Will my internet speeds be slower if i use a wireless 'N' adapter with a dual band 'AC' router

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
G

giggsy11

Distinguished
Aug 26, 2009
85
0
18,640
This is probably a huge noob question but i'm not clued up on networking at all.

Only just going from 13mb broadband to 76mb fibre here in the uk, and i have a TP-Link Wirless N 150mbps adapter, will i have any issues connecting to the 'BT Home Hub 5'? which i believe is dual band 'AC', will my speeds be effected?

What benefits (if any) will i have upgrading to an 'AC' wireless adapter?

My plan will eventually be to wire as many devices to the router as possible.

Thanks
 
Solution
G
Thanks for the answers guys.

I have noticed that on my PC my speeds are slower than on other devices in the house like my girlfriends laptop and my phone and her phone, i've seen consistent speeds of near 60mb/s on those devices but more often than not my PC is around 30-40mb. Everything appears to be using the 2.4ghz band apart from my Galaxy S7 which uses the 5ghz band.

I was thinking of investing in a decent wireless adapter anyway, although how long i use it depends on how long it takes to get the router set up in the same room as my PC, maybe i'll look into that first but if not i may get this...
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-80211ac-dual-band-wireless-ac1900-pci-e-adapter
Sort by date Sort by votes
Spectre694

Spectre694

Dignified
Feb 28, 2014
2,907
0
13,960
N and AC actually work on different bands with different characteristics. They coexist on pretty much every AC router. Both are faster than your internet

N - 2.4GHz has far superior range and penetration compared to AC. Tops out at 450Mb for the high end ones.

AC- 5GHz has lower range and penetration compared to N currently tops out at around 1331Mbs but that's really only at line of sight.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
COLGeek

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
Apr 6, 2009
54,206
3,413
179,340
The benefits of upgrading to AC will be negligible. Your current N adapter already exceeds (capability-wise) the in-bound speed of your ISP connection. As long as you have decent wireless connectivity, the difference between N and AC should be minimal and I wouldn't suggest changing unless you have issues now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

DeauteratedDog

Distinguished
Dec 11, 2013
714
89
19,540
It looks like that N150 adapter is a single-stream 2.4 GHz only device. The 150 Mbps number is assuming a 40 MHz wide channel, which isn't very realistic on 2.4 GHz. The data rate for a single-stream N device with a 20 MHz wide channel is 72.2 Mbps (http://mcsindex.com/). That's the maximum over-the-air rate, maximum TCP throughput is around 1/2 that (say 40 Mbps). That's not enough to max out your internet connection.

The BT Home Hub 5, looks like it supports 2-Stream 'n' and 3-Stream 'ac', so I'd say upgrade your adapter to at least a N300 (2-stream) or a dual-band device (2.4 GHz b/g/n and 5 GHz a/ac).

Hope this helps.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
G

giggsy11

Distinguished
Aug 26, 2009
85
0
18,640
Thanks for the answers guys.

I have noticed that on my PC my speeds are slower than on other devices in the house like my girlfriends laptop and my phone and her phone, i've seen consistent speeds of near 60mb/s on those devices but more often than not my PC is around 30-40mb. Everything appears to be using the 2.4ghz band apart from my Galaxy S7 which uses the 5ghz band.

I was thinking of investing in a decent wireless adapter anyway, although how long i use it depends on how long it takes to get the router set up in the same room as my PC, maybe i'll look into that first but if not i may get this...
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-80211ac-dual-band-wireless-ac1900-pci-e-adapter
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom