WiFI Extender or better WiFi card?

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FXGalvatron

FXGalvatron

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Hey guys. Just a quick question. I have a desktop in the study room and the router is in the living room. There's roughly 30ft distance from the router to the PC (give or take 5 feet.) I receive next to nothing on this TP Link Wifi receiver on my PC and I was wondering whether I should buy a better wifi card or a WiFi extender. I have this currently and I do understand that this is very basic. I would like to connect wirelessly since I currently use my phone as a wifi receiver. Any suggestions as to what to go for?

Thanks and have a great day! :)
 
FXGalvatron said:
Hey guys. Just a quick question. I have a desktop in the study room and the router is in the living room. There's roughly 30ft distance from the router to the PC (give or take 5 feet.) I receive next to nothing on this TP Link Wifi receiver on my PC and I was wondering whether I should buy a better wifi card or a WiFi extender. I have this currently and I do understand that this is very basic. I would like to connect wirelessly since I currently use my phone as a wifi receiver. Any suggestions as to what to go for?

Thanks and have a great day! :)
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I guess this TP link wifi receiver is a USB receiver ? If so, then changing it to some wifi PCie card with antenna will do the job.
Which router are you using ?.
 
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I used a TPLink USB WiFi dongle with antenna when my laptops wifi card got busted. It had USB 3. AFAIR its name was AC600. It worked far better and gave much faster speeds than my laptops wifi card.

You can try using your current USB WiFi Dongle with USB extender cable and position / turn the USB Dongle towards door or in the direction of router. It might help. Worth a try if you have USB Extension cable lying around.
 
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john1911 said:
I used a TPLink USB WiFi dongle with antenna when my laptops wifi card got busted. It had USB 3. AFAIR its name was AC600. It worked far better and gave much faster speeds than my laptops wifi card.

You can try using your current USB WiFi Dongle with USB extender cable and position / turn the USB Dongle towards door or in the direction of router. It might help. Worth a try if you have USB Extension cable lying around.
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As suggested by john1911 usb extender cable will work as antenna, but it will not be night and day difference so no point in buying a usb extension cable. try it if you've something in your stock.
but with desktop best is to buy PCIE card even low priced something like this - TP link will be much better than USB dongle.
 
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Synth-Pop said:
As suggested by john1911 usb extender cable will work as antenna, but it will not be night and day difference so no point in buying a usb extension cable. try it if you've something in your stock.
but with desktop best is to buy PCIE card even low priced something like this - TP link will be much better than USB dongle.
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No no, you got me wrong. It won't work as antenna. It will just shorten the distance between router and dongle. Usually dongles are hidden / installed in not an open space (back USB port / PC kept on the floor in the corner etc.) It will just bring the dongle out in the open. It might or might not provide any results so not much point in buying a USB Extension cable. And yes, any pcie card will be better than those small USB Dongle. There are some USB Dongles available with high gain antennas. They might work better though.


Link 1

Link 2

The second link doesn't support 5GHz wifi but this is cheap.
 
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john1911 said:
No no, you got me wrong. It won't work as antenna. It will just shorten the distance between router and dongle. Usually dongles are hidden / installed in not an open space (back USB port / PC kept on the floor in the corner etc.) It will just bring the dongle out in the open. It might or might not provide any results so not much point in buying a USB Extension cable. And yes, any pcie card will be better than those small USB Dongle. There are some USB Dongles available with high gain antennas. They might work better though.
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It will shorten the distance but it works as antenna too, I remember I got one netgear dongle with usb extension so I can confirm it performs better.
 
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Synth-Pop said:
I guess this TP link wifi receiver is a USB receiver ? If so, then changing it to some wifi PCie card with antenna will do the job.
Which router are you using ?.
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DIR825, D link. Yeah, I was considering a PCie card but just seemed a bit expensive than what I was looking for. But I’ll most likely get that.
 
FXGalvatron said:
DIR825, D link. Yeah, I was considering a PCie card but just seemed a bit expensive than what I was looking for. But I’ll most likely get that.
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This router is just fine,
Lol I posted a wrong link for rs 2700 Pcie card.
I intent to share this TP-Link TL-WN881ND for rs. 800 approx.
But that ₹2700 TPLink card is superior.
 
Nice. Just looking for a cheaper alternative. Only issue is, will it get good signal coverage since the distance is roughly 30 feet?
 
@FXGalvatron

Just curious, why don't you lay a typical ethernet cable? Would be much cheaper, and you can easily reach to the gigabit level (depends on the existing hardware, though).
 
Titokhan said:
@FXGalvatron

Just curious, why don't you lay a typical ethernet cable? Would be much cheaper, and you can easily reach to the gigabit level (depends on the existing hardware, though).
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Distance, mainly is an issue. People at home don't wanna run a cable along and it's difficult to do it. One corner of another room to another corner of the other.
 
OLX and TE sales has cheap routers (and repeaters) available for as little as Rs 500. Many routers can be run as wireless repeaters, just check specs before buying. When placing the repeater, check signal strength at various places using the Android app "WiFi analyzer" from F-droid or Play Store.

A very good PCIe card can't do anything if signal is not reaching the PC.

Edit : the repeater improves wifi signal for all devices in the house. A wifi card you would use with your PC would typically only help your PC. The most basic Netgear N150 works great as a repeater.
 
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