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Wifi Extender vs New Adapter

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  • WiFi
Last response: in Networking
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September 17, 2014 12:55:27 PM

Hello tomshardware. I have a simple yet very annoying problem.
My dad recently moved 2500km away to Fort St. John (holla bc folk)
So I moved in with a family friend.

Only problem is I have a netgear wna3100 adapter, which is made for 'small-medium' homes and this is a big home. When I say this, I mean my desk is approx. 3 ft long and half way through, the wifi cuts out. So often times my iPhone does not have Wifi.
I'm on the very edge of the network.

The solution seemed easy to me at the time, so I simply bought a 100ft ethernet cable. The length from the router to my tower was ~90ft.. so no biggie.
Unfortunately the parents don't want the wires running through the house and they dont want it up against the ceiling or against the walls or anything, so today I am returning them. My only question is.
I had a stable d/l rate of ~3mb/s wired, now it's 300kb/s wireless with this netgear adapter.
Am I going to return said cable and buy a new adapter? or a wifi extender? or both?

Note that money is not the issue; having the best possible connection for the most cost efficient is the issue.

More about : wifi extender adapter

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September 17, 2014 1:17:31 PM

I see that's a USB adapter. USB adapters tend to have notoriously weak antennas. You might want to get a decent (i.e. not the cheapest) PCIe x1 adapter such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
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September 17, 2014 1:20:56 PM

So a PCIe adapter outclasses a USB adapter 10 times out of 10?
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September 17, 2014 1:24:21 PM

IMHO, yes. I have that specific adapter, and compared to a cheap USB adapter (and some cheap PCI adapters) was able to see a few [secured] networks in my neighborhood of detached houses that I did not even know existed.
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September 17, 2014 3:10:46 PM

Much appreciated sir.
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