Looking for new wireless adapter

[MasterBlaster76]

I used to be with BT Broadband, and their router was very good - the wireless adapter I was using (Tenda W311U) was fine with it, but as some of you might remember, I was having untold problems with BT's connection and service, so I switched to Sky.

Sky is d/l at more than twice the speed of my old BT Connection, so I'm very happy with that. The issue is the router - I have read many articles that say it isn't anywhere near as good as the BT Router - and my signal varies a lot with it - when it goes below three bars, I experience occasional intermittent connection. Getting a better router isn't really an option: Sky won't give customer support with non Sky routers and having any sort of setup where there are two routers there instead of one won't cut it either, so I'm thinking of getting a better, more powerful wireless adapter.

I found this one:

NETGEAR WN111 RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N USB Adapter (300Mbps)

and it looks great - it's around ?15 cheaper than at play.com as well, but then I read this review:

Rating 2/5 Not a good product for Win 7 64 bit
Reviewed by
William
12 August 2010

I have had endless probelsm with this problems - firstly they do not supply the software needed to install with windows 7 64 - you have to use there sit, which is difficult. Then the actual day to day use it bad, bad , bad.

1. When ever you restart windows you have to reenter your security code and reconnect to the network

2. build quality, in my experience, is poor. One of my units broke after 1 month.

3. Windows has contining probelms at recognising the USB adapter

There must be a better option, with built in win 7 64 readiness. Come on Broadbandbuyer - find a better product!!

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Naturally, I have Win 7 64bit. Does anyone here have this particular adapter on Win 7 64bit - can you clarify whether this guy is right or not, or whether driver issues have since improved? If not, any suggestions for similar adapters (I'm prepared to spend more to get a better one) that provide similar performance would be great.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Seems like it is a 802.11n product. It would give you no benefit unless the router is 802.11n as well.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Yes - I'm pretty sure the router isn't 'N' technology - there is no mention of that in the router's setup site. Aren't there any decent adapters that increase signal but don't need to be 'N' technology to get any benefits? It's random at the moment - can go for weeks at a time with a flawless signal, but right now, it's a bit temperamental. The thing is, my nephew is playing on his Xbox 360 with no problems at all - and he often has the door closed as well. That's why I was looking at a better wireless adapter - the one I have cost about ?15, whereas the Xbox 360's one cost about ?50. Big difference.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Its not always proximity. My sister's desktop (Yeah we use PCI WiFi adapters in our desktops for some reason) is a bit closer to the router but she gets worse signal than me, because of the actual location of the card rather than just the area. In my case its kinda isolated by objects on three sides, so the signal strength goes all kaput and it drops packets every now and then. The reason I feel is that the signal reaches the card after reflecting off like 5 surfaces, which can cause a lot of attenuation, or maybe some packets not even reaching.

Also, the kind of objects that come in between also have an effect. Some objects allow passing of Wireless signals easily while some (Like Aluminium maybe?) would just reflect them back. Some even absorb them. This is somewhere I want to explore out too, no concrete proofs anywhere.

Is this for a desktop or a laptop? Why not just go the PCI route if the backside of your cabinet breathes some air?

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Its not always proximity. My sister's desktop (Yeah we use PCI WiFi adapters in our desktops for some reason) is a bit closer to the router but she gets worse signal than me, because of the actual location of the card rather than just the area. In my case its kinda isolated by objects on three sides, so the signal strength goes all kaput and it drops packets every now and then. The reason I feel is that the signal reaches the card after reflecting off like 5 surfaces, which can cause a lot of attenuation, or maybe some packets not even reaching.

Also, the kind of objects that come in between also have an effect. Some objects allow passing of Wireless signals easily while some (Like Aluminium maybe?) would just reflect them back. Some even absorb them. This is somewhere I want to explore out too, no concrete proofs anywhere.

Is this for a desktop or a laptop? Why not just go the PCI route if the backside of your cabinet breathes some air?

It's a desktop PC. Are PCI wireless adapters better than USB ones then? Are they usually cheaper, or more expensive and if I do go down that route, which makes should I be looking at? Maybe I could look into that if necessary, trouble is I'm not good with fitting PC components; I can do RAM and DVD Rom drives OK, but anything else...

Edit: So isn't there a point getting a more powerful USB adapter then? What I don't understand is sometimes it can go for days or weeks at a solid 4/5, sometimes 5/5 signal, but at other times, it fluctuates between 4/5 and can go as low as 1/5 although 2/5 is more common. Trouble is anything lower than 3/5 often leads to intermittent connection - is that what you mean by packets being lost?

The current situation is the router is downstairs and my PC is upstairs, but my room is directly opposite the top of the stairs and the PC is situated very near the doorway. One other thing - should opening or closing the door make that much difference? There have been times where it's been 2/5 and opening the door immediately makes it 4/5; doesn't usually stay that way though.

