How to connect my computer to the internet wireless

[slan44]

I am building a gaming pc and I am gong to have to connect it to the internet wireless. So what should I use to obtain the fastest speeds. I have heard about PCI express adapters and power line adapters but which is better or should I get something else entirely please help.

 

[juanrdp]

For a gaming Pc a wireless conections (or PLC ones) aren't the best, if you haven't any wiring option the performance will depend on several factors:
- Distance from the Pc to the wireless router and number of walls in the middle
- Wifi signal saturation in your home from nearby wifi hotspots
- For PLC, the quality of eletrical wiring on the home, distance, number of elements in the middle of the two PLCs, etc...

First of all would check the wifi signal from the router in the point you want to put the Pc and if you have several wifis in the place that overlap to check if wifi would be a good option (for example with a Wifi Analyzer App on any android device).

Then if wifi would be ok, use a good router like an Asus Dark Knight or similar with QoS (Quality of Service) options with a good Wifi Adapter (not needed to be PCIe, you could find serveral good USB ones)

I would not recomend PLC on default because depends a lot on factors with very dificult checking, like the building quality of the electrical wiring ofn the home, interferences for electrical equipment, etc... i could work very well but it's also probably to work in reduced performance or even don't work at all, wifi is somewhat more predictable.

 

[slan44]

Unfortunately wired is out of the question and the place I plan to have my computer is about 15-20 meters and through 3 walls and from past experience the signal has been bad in the room i plan to have it so is their a way to boost the signal strength.

 

[juanrdp]

Yes, depending on the router you have you could have some options.

First of all check if you have problems with other networks overlapping in the channels you are using the wifi, you could change channels on the router and give you a lot better wifi thoughput.

After that, the first solution and cheapest is if you have a mid-quality router to replace the default antennas with ones with more gain (like 7-10dbs ones) that would give you a better signal and is very cheap, maybe 10-15$ for two antennas

If you have a very bad wifi router will be better to just replace all the router with a better one (the ones i will recomend are maybe in the 120$ range) take into consideration that 20m and 3 walls will make the 5Ghz band not a very good choice, a good router (N) in the 2.4GHz band good fit better i think (5GHz band have worse range and penetration power) and use 100% power strength settings on router.

I would not recomend a wifi repeater, as you will increase rountrip travel and decrease gaming performace.

As a last solution, you could give a Plc a try but would be maybe a bet, depends on the house electrical wiring, you could think in one shop that you could get your money back easilly if didn't work for you (first of all check if both power plugs are in the same phase and cound the number of elements between like circuirt breakers and the number of heavy dutty machines connected to the line that could give you an idea of the quality you would get with a Plc)

 

[slan44]

So I looked at my router and I have a Netgear DG834G v4 will this be good enough or will it need to be replaced (I think it is quiet old)

 

[juanrdp]

With a router from the 2004, G protocol, only one antenna, etc... i would not have a lot of hope to get a anything from it.

If you want to use Wifi of the first things to do would be replace the router.

 

[slan44]

Any routers in particular you would recommend?

 

[juanrdp]

Any routers in particular you would recommend?

I personally use a Asus RT-N66U Dark Night and work wonderfully for me and with an excelent wifi coberture (it's a 900Mbits router), the problem is that dont have xDSL interface (i use optic fiber instead xDsl), i known that Asus have a ¿very? similar model for Adsl called DSL-N66U (but with internal antennas instead external ones) and a previous model DSL-N55U (more similar) but you will then lack AC protocol that is now starting to show (the model would be without xDSL port a RT-AC66U).

My recomendation would be a DSL-N66U if you only want a single device or use your old router for xDSL interface and a RT-AC66U for wifi

 

[TheReal_MaLLu]

I used to work with BT( British Telecom ) . Let me tell you this Powerline adapters are not ideal for gaming , they tend to get damaged fairly easily and resetting them is a pain. But if you know the technique you can reset the adapters as much as you want.

But the best bet would be a wired ethernet cable. Nowadays ethernet cables are coming in on 40m in length, you should contact your local hardware store. Hope this helps.

 

[slan44]

okay thanks for all the help.