Need a recommendation on a N USB adapter.

[Ashtonhz8907]

Currently my laptop has a Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230 in it. My laptop has a whitelist and it is hard to find an upgrade for so I settled on getting a USB adapter. I'm normally 20 feet away from my router about 3 walls in between it and my laptop. My internet provider speeds are 75mps, at non peak hours I can get speeds of 100mps. My laptop is my only computer and I don't wanna be stuck plugging it up when I need said speeds. Can anyone recommend an adapter that will give me the stability to maintainmy maximum speeds with said obstacles? For some reason my laptop can only hit a maximum of 30mbps with it's current card and I've tried everything to fix it. My router is set to N only at 2.4ghz because my card is not a 5ghz. Is what I want possible on N or should I adopt AC? I don't need anything super fast I just wanna get my moneys worth out of my bandwidth.

 

[RealBeast]

THIS is a great adapter and is on sale for $10 FS with the promo code on its page. I've used a bunch of them for clients, friends, and family.

Although it is a great adapter with a large antenna, it will not fix a poor signal from your router, so check and insure that the signal in that area is adequate with INSSIDER. Do not get AC for this, just optimize your N signal and use a channel that no other strong signals are on (from 1, 6, and 11) which inSSIDer will report to you (plus it is a free app).

 

[Ashtonhz8907]

THIS is a great adapter and is on sale for $10 FS with the promo code on its page. I've used a bunch of them for clients, friends, and family.

Although it is a great adapter with a large antenna, it will not fix a poor signal from your router, so check and insure that the signal in that area is adequate with INSSIDER. Do not get AC for this, just optimize your N signal and use a channel that no other strong signals are on (from 1, 6, and 11) which inSSIDer will report to you (plus it is a free app).

Thanks price is not really an issue. Would it be better to go with a 5ghz adapter though or does 5ghz have reduced range? Lots of networks around me but I'm the only one running a N network. Also at 150mps what would be my max in the real world 75mbps if I was connected with the best signal?

 

[RealBeast]

5GHz can have reduced range for N wireless, as the higher the frequency the less it penetrates obstructions like walls. One big advantage to using 5GHz is that it is less used than 2.4GHz, like by all your neighbors so there is less interference. You would need to experiment with your set up to see which works best.

If you want dual band, I've used a few of the DUAL BAND adapters and they worked fine.

My guess is that you would get 40-50Mbps unless you use a 40MHz wide channel with N, and then you may reach 75Mbps. If your router is 150 only it may not support wide channels. Using 5GHz may give you better speed with channel bonding if you have any nearby neighbors since using two channels on 2.4GHz uses about 82% of the bandwidth and you are likely to get interference and death threats (it would create a lot of interference for neighboring networks).

It doesn't matter that you have the only N network for 2.4GHz -- 2.4 GHz N and G use the same frequencies -- I would really look at using 5GHz if no neighbors are using it because it will perform better and you will have the potential to use a 40MHz wide channel, which increases bandwidth when both router and adapter support it.

If money is no object and you cannot run an Ethernet cable, I would buy two ASUS AC routers, run one as the main router and the other in media bridge mode like THIS and you will get speeds much higher than your current Internet connection. AC has other enhancements but one reason it is fast is that it uses 80MHz wide 5GHz channels.

 

[Ashtonhz8907]

5GHz can have reduced range for N wireless, as the higher the frequency the less it penetrates obstructions like walls. One big advantage to using 5GHz is that it is less used than 2.4GHz, like by all your neighbors so there is less interference. You would need to experiment with your set up to see which works best.

If you want dual band, I've used a few of the DUAL BAND adapters and they worked fine.

My guess is that you would get 40-50Mbps unless you use a 40MHz wide channel with N, and then you may reach 75Mbps. If your router is 150 only it may not support wide channels. Using 5GHz may give you better speed with channel bonding if you have any nearby neighbors since using two channels on 2.4GHz uses about 82% of the bandwidth and you are likely to get interference and death threats (it would create a lot of interference for neighboring networks).

It doesn't matter that you have the only N network for 2.4GHz -- 2.4 GHz N and G use the same frequencies -- I would really look at using 5GHz if no neighbors are using it because it will perform better and you will have the potential to use a 40MHz wide channel, which increases bandwidth when both router and adapter support it.

If money is no object and you cannot run an Ethernet cable, I would buy two ASUS AC routers, run one as the main router and the other in media bridge mode like THIS and you will get speeds much higher than your current Internet connection. AC has other enhancements but one reason it is fast is that it uses 80MHz wide 5GHz channels.

Thanks so much decided to follow up, I decided to go with THIS. You were right no need for AC at the moment.

Now I am getting this:


Only getting 3 bars but it is stable and fast. Thanks!

 

[RealBeast]

Nice!