What is the usb wireless adapter"n"

[wkg1]

Hello,I,m new to alot of this,but ecspecially the newer usb gadgets.

but I wanted to know,what is the usb wireless adapter"n" used for as opposed to the router"n"I have?,does it feed off of my current "n" router and give me more speed or range,or is it just used to go wireless?

I have a 2006 dell laptop with and older adapter built in and 2 gb,just trying to find out what the benefit is if Idecided to buy one,or would a usb flash drive be all I would need,not sure what to do,any comments would be appreciated!!!

Please do not post your @mail (that way u are helping to spread the spam), u will be automatically notified if some one post fresh line in your thread. Thanx : )

 

[CaedenV]

it is just a wireless adapter to give laptops and desktops wireless n capability if they did not come with it. This is especially good for people who do not want to install a wireless n card inside of their machine because the are afraid they would break it. In general you will get better performance with built in, or wireless cards instead of wireless USB adapters, but USB adapters work just fine for most applications.

If you have a wireless n router, but only a wireless g laptop (which is likely for 2006), then you are not getting the full speed that you could get from the router because you are only running at wireless g speeds (it will default to the slowest available connection). Now, depending on your internet speed, there may be no point in upgrading to wireless n on your laptop. But if you are on a network with a lot of computers, or if you have some sort of crazy 50+mbps connection in your home, then there would be an improvement over your current configuration.
The other advantage to wireless n is that it has ~3x the range of wireless g. So if you have a large house, or like to sit at your apartment's pool with your laptop, then you would have better luck with wireless n at the edges of the wireless range, than you do with wireless g.

 

[CaedenV]

oh, and a USB flash drive is for storage, like a floppy disc (but soooo much better!). I highly suggest getting one, even a cheap one, to backup your important files. Hard drives have an average life of 5-7 years, which means that your HDD could fail any day now (though it could last much longer, but I would not trust it), so keep your important files in multiple locations so that when it does die you will not loose anything!

 

[nikorr]

The title of this topic has been edited by Nikorr