dp/B003YIFHJY

Thanks!

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