Fiber Wifi - Adapters and Extenders

[Aaron Foat]

Hi Peoples,

I have a Fiber router. My PCs are connected to it via wifi. I do not understand the tech or specs of what i need to improve my speed.

What type of connection do I have 5GHz/2.4GHz?

If I get an adapter that is a Wireless USB Adapter 5GHz/2.4GHz Dual Band 600Mbps, am I getting the correct one?
OR
Would this be better? AC1200mbps Plus High Speed Wifi Adapter Long Range 5G Dual Band External Two 6Dbi Wifi Antennas

Should I consider an extender that is compliant with 802.11ac with dual-band concurrent wireless?

Thank you for helping a newbie

 

[bill001g]

A extender will increase the distance the signal goes at the cost of speed. It will cut your bandwidth in at least half and many times much more. You never want to use a extender unless nothing else gives you wifi signal. It is one of those cases where even a very bad signal is better than no signal.

If your wifi are already connected they may already have wifi cards that are as good as the ones you are listing. The so called AC1200 devices tend to be the most common thing you find in newer devices so you may already have that. So your first step is to find out what you already have.

Most problems with wifi and speed are related to the building you are in and all the people around you also using wifi interfering with your signals. Buying new equipment does not fix this problem so it is hard to say how much if any you will get.

How much speed do you actually need and how much do you currently get. If you are only getting say 20mbps then you might be able to improve it if you are already getting say 100mbps you might spend lots and get very little increase.

It also depends on how fast your internet is. The ISP call lots of things fiber, that used to mean gigabit but you see many that now call 50mbps VDSL connections fiber. You can never go faster than the connection you pay the ISP for.

 

[Aaron Foat]

Thank you for your reply,

I used to get about 45-50 mbps with my old computer which had a gaming motherboard. My Mac laptop is getting about 12-20 mpbs right now while my old All-in-one PC is getting between .5-5 mbps. I will be getting a newer Desktop next year, but just looking for a solution to get to a steadier stronger signal. If I was sitting at about 25-30 mbps consistently, I would be happy.

 

[bill001g]

The general recommendation is to buy ac1200 devices. They give you the best performance for the cost. If your router supports it you could get some the nic cards that have 3 and 4 antenna but how much extra you get is hard to say.

You may be better off using powerline units rather than wifi. The newer av2-1200 units have traffic rates about the same as higher end wifi solutions but work much better for games.

Unfortunately wifi is a trial and error thing. It could be the equipment but it could also be what the wall is made out of.