That's odd - I just tried the adapter in the next USB port along the front of the PC and it immediately went to 5/5 - dropped to 4/5 now, but that's fine. :confused:

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

I don't think opening or closing should have an effect. Applying my 12'th standard Physics here, as long as the door is fully closed or fully closed, it shouldn't make much difference, because otherwise some waves will come kinda bent and some not, causing more attenuation. Totally my hypothesis though!

A USB adapter would be more beneficial in the sense that it'll have more access to open space, but I've generally had a nasty experience with USB networking devices, they just tend to drop off your PC and you have to restart Windows to get them back. Which is why I always steer clear of everything which has USB and is related to network. That was with Vista though, maybe Win7 has better support for USB devices. Someone with experience of using USB stuff can tell this better.

Less than 3 signal doesn't necessarily mean packet loss. I measured packet loss by pinging my router whenever I noticed slow internet, and I saw that I didn't receive around 1 in every 4 packets that I was supposed to receive. Maybe when you notice slow internet, just do ping 192.168.1.1 -t (or whatever your router address is) and see if hte problem is actually slow internet or just its transmission from the router to your PC. If you get "Request Timed Out" in between subsequent pings, means there's a problem with the connection with the router, which is called Packet Loss.

Although, sometimes I've had 0% packet loss even with 1 signal. This whole wireless stuff is crazy if you ask me!

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I don't think opening or closing should have an effect. Applying my 12'th standard Physics here, as long as the door is fully closed or fully closed, it shouldn't make much difference, because otherwise some waves will come kinda bent and some not, causing more attenuation. Totally my hypothesis though!

A USB adapter would be more beneficial in the sense that it'll have more access to open space, but I've generally had a nasty experience with USB networking devices, they just tend to drop off your PC and you have to restart Windows to get them back. Which is why I always steer clear of everything which has USB and is related to network. That was with Vista though, maybe Win7 has better support for USB devices. Someone with experience of using USB stuff can tell this better.

Less than 3 signal doesn't necessarily mean packet loss. I measured packet loss by pinging my router whenever I noticed slow internet, and I saw that I didn't receive around 1 in every 4 packets that I was supposed to receive. Maybe when you notice slow internet, just do ping 192.168.1.1 -t (or whatever your router address is) and see if hte problem is actually slow internet or just its transmission from the router to your PC. If you get "Request Timed Out" in between subsequent pings, means there's a problem with the connection with the router, which is called Packet Loss.

Although, sometimes I've had 0% packet loss even with 1 signal. This whole wireless stuff is crazy if you ask me!

Certainly is. I would have wired, but it's tricky. The wire would have to go up to my PC, the PS3 and the Xbox 360 - could get a bit messy. I might well go wired for my PC only at some point though - wireless on the two consoles seems fine - they do drop occasionally, but as you said, that's wireless eh? Strange how moving it from one port to another yielded instant improvements - maybe there's something up with the other USB port - who knows? It's going between 4/5 and 5/5 now, but never dropping below 4/5.

 

[Abhas]

It's a desktop PC. Are PCI wireless adapters better than USB ones then? Are they usually cheaper, or more expensive and if I do go down that route, which makes should I be looking at? Maybe I could look into that if necessary, trouble is I'm not good with fitting PC components; I can do RAM and DVD Rom drives OK, but anything else...

Edit: So isn't there a point getting a more powerful USB adapter then? What I don't understand is sometimes it can go for days or weeks at a solid 4/5, sometimes 5/5 signal, but at other times, it fluctuates between 4/5 and can go as low as 1/5 although 2/5 is more common. Trouble is anything lower than 3/5 often leads to intermittent connection - is that what you mean by packets being lost?

The current situation is the router is downstairs and my PC is upstairs, but my room is directly opposite the top of the stairs and the PC is situated very near the doorway. One other thing - should opening or closing the door make that much difference? There have been times where it's been 2/5 and opening the door immediately makes it 4/5; doesn't usually stay that way though.

That's odd - I just tried the adapter in the next USB port along the front of the PC and it immediately went to 5/5 - dropped to 4/5 now, but that's fine. :confused:

It does, in UK, it definitely does. I don't know why it happens, probably due to the material used in the buildings, but closing the door sometimes reduces the signal by 2-3 bars.

I was in UK for some time, around 3-4 years ago, and at my cousin's place, my room was next to the room where the router was kept (Probably the distance between the router and my laptop was 10 meters max). There were 2 doors in between, 1 of my room and 1 of that room, if either was closed, my signal became 2-3 bars from 5, and connection would drop randomly. and if both the doors were closed, it completely lost the signal. I had to keep both the doors slightly open to be able to connect

More than the door, I think it is due to the material used in the walls. It doesn't allow the waves to travel through them easily.

Abhas added 12 Minutes and 6 Seconds later...

Looking at this link,
Answer

The V2 says it supports Windows 7. I'm a bit confused though.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Door's been closed all night - signal has fluctuated between 4/5 and 5/5 - long may it continue! Anyway, let's see how it goes - if it goes back to what it was doing before, then I might look at a new adapter again, but right now my money's on some sort of problem with the other USB port. Not switching back, just in case it buggers it up again!