20$ vs 40$ wifi card?

[Charles Daher]

I currently have this wifi card:

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN881ND-Wireless-Express-Low-profile/dp/B0079XWMEI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395288536&sr=8-1&keywords=tp-link+tl-wn881nd

And i have slow internet, i believe its range issues. The wireless router i have is this:

http://www.linksys.com/en-apac/products/routers/E2500

I live in an apartment about 30 feet away from the router( about 2 walls in the way). The router says it has dual band N and it seems I am only using N. Currently my download speed is 2.78 when im paying for more. Should I upgrade my wifi card to this? Is it worth another 40$ dollars. Or should i buy new antenas for the wifi card?

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WDN4800-Wireless-Express-Low-profile/dp/B007GMPZ0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395289056&sr=8-1&keywords=wifi+pci+express+dual-band+n

 

[pyr0_m4n]

I wouldn't. I actually have a single antenna 300MB in my PC and it runs just fine. What exactly do you expect your download speeds to be? There's a huge amount of factors that influence it.

 

[Charles Daher]

When i take the computer to the router( yes i move the whole thing ) and test it it gets up to 8+

 

[pyr0_m4n]

First off, wireless signals aren't exactly known to be hugely reliable. The closer you get to the source, the less interference there is. Every cell phone, garage door opener, and a bunch of other electronic devices populate the 2.4ghz band and cause interference. That's why 5ghz came around because its less crowded at the drawback of having less range. If you really want to upgrade something, upgrade the router. Find one that has a more powerful signal. I went from an old linksys to a powerful asus router and the signal strength nearly doubled. I mean, I always had full bars, but my download speeds jumped.

 

[Charles Daher]

This is a brand new 100$ router, what do you mean upgrade the router . Like 150-200$?!?!?!?! How about I just get like and external antenna for my wifi card . IDK like 2 of these

http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Connector-Tilt-Swivel-Wireless-Antenna/dp/B00AIILBCU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1395292199&sr=8-9&keywords=wifi+antenna+pci

or is it definetly the router?

 

[Beezy]

yeah i like routers with external antennas so you can replace them with extended antenna with more db and more power. The one you have is set in stone, what you got under the hood is all youll get.

Maybe
A. install DD-WRT or Tomoato firmware and boost the signal power output a bit more (this will shorten the router life)
b. change the channel in the wireless options (google how to log into linksys router).
c. move the router to a better location, higher up, away from computers, tvs and other big metal objects.

 

[Charles Daher]

So the wifi pci card i have now is fine? I dont want to shorten the life of the router , and the router is in a fixed location cause of my PS3 and its on the center of the apartment so that we have range everywhere :/.

 

[Charles Daher]

I feel stupid lol. I forgot to mention that I am using a wifi booster, my brother has his computer hooked up straight at it, idk if that affects my internet speed. His internet speed is faster than mine

 

[Beezy]

yes directly connected computers will enjoy much better connection and less lag overall. wireless connections have a realy performance hit

 

[bill001g]

I feel stupid lol. I forgot to mention that I am using a wifi booster, my brother has his computer hooked up straight at it, idk if that affects my internet speed. His internet speed is faster than mine

What are you calling a "wifi booster". There really is no such thing. The most common thing that is sold as that is a repeater. To work effectively the repeater needs to be placed 1/2 between the main router and the end client.

All this device does is receive the signal and retransmit it. If you have poor reception on you PC and you place this device right next to you PC it too will have poor reception and not have any better data to repeat.

In ALL cases use of a repeater will degrade you speeds. You will lose 50% at the minimum.

You should only use repeaters as a very last resort when your choice is no signal or crappy repeated signal.

30ft you should be able to get a reasonable signal with your current card. I would suspect you are blocking the antenna on your card. You should try moving turning the PC to see if some direction work better.

This is the key disadvantage to internal PCI cards. The do make antenna extensions but most cost as much as a USB wireless card and those you can put on a $3 15ft extension cable so you can place it in a area that gets better reception

 

[Beezy]

check in the control panel power plan advanced settings, ensure the wireless device is getting full power and no saving modes for it. Look into a TCP/IP optimizer, maybe get a bit of results (speedtest.net will tell you if it helped or not).

 

[Charles Daher]

Ok I found a solution. First I moved my wifi router(just 3 foot away from the T.V it was on top of) and moved my PC out of the corner in the furniture I have it in. My internet downlaod speed is now a solid 6 sometimes 7 . All I have to do now is buy a longer ethernet cable to hook it up on high.( Btw my internet is still coming through wifi repeater, im not using the direct router. Seems not to be such a big loss. ) These small changes helped a lot. Thanks

 

[Charles Daher]

I bought an external wifi usb thingy that runs with a usb cable.

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WN7200ND-Wireless-Adapter-Detachable/dp/B003Y5RYP2/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1423783571&sr=8-22&keywords=tp-link+wifi+usb

It changed everything. I can connect to wifi in my building up to 10 floors away. Antenna can be upgraded to a larger one but this works fine.