Question Wi-Fi Dongle vs Wireless Extender vs Wireless Access Point vs PCIe WiFi Card ?

[LoZZa 85]

Hi looking for a bit of help.


I’m working and living in a hotel for a season

We have a staff Wi-Fi

I’m trying to get the most out of that connection


I’m currently just using a cheap usb wifi dongle


My question is

Will a wifi extender like

N300 WiFi Range Extender

Say goodbye to WiFi dead zones. Convenient, discreet and easy to install, extended WiFi coverage is just an outlet away with this essentials edition extender. Boost your WiFi for mobile devices and connect a wired device such as Smart TVs or game consoles.

www.netgear.com

Be good

Or is a wireless access point better

like this

450Mbps Wireless N Access Point

Easy Net work Expansion with N450 Wi-Fi. Supports multiple operating modes: Access Point, Client, Range Extender, and Multi-SSID modes.

www.tp-link.com

Or is it better just to get a pcie wireless card

Like

PCE-AC88｜Adapters｜ASUS Global

www.asus.com

So yeah what’s gonna give the best speed and connection consistency out of all these wireless options

And will there be much improvement from a wireless usb dongle thanks

Any help appreciated


Cheers
Loz

 

[Ralston18]

Just for you or for all other staff and guests?

Who manages the hotel's network? Is there a budget limit?

Make and model router? I reccommend using devices made by the same manufacturer if at all possible. Not a fixed requirement but does eliminate "finger-pointing" amongst the differing manufacturers if problems occur.

How many devices are likely to be connected and active at any given time? What is the physical environment: building construction, layout, distances, other nearby networks?

Many factors involved and there are trade-offs with respect to the options being considered.

For the most part if your use of the network is just from your room then I suggest starting with a wireless USB adapter but use a USB extension cable to move the wireless USB adapter up and away from the host computer. Facilitates transmitting (the weaker part of USB adapters) and receiveing wireless. Also lhelps keep the USB adapte a bit cooler. They can and do get quite warm or even hot.

Then you will be able to also experiment more with what frequencies and channels are stable and provide functional/consistent download and upload speeds.

Overall, if just for you, try to get a room with a wired connection to the router. Failing that then at least a room that is as physically as close as possible to the router if wireless must be used.

Be certain that only one network adapter, either wireless or wired, is enabled on your PC. Not both adapters at the same time.

 

[LoZZa 85]

Just for you or for all other staff and guests?

Who manages the hotel's network? Is there a budget limit?

Make and model router? I reccommend using devices made by the same manufacturer if at all possible. Not a fixed requirement but does eliminate "finger-pointing" amongst the differing manufacturers if problems occur.

How many devices are likely to be connected and active at any given time? What is the physical environment: building construction, layout, distances, other nearby networks?

Many factors involved and there are trade-offs with respect to the options being considered.

For the most part if your use of the network is just from your room then I suggest starting with a wireless USB adapter but use a USB extension cable to move the wireless USB adapter up and away from the host computer. Facilitates transmitting (the weaker part of USB adapters) and receiveing wireless. Also lhelps keep the USB adapte a bit cooler. They can and do get quite warm or even hot.

Then you will be able to also experiment more with what frequencies and channels are stable and provide functional/consistent download and upload speeds.

Overall, if just for you, try to get a room with a wired connection to the router. Failing that then at least a room that is as physically as close as possible to the router if wireless must be used.

Be certain that only one network adapter, either wireless or wired, is enabled on your PC. Not both adapters at the same time.

wifi is for staff but guests wifi also comes from same router no limit on wifi - network is JT in jersey channel islands and router is tilgin make model is unknown - up to 50 connections on a busy saturday max usually less during the week - building is a hotel many rooms etc over 3 floors I'm on ground floor about 5 rooms aways from main router


wireless connection only option hence my question about the above products thanks


regarding the above products which do you think is better?

 

[LoZZa 85]

Just for you or for all other staff and guests?

Who manages the hotel's network? Is there a budget limit?

Make and model router? I reccommend using devices made by the same manufacturer if at all possible. Not a fixed requirement but does eliminate "finger-pointing" amongst the differing manufacturers if problems occur.

How many devices are likely to be connected and active at any given time? What is the physical environment: building construction, layout, distances, other nearby networks?

Many factors involved and there are trade-offs with respect to the options being considered.

For the most part if your use of the network is just from your room then I suggest starting with a wireless USB adapter but use a USB extension cable to move the wireless USB adapter up and away from the host computer. Facilitates transmitting (the weaker part of USB adapters) and receiveing wireless. Also lhelps keep the USB adapte a bit cooler. They can and do get quite warm or even hot.

Then you will be able to also experiment more with what frequencies and channels are stable and provide functional/consistent download and upload speeds.

Overall, if just for you, try to get a room with a wired connection to the router. Failing that then at least a room that is as physically as close as possible to the router if wireless must be used.

