Best external USB WiFi card in terms of range and speed? Under $40

rambomhtri · Nov 3, 2014

Hi, I use my laptop in a room that is "far" away from the modem. It's like 20-25 meters, and there are walls between the laptop and the modem. The ONLY solution is buy a better WiFi card that has an amazing range and can reach nice speeds (2 MB/s or faster). So please, don't offer me any other product, I'm looking just for WiFi USB adapters.

With my laptop's internal WiFi card, an Intel-N 7260, I can sometimes connect to my modem, but speed is ridiculously slow, like 20KB/s, and the signal is very poor all the time. Very unstable.

Months ago I bought a high-gain TP-Link WN822N USB adapter:

13015d1414989084-51c88uutbjl._sl1280_.jpg

Using that adapter, I can connect to my modem 80% of the time, and I reach usually 100-300KB/s, that is not bad, but still not enough, mainly because sometimes the signal is so poor that it disconnects from the modem.
http://www.tp-link.com/lk/products/details/?model=TL-WN822N#spec
This adapter has dual 3dBi omni directional antennas, it's N, Transmit power <20dBm(EIRP), and these numbers:
270M: -68dBm@10% PER
130M: -68dBm@10% PER
108M: -68dBm@10% PER
54M: -68dBm@10% PER
11M: -85dBm@8% PER
6M: -88dBm@10% PER
1M: -90dBm@8% PER

I'm looking for a considerably better adapter, with better specs so I can connect to my modem and navigate without problems most of the time. The problem is that I don't know much about all these WiFi specs, I don't know when companies "lie" about numbers, I don't even know what exactly mean all those numbers.

Could you guys recommend me a better WiFi card under $40?

Keep in mind I'm trying to establish a connection from 25m, and there are walls, so I need long range WiFi USB adapters. I wouldn't like to have an ultra large 10dBi antenna, I prefer compact and small designs, if possible. Indeed, one friend of mine lend me a 5dBi antenna WiFi card adapter and the connection was WORSE than when I use my dual 3 dBi adapter.

THANKS!
:wahoo:

bill001g · Nov 3, 2014

The only way to avoid the lies is to dig thought the fcc database. This is a example for your card...I think there are 3 versions.

https://fcc.io/TE7/WN822NV3

In this case I think tplink is telling lies that are good. They claim transmit power of 20db and an antenna that is 3db. When you look at the test results you see the tested output with the radio and antenna combined is about 23db. So unlike some other companies they are really telling you the true radio transmit power. If you could replace the antenna you could add a 9db gain antenna to the radio and be close to the legal maximum of 30db.

You have to be very careful you can get device that have large radio output say in the 500mw with a 3db gain antenna to get the 30db/1000mw legal output but it does not work as well...especially for reception. The point that seems to work the best is 250mw radio with a 5.5db gain antenna.

It is very hard to get this type of information and some vendors outright distort the numbers in the advertising. The key to remember is there are only about 2 or 3 manufactures of radio chipsets and other than intel none wireless nics you will find actually make their own chips. Devices with the same chips inside will perform about the same.

What you will want to try to do is get the FCC id for the product you are looking for and see how close to the legal 30db of output they can get.

If this was a router it is almost a non issue almost all routers transmit between 28-29 db of power. PCI nic cards also tend to transmit more total power. I suspect the many of the USB ones are transmitting lower power as a trade off since many times these are run on battery powered laptops.

Its really too bad the antenna are not removable on the device 9db gain antenna would be a very cheap way to see if a better card will make any difference. If it was open air it is easy to predict distance of wireless when there are walls who know some with a wallpaper that has metal in it can completely block any signals.

rambomhtri · Nov 3, 2014

Thanks Bill. I hope some user knows a great WiFi adapter and recommend it to me. I need an exact model to buy, under $40. Is there a graphic or something like that, a ranking, of the best WiFi adapters sorted by range capable distance and considerable high speed?

bill001g · Nov 3, 2014

There seem to be list for routers and other devices but I have yet to see a list of adapters.

Most people solve your problem with powerline adapters since it eliminates the wireless

If I was going to try to solve the issue you have I would use a directional outdoor bridge. The directional antenna is the largest advantage..it still transmits the same power just all in one beam

Something like a Ubiquiti NanoStation loco M2. They have many models and you can check out engenius also.

Still it may not be your nic cards the router is half the network equation.

Wireless when it works poorly is a extremely hard problem to solve way too many variable

rambomhtri · Nov 4, 2014

Thanks again Bill, but since I move my laptop sometimes and the internal Intel Wireless-N 7260 WiFi adapter doesn't work very well even in medium distances, I'm looking for WiFi USB adapters that are portable, like the one I have. But I wanna replace it for another more powerful and that has a wider and more powerful range, so speeds are considerably higher.

bill001g · Nov 4, 2014

Here is how you do it then. It is extremely tedious.

First find a card and then look it up on a site called wikidevi.com.

They will have links to the fcc database for most common cards. Then pull up the test report in the linked card and find the tested power output levels. They will have a chart someplace that shows how many db it puts out. The close to 30 the better....it varies based on the channel though.

Anything else is purely asking for someones opinion. If you want a popularity contest go look for the top number of stars on any of the sites that sell stuff. It will in no way indicate it is a good card. Most these opinions are extremely subjective. The "it works good for me" argument is as useful as the guy who like to poke himself in the eye with sharp sticks and say you should too.

So either you do the work yourself or you randomly trust people on the internet

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Best external USB WiFi card in terms of range and speed? Under $40

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