Question Recommended USB WiFi adapters for a PC ?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

cloudff7ps1

Reputable
Sep 3, 2020
457
3
4,685
Which models of USB WiFi Adapters sold by Aliexpress are good, stable and give a strong signal at a low price, and what functions are necessary for good performance ?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
cloudff7ps1 said:
My PC IS i5 3470, 16gb ram ddr3, asrock b75m-dgs r2.0, Radeon R7 360, Power supply Corsair cx500, Windows 10, HDD 2.5" and ssd, monitor led ips LG 23.5" i lived in Brazil state Ceara

My router IS TP-Link wifi6 AX3000

I not have many money in. Aliexpress low cost
Click to expand...
https://www.currys.co.uk/computing/networking/wireless-adapters

The link is for a general electronics shop in the UK, think washing machines to televisions.
They have cheap USB WiFi adapters for as little as £9 to more expensive internal parts. If you are happy with TP Link the tiny USB part works well.

No need to go to Ali Express, see what local computer stores have close to you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stuff and nonesense said:
https://www.currys.co.uk/computing/networking/wireless-adapters

The link is for a general electronics shop in the UK, think washing machines to televisions.
They have cheap USB WiFi adapters for as little as £9 to more expensive internal parts. If you are happy with TP Link the tiny USB part works well.

No need to go to Ali Express, see what local computer stores have close to you.
Click to expand...
Those nano adapters are JUNK. To get good WIFI you need large antennas. The nano adapters have tiny antennas.
At a minimum you want this -- https://www.amazon.com/wireless-USB-WiFi-Adapter-PC/dp/B07P5PRK7J?th=1
And this is better, because it has two antennas and is designed to work on a USB cable so it can be placed at the best location for signal -- https://www.amazon.com/USB-WiFi-6-Adapter-for-desktop-PC/dp/B0B5YPK9L1/?th=1
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kanewolf said:
Those nano adapters are JUNK. To get good WIFI you need large antennas. The nano adapters have tiny antennas.
At a minimum you want this -- https://www.amazon.com/wireless-USB-WiFi-Adapter-PC/dp/B07P5PRK7J?th=1
And this is better, because it has two antennas and is designed to work on a USB cable so it can be placed at the best location for signal -- https://www.amazon.com/USB-WiFi-6-Adapter-for-desktop-PC/dp/B0B5YPK9L1/?th=1
Click to expand...
Not saying they are good but they work at a pinch. There are more options on the page at different prices. The point of the page was to show that even in a retail chain they aren’t that expensive, there is little reason to go to Ali express.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cloudff7ps1 said:
For a strong signal 10 meters away from the router and with obstacles like walls, is it more important to have a large antenna or 4 small antennas?
Click to expand...

@bill001g has explained that 4 antennas situation. Use ethernet instead.

In my previous post when I said 866 is actually just connection speed or modulation speed. With interference/ error corrections/overheads/distance/obstacles in real world you probably can only get 50% of that number.

https://www.meter.com/network-installation-management/wifi-throughput-expectations-and-limitations
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Your TPLink router

www.tp-link.com

AX3000 Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 Router

www.tp-link.com www.tp-link.com

description:
802.11ax 2x2 160MHz enables 2402Mbps maximum theoretical data rates, 3X faster than standard 802.11ac 2x2 80MHz (867Mbps) and nearly 6x faster than baseline 1x1ac (433Mbps) Wi-Fi as documented in IEEE 802.11 wireless standard specifications, and require the use of similarly configured 802.11ax wireless network routers.

2x2 means 2 antennas for sending and 2 antennas for receiving. Most of the time (probably 99.9%) users only do one direction. 4 antennas even if real doesn't help at all.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kanewolf said:
Yet you said "works well". IMO, that is not true.
Click to expand...
My purpose is getting around a problem caused by a customer. They got bought out and blocked internet access for the kit I service.

Those little usb dongles work well for the required downloads and updates. For the purpose I use them they are excellent, cheap, cheerful and quick enough.

For gaming they are wholly unsuitable, granted.

The connection is immediate, data rate for my purpose is good enough, works well.

Doesn’t mean they are good. A SKMEI? Digital watch costs pennies too, it tells the time and is good enough at telling the time. Doesn’t mean it will last. Again, works well but is junk compared to a GShock.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stuff and nonesense said:
My purpose is getting around a problem caused by a customer. They got bought out and blocked internet access for the kit I service.

