Looking for a good WLAN adapter

gokkel · Feb 1, 2014

Hello,

I am going to switch to a better internet connection soon. My current WLAN configuration can usually handle the current connection more or less, but it is clearly on the limit.

I decided that I will replace my router with the Asus RT-N66U (unless you guys can recommend me something else with better or similar 2,4 GHz WLAN performance?) in the hopes of improving WLAN performance, however I am not sure yet about a new WLAN adapter for this Desktop PC here (LAN connection is sadly no option).

It appears difficult to find recommendations in the internet about WLAN adapters (even more so than for routers), which makes it rather difficult to decide on one. This is why I am asking here for advice.

edit: Currently looking primarily on those two things, although with little facts to back this:

TP-Link TL-WDN4800 (PCIe)
Asus USB-N66 (USB)

I am generally skeptical about USB-Adapters in comparison. The TP-Link is one of few PCIe cards I could find, and has generally good ratings on the internet it seems. I already have a TP-Link USB adapter on some other PC, the range seems quite good actually, but performance is low.

Ubrales · Feb 1, 2014

You are right about wireless cards being better than USB adapters!

I have this on my i7 3770K overclocked desktop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320113

and this on my older i7 920 overclocked desktop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AT1871697

The PCI slots are different for the cards above. Both work well for gaming and the signals go through 4 drywalls and about 25 feet.

gokkel · Feb 2, 2014

Since the internet connection switch was surprisingly fast (I thought they would take some weeks maybe, but they did it 30 minutes after I asked them), I want to get my new hardware now quickly.

As the TP-Link WDN4800 is the only reasonably priced alternative for PCIe WLAN cards with 450 Mbps (3 Stream) on 2,4 GHz 802.11n (only Asus has two other cards, and they cost 80 Euro) and has on average good ratings I ordered this together with the Asus RT-N66U router. I will see how it goes and will also compare it with my old card (Asus WL-130N). If the difference is not significant enough I might send it back and try something else.

I will report on my experiences here when it is arriving, maybe it can be of help for other people searching for a card.

Thanks to Ubrales for the answer though!

Ubrales · Feb 2, 2014

gokkel :

Since the internet connection switch was surprisingly fast (I thought they would take some weeks maybe, but they did it 30 minutes after I asked them), I want to get my new hardware now quickly.

As the TP-Link WDN4800 is the only reasonably priced alternative for PCIe WLAN cards with 450 Mbps (3 Stream) on 2,4 GHz 802.11n (only Asus has two other cards, and they cost 80 Euro) and has on average good ratings I ordered this together with the Asus RT-N66U router. I will see how it goes and will also compare it with my old card (Asus WL-130N). If the difference is not significant enough I might send it back and try something else.

I will report on my experiences here when it is arriving, maybe it can be of help for other people searching for a card.

Thanks to Ubrales for the answer though!

Yes! Good plan!

gokkel · Feb 6, 2014

Yesterday the stuff arrived and I set it up. I did experiment already with some settings and different firmware versions, but there is still some room for experiments left. My latest speedtest gave me this:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3286955521

This is already more than I expected to achieve. Signal strength is very good as well, 5 bars in windows and I finally have as strong signal as to the ridiculous good signal I get to a neighbour network. Even a 1 stream 802.11n notebook in the same room as the router got a substantial WLAN throughput increase, which I am not sure if it is something speaking for the Asus router or against the Netgear one.

As promised I wanted to report on the TP-Link WDN4800. Well, apparently it can provide some good speed. However the antennas included with it are completely useless. I had a terrible signal when using them in combination with both my old and my new router. I expected that it might cause trouble when facing towards a wall as it is in my room, but even if I put the PC in the middle of the room and point the antennas towards the router, it was significantly worse than on my old Asus WL-130N card.

However, after replacing the 3 antennas with the freely placeable triple-antenna of the old Asus card, this problem has been solved completely.

So since there are not many alternatives in the 3 stream 802.11n niche, the TP-Link card is obviously something a lot of people will consider, but if you consider it you should definitely already calculate in an antenna replacement, as you will not be happy with the standard antennas unless you have ideal conditions for your WLAN (very close / no walls inbetween). Otherwise you can only look at the really expensive 3 stream Asus 802.11ac cards (80 Euro here) or try out the wider variety of USB adapters or LAN connected WLAN bridges.

Ubrales · Feb 6, 2014

Great that you have done some nice work to achieve good results!

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