Be certain that only one network adapter, either wireless or wired, is enabled on your PC. Not both adapters at the same time.

do you think the performance from wifi extender, access point and pcie card will be the same as that of the wifi usb dongle ? thanks

 

[bill001g]

There is no magic device that is going to solve a wifi signal issue when you have no real control over the source of the signals.

A repeater depending on how you use it at best will make very little difference. If you connect to it via ethernet then it pretty much the same a wifi nic that you connect via USB except you use a ethernet cable. If you can use the ethernet cable to run longer distances so you can place the repeater closer to the source of the wifi it might help.

If you use a repeater in repeater mode then it likely will degrade the signal. First the wifi source needs the WDS feature activated for most repeaters to work. Next the repeater would need to be placed 1/2 between the source and your room. Placing it in your room it gets the same crappy signals as your current wifi and then attempts to retransmit the data damaging the data even more.

A AP is connected to the network via ethernet and provides wifi to end devices. It does not receive wifi from other AP or routers, you can think of it as a server.

A pcie card may or may not be better. Internal cards tend to transmit at the maximum legal power and have larger antenna. USB devices,espeically those tiny ones you see for $5 on amazon can have low power transmitters and small antenna. You can though get USB wifi nics that will perform as well as internal cards. The type of internal card you link with a external mounted antenna is the best form of PCIE card.

 

[Ralston18]

What distance is "5 rooms away"?

Are those other rooms also for staff?

If anything, use a wired connection between the router and an unmanaged switch that, in turn, provides wired connections to your room and the intervening rooms as well.

Provided that it is at all possible to run Ethernet cables to the rooms involved. Even if just your room., (There are distance limits.)

And, as staff, I expect that more senior staff get to pick their rooms to some extent. What if your room changes?

For better or worse....

 

[LoZZa 85]

There is no magic device that is going to solve a wifi signal issue when you have no real control over the source of the signals.

A repeater depending on how you use it at best will make very little difference. If you connect to it via ethernet then it pretty much the same a wifi nic that you connect via USB except you use a ethernet cable. If you can use the ethernet cable to run longer distances so you can place the repeater closer to the source of the wifi it might help.

If you use a repeater in repeater mode then it likely will degrade the signal. First the wifi source needs the WDS feature activated for most repeaters to work. Next the repeater would need to be placed 1/2 between the source and your room. Placing it in your room it gets the same crappy signals as your current wifi and then attempts to retransmit the data damaging the data even more.

A AP is connected to the network via ethernet and provides wifi to end devices. It does not receive wifi from other AP or routers, you can think of it as a server.

A pcie card may or may not be better. Internal cards tend to transmit at the maximum legal power and have larger antenna. USB devices,espeically those tiny ones you see for $5 on amazon can have low power transmitters and small antenna. You can though get USB wifi nics that will perform as well as internal cards. The type of internal card you link with a external mounted antenna is the best form of PCIE card.

this particular ap i posted says it can recieve wifi not sure if that makes it a good option or not ? but yeah maybe the asus pcie could be best option then ? thanks for your advice

 

[LoZZa 85]

this particular ap i posted says it can recieve wifi not sure if that makes it a good option or not ? but yeah maybe the asus pcie could be best option then ? thanks for your advice

 

[bill001g]

The words "access point" have a pretty clear definition related to wifi. It is likely then some form of repeater and has all the standard issues any repeater has.

 

[LoZZa 85]

The words "access point" have a pretty clear definition related to wifi. It is likely then some form of repeater and has all the standard issues any repeater has.

 

[LoZZa 85]

So yeah if it’s repeater maybe best just to get a good Wi-Fi pcie card maybe will be more consistent as wireless is my only option

 

[gggplaya]

Do you know the exact model of the nearest hotel wifi access point?

If it has more than a 2x2 radio, like a 3x3 or 4x4 radio. Then a Asus router set to Media Bridge mode or similar router with the same function would give you the best performance. Bridge mode will use all the radio's to connect to the wifi access point to give the best bandwidth and connection stability. Make sure the router also has the same number of radios, the number of antenna doesn't matter. You have to look at the spec page. There are 2x2 radios with 4 antennae and routers with 4x4 radios with 4 antennae. So you can't go by looks.

However, some hotel wifi systems are more sophisticated and will detect a separate access point on the network. Guest sign in isn't usually an issue on the portal, but I did run into 1 hotel that gave issues. I couldn't get my mobile GLInet portable router to connect no matter what I did, even copying the MAC address of my laptop after sign in. I give kudos to whoever that IT admin is. They know how to do their job well. I use my portable router for when I travel on business, so I don't have to painstakingly sign into all my devices. I just sign in once on my laptop, then my ipad, phone and amazon firestick are all signed in. The firestick can't even sign in at all normally.