Those little usb dongles work well for the required downloads and updates. For the purpose I use them they are excellent, cheap, cheerful and quick enough.

For gaming they are wholly unsuitable, granted.

The connection is immediate, data rate for my purpose is good enough, works well.

Doesn’t mean they are good. A SKMEI? Digital watch costs pennies too, it tells the time and is good enough at telling the time. Doesn’t mean it will last. Again, works well but is junk compared to a GShock.
Click to expand...
So here a example of the massive issue with the "nano" style USB devices.

When I looked at the very first unit in the link you provided you can actually see the FCCid. They must file test documents with the FCC. Now very technically they might sell different units in the EU and the USA since the allowed transmit powers are different, it is 1000mw in the USA and 100mw in EU.

https://fccid.io/2AXJ4UB500

Problem is this device only puts out 9.4mw. That is only 1/10 the power allowed in the UK and 1/100 the allowed power in the USA. Most of brazil also allows 1000miliwatts on the 2.4g band.

This is very common for these extremely small units. They do this to save battery power which only matters on a laptop or tablet.

If you could actually get the FCCid on the units from aliexpress you could look things up. It is hard to get the FCCid numbers even on stuff sold on major sites like amazon. Most times you have to do lots of digging to get it but it is really the only way to be 100% sure of what the technical specs are. The methods for testing and measurement are very clearly defined unlike almost any other source of data including the manufactures own marketing data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bill001g said:
So here a example of the massive issue with the "nano" style USB devices.

When I looked at the very first unit in the link you provided you can actually see the FCCid. They must file test documents with the FCC. Now very technically they might sell different units in the EU and the USA since the allowed transmit powers are different, it is 1000mw in the USA and 100mw in EU.

https://fccid.io/2AXJ4UB500

Problem is this device only puts out 9.4mw. That is only 1/10 the power allowed in the UK and 1/100 the allowed power in the USA. Most of brazil also allows 1000miliwatts on the 2.4g band.

This is very common for these extremely small units. They do this to save battery power which only matters on a laptop or tablet.

If you could actually get the FCCid on the units from aliexpress you could look things up. It is hard to get the FCCid numbers even on stuff sold on major sites like amazon. Most times you have to do lots of digging to get it but it is really the only way to be 100% sure of what the technical specs are. The methods for testing and measurement are very clearly defined unlike almost any other source of data including the manufactures own marketing data.
Click to expand...
Look beyond the first part, the page was posted to show that the devices are on the whole relatively inexpensive. That you can buy from a reputable source, not just Ali Express.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The chipset if you can find it is one of the more important things. It will for example tell you if the device supports 2.4 and 5g and what data encoding it supports. This more or less also is represented in the speed numbers you see.
The number of antenna makes very little difference. Unless you have a very expensive router it likely is only use 2 antenna even if it might have more physically.
Your end device can never go faster than your router.

You are much better off buying from a local shop that you can go back and yell at them if they sell you some garbage.

Aliexpress is a gamble, you can not even be 100% sure if you order say a month later from the same company you will get the same product. If you are going to use them you just have to take that chance to get a cheap price.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
TP-Link-Archer-T9UH probably is the best adapter that can reach 600Mbps in real world in 802.11ac class

I *did not* read through the article.

www.blacktubi.com

Improve your WiFi with TP-Link WiFi adapter

WiFi routers are important to the performance of your home network. They are the central networking hub in your home […]
www.blacktubi.com www.blacktubi.com

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Archer-T9UH-Wireless-network/dp/B01GE9QS0G?th=1

It uses Realtek RTL8814AU chipset

Don't know if it has generic driver that works on all devices available from different sellers. It's on your own.

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-RTL8814AU-.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.search.0
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
kakashilog.com

【分解】無線LAN子機の熱暴走はこの部品だった［Archer T9UH］ | かかしログ

こんにちは、かかしです。 ネット環境が遅く不安定なので、原因を調査したところ無線LAN子機（Wi-Fi子機）の問題でした。 熱対応をもっと早くにしていれば、長持ちしたかもしれません。 無線LAN子機（Wi-Fi子機）を「TP-Link Ar
kakashilog.com kakashilog.com

You can't tell exactly how many antenna a vendor uses simply from its appearance.

TPlink actually uses 4 antennas for it's T9UH adapter

e5KUuuh.jpeg
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom