what do you guys normally do to connect to your wireless router from a desktop pc. Do you use a usb dongle or a pci card wireless adapter? If so which is better? Or do you just setup a switch and connect through a wired connection? I am asking because the usb dongle that I have seems to overheat when downloading big files and hence slows down in performance. so i am mainly wondering if i should get a different kind of usb device or a pci device?
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best way to connect to a wireless router from desktop pc?
(14 posts)
A pci card wireless adapter, if it has an external antenna, is better than a dongle, for range.
But I use a dongle at the moment (it was cheap), and it's fine.
As a HackaDay fan, you should know you can mod a dongle with an antenna.
Any dongle will run hot, cos it's in a small enclosure.
I might be on thin ice here, but to my knowledge, when you connect using USB, you don't get the same speed as with a pci card. At least that's my experience. Not a 100 % sure, cause it might have been the pc itself that couldn't run (I think it was) the G-protocol.
Seems to be a common problem that all these gadgets run hot...
Jack, a wired connection will always give you the best speed and lowest latency. If you are just downloading files, it's not that important. If you are playing games online, do whatever you can to get a wire in there!
Dag, USB 2.0 has a theoretical maximum throughput of 480 Mbps. 802.11g has a max of 54 Mbps. In theory there is plenty of bandwidth over the USB bus to run an 802.11g network connection at full speed. With real-world gadgets, your mileage may vary.
I use a mains adaptor from Netgear (I'm sure others are available) to route my network all around the house through the actual mains wiring. It is probably cheaper to buy a good PCI wireless card though, but just thought I mention it.
They are really good for houses with thick or stone walls, which will inhibit your wifi signal.
I also use a Netgear powerline ethernet hub, XE103/4. It connects the router in my computer room by wire to my living room. My Xbox 360 and Dish Network DVR are both connected to the Internet over the "mains". I really like this device because it not only makes a wired connection but it provides 4 ethernet ports in the living room. I expect this to come in handy as more and more home theater devices need or want a network connection -- Blu-ray disc players, HDTVs, HTPCs, game consoles and DVRs. In fact, if I get many more devices I might run out of ports!
@ScottW, I was thinking about getting DLAN here but was told the consistency of the electrical currents at home weren´t too steady. Thus using DLAN for gaming also decreased my ping times as in WLAN. What do you think about this?
P.S. Sorry for butting in Jack!! I´ve been using dongles for the past 4-5 years and have never had any problems with them. Downloads work fine, never had any heat issues, although they do get pretty warm. In the past I´ve probably had my dongles running downstream/upstream for two weeks at a time!! I´d say they´re indistructible.
On the downside, depending on what kind of walls you have, they can be very limited in range. If you´re into shooters there are the slow ping times, especially in Vista (which seems to have 0,5-1 second timeouts on a regular basis) they´re useless. Funnily enough this never seemed to be a problem using XP!! I´ve tried googling but could never find an answer to this phenonemon!! Matt
Matt, a powerline network connection is not for everyone. It depends on the house wiring and each house is different. At my house, the powerline extenders that I have work great -- definitely better than WiFi between the same rooms. However, when I took my powerline devices to my parent's house, the connection was dismal. If you have tried it and found the latency to be high, then it's not for you.
When you say dLAN are you referring to the products by devolo AG? Here in the US I have not heard of this company or their products.
@LH, electronics is my forte, not electrical wiring. The US wiring system may be "split phase", or I may be confused.
@Matt, when I was shopping for powerline ethernet equipment, I did research about the HomePlug industry alliance. My DVR is HomePlug compliant and I thought that I might need that, though it turns out that I didn't. Still, after understanding that this alliance is trying to standardize these devices, I made sure to buy HomePlug equipment. Devolo seems to have a negative opinion of HomePlug, at least that is what I get from looking over their website. Devolo is a participant in the HomePlug alliance, but they don't seem to want adopt the standards. I suppose if dLAN is a standard phrase in Germany then perhaps they have a near monopoly on the equipment and don't feel the need to standardize.
While shopping for powerline equipment here in the US, I did find some devices that were not HomePlug compliant, so Devolo is not the only company fighting against this standard.
ScottW. To put it simply. In a ring main, all the wall sockets are connected on the same cable, in a big loop. So the distance between 2 dlan devices will only be as far as the cable is between them.
On the spur system, It is (here) only 5 or 8 wall sockets per cable. So if the devices are on different spurs, the signal has to go all the way back to the main fuse box, and then travel back up the next one. Even if the wall sockets are next to each other, in the same room.
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