[Cowshed Chris]

Just hooked up a new PC in my spare room and to avoid having to stretch cable throughout my flat I'm looking to buy one of these wireless USB dongles.

I've noticed on eBay you can get 150mbps dongles for £5 and 300mbps for £7 - would either of these be adequate for general office use (no gaming but would like ability to download music, use YouTube, etc)?

Cheers

[Mr X]

Cowshed Chris, on 03 February 2012 - 09:25, said:

Just hooked up a new PC in my spare room and to avoid having to stretch cable throughout my flat I'm looking to buy one of these wireless USB dongles.

I've noticed on eBay you can get 150mbps dongles for £5 and 300mbps for £7 - would either of these be adequate for general office use (no gaming but would like ability to download music, use YouTube, etc)?

Cheers

Yes.

Although, bear in mind you wont get as good a connection as you would if it was wired, but then that applies to any wireless connection.

If you want to spend a little more, you could go for a Powerline Adaptor. They carry the network signal along the power cables. I tried some and they didnt work particularly well in my old house, but I know others use them and get a really good connection.

[Cowshed Chris]

Yeah it's not a major deal if connection isn't as good. I've got the wireless router etc set up beside the pa3 for gaming in another room which is fine.

Not sure bout the powerline idea, if a USB dongle should work okay I'd be inclined to go with that I think, cheap and cheerful

[Windy]

Hi

Assuming you have a router have you thought about an internal card, easy to fit, dongles tend to drop alot if the signal is not good.

If you have no router get on to your provider and tell them you want one, don't pay for it they have them by the bucket load.

Once running test the signal download speed from this site:

Speedtest

Hope this helps

[flyingscot]

Cowshed Chris, on 03 February 2012 - 10:04, said:

Yeah it's not a major deal if connection isn't as good. I've got the wireless router etc set up beside the pa3 for gaming in another room which is fine.

Not sure bout the powerline idea, if a USB dongle should work okay I'd be inclined to go with that I think, cheap and cheerful

Powerline is excellent connection wise, but if the wireless signal is strong enough and you already have a wireless router then may as well buy a cheap dongle.

Check your router's maximum rate- if it is old might only be 54mpbs, newer ones are 150 or 300. No point in having an old router slowing things down, if the dongle can handle more.

[Cowshed Chris]

Unsure of my router speed, I'm on virgin medias XL package and got a new router a couple of years ago so I should hope it would be 150 or 300. I'll check at lunch time.

Cheers for all your input, very helpful.

Edit to add: I know absolutely nothing about internal cards - sounds very complicated!

This post has been edited by Cowshed Chris: 03 February 2012 - 10:55

[Mr X]

flyingscot, on 03 February 2012 - 10:43, said:

Powerline is excellent connection wise, but if the wireless signal is strong enough and you already have a wireless router then may as well buy a cheap dongle.

Check your router's maximum rate- if it is old might only be 54mpbs, newer ones are 150 or 300. No point in having an old router slowing things down, if the dongle can handle more.

Given that his broadband speed is almost certainly a lot lower than 54Mbps, the actual wireless connection isnt really going to make much difference.

[Windy]

If on virgin your speed will double in the next few months at no cost as that nice Mr Branson is upgrading all his network.

If the internal version puts you off, I also bought one of those very small usb dongels (size of a 2p) off ebay and they work fine on my kids laptop which is upstairs from the router.

This post has been edited by Windy: 03 February 2012 - 11:49

[Cowshed Chris]

Did a speed test on my laptop in the living room (where the router is) and the spare room and the speeds were almost identical so the signal is obviously decent throughout.

Decided just to pay £5.00 for a Mini Wifi 150mbps 11N Usb Dongle. I'm sure it'll work but if not it's only a fiver!

Cheers for your help guys.

[53_and_counting]

i have a desktop and use a wireless dongle, apart from the odd time where the signal drops completely ive been able to download, upload, play online games etc

ive tried 3 different wireless dongles and the 3rd one i bought from amazon was the best

http://www.amazon.co...28571475&sr=1- 3

connected to the USB in the back of the tower the cable that comes with it allows the dongle to sit on my computer desk

signal is 4 out of 5 bars at its worst, and the speeds are excellent, no signal drop at all

[Ric]

I'm another flag waver for powerline network repeaters. I was sceptical to start with but they worked very well in my house. Granted everything is still wired so if you have a laptop and want to float about the house with it, you'll need to look into WiFi, but the cabled connection I got from a powerline setup was as good as the Internet connection itself.