Looking for a way to get wifi on desktop

[Psych Reaper]

Hello, I have the MSI B350 TOMAHAWK AM4 AMD B350 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard. I'm attending college for the first time this semester on campus, and they only have wifi. My desktop only has access to the internet through an ethernet cord. Would a wifi card work on my mobo? If so, what would be one of the best ones for signal, because I do a lot of gaming, and connectivity over wifi has usually sucked from my past experiences.

 

Thank you very much for the help.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Yes, you would need to get preferably a PCIe WiFi card.

 

I don't know any good models off the top of my head, but I hear good things about Asus and TP-Link.

[Terabyte_272]

yo can also get an external wifi usb stick I have used one for a long while. just make sure its fast enough.

[flibberdipper]

I can happily recommend Asus' PCE-AC55BT. I have no complaints other than one incredibly minor one: The antenna puck doesn't have magnets, though I remedied that with some retardmode double-sided tape.

[Psych Reaper]

9 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Yes, you would need to get preferably a PCIe WiFi card.

 

I don't know any good models off the top of my head, but I hear good things about Asus and TP-Link.

So it'll just go into a PCIe slot on my mobo? Thank you for the information. 

[Psych Reaper]

4 minutes ago, flibberdipper said:

I can happily recommend Asus' PCE-AC55BT. I have no complaints other than one incredibly minor one: The antenna puck doesn't have magnets, though I remedied that with some retardmode double-sided tape.

I'll give it a look. Are all wifi cards compatible with PCIe slots, or do I need to buy a specific one for my mobo?

[mxk]

2 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

So it'll just go into a PCIe slot on my mobo? Thank you for the information. 

It doesn't go in the full size PCIe slot, it goes in the shorter ones that are in between the full size ones for your GPU

[Radium_Angel]

11 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

Thank you very much for the help.

I can heartily recommend the following:

 

TP-LINK TL-WDN4800

For several reasons. 

(1) The reach is awesome

(2) *Never* had any kinds of issues with it

(3) Dirt cheap

(4) Alt-OS friendly, if you wish to run Linux, the drivers are native

[flibberdipper]

2 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

I'll give it a look. Are all wifi cards compatible with PCIe slots, or do I need to buy a specific one for my mobo?

PCIe ones are (obviously). Slap that puppy into any slot you have free and you're off to the races. You won't really run into legacy PCI cards unless you stoop to the 10-20 dollar range, but those are very obviously different.

[PorkishPig]

29 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

and connectivity over wifi has usually sucked from my past experiences.

If your college has a 2.4GHz network and a 5GHz network over the same SSID, make sure you disable a/b/g networking on the wireless card. I'll go into more detail on this process if you need it.

29 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

If so, what would be one of the best ones for signal

I would suggest the TP-LINK Archer T9E AC1900, I've been using it for the past 3 years without a problem. It'll fit right into the PCIe 4x slot on your motherboard. A PCIe 4x slot looks something like this:

29 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

My desktop only has access to the internet through an ethernet cord.

I'm not sure why this would be a problem. You will get a more reliable connection over ethernet in nearly 100% of all cases. Do you not have a long enough ethernet cord?

[TempestCatto]

4 minutes ago, mxk. said:

It doesn't go in the full size PCIe slot, it goes in the shorter ones that are in between the full size ones for your GPU

Nonsense. I have mine in a full size slot, it works fine and my gpu is still in x16 mode. As long as there's an available slot, it'll work fine.

I have a TP-Link TL-WDN4800 N900 and I can easily recommend it, but I can't find it new so I guess it's not made anymore. But most things from Asus and TP-Link will do you solid. A few others have made dandy recommendations. I don't recommend USB wireless though, not as strong, reliable, or fast.

[Psych Reaper]

7 minutes ago, Homeless Pineapple said:

If your college has a 2.4GHz network and a 5GHz network over the same SSID, make sure you disable a/b/g networking on the wireless card. I'll go into more detail on this process if you need it.

I would suggest the TP-LINK Archer T9E AC1900, I've been using it for the past 3 years without a problem. It'll fit right into the PCIe 4x slot on your motherboard. A PCIe 4x slot looks something like this:

I'm not sure why this would be a problem. You will get a more reliable connection in nearly 100% of all cases. Do you not have a long enough ethernet cord?

 

I'm not entirely sure what bandwidth of wifi they have quite yet, I move in tomorrow. I would like to know more about disabling the networking settings on the wireless card once I get it if you don't mind. The issue is when I went into the dorm today to check it out, I couldn't find anyway to connect a router, or any hardlines to. That tells me they only have wifi, which is probably the case. I have a 50 ft ethernet cable, but I'm not sure if they'd let me run it down the hall, or wherever they have the internet access located. If it's even on the same floor that is. 

[PorkishPig]

Just now, Psych Reaper said:

I would like to know more about disabling the networking settings on the wireless card once I get it if you don't mind.

Here's a post I made about a year ago:

On 2/22/2018 at 2:36 AM, Homeless Pineapple said:

I have found that in many cases, your network performance can be hindered if your college offers both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networking options while utilizing the same SSID. I've had problems in the past that caused my computer to switch between these networks during each startup. Therefore, I would suggest that you look to disable these bands in your wireless adapter's properties in Device Manager.

 

This setting varies based on wireless card model, but you should be able to find something along the lines of "Disable Bands" within the properties of the device.

[Psych Reaper]

I've found two that seem within a reasonable price range, but the TP link card seems to have installation issues according to other buyers. Which would you guys recommend out of these two?

 

https://www.amazon.com/PCE-AC55BT-B1-Wireless-AC1200-Bluetooth-Adapter/dp/B0713RRZMB

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Archer-T6E-Wireless-Technology/dp/B016K0896K/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7T7FSCKEK053YNPXJJ8A

[Psych Reaper]

23 minutes ago, Homeless Pineapple said:

Here's a post I made about a year ago:

This setting varies based on wireless card model, but you should be able to find something along the lines of "Disable Bands" within the properties of the device.

Does this make it where it only will run off of one band of wifi, instead of bluetooth and 5ghz, etc?

[PorkishPig]

33 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

Does this make it where it only will run off of one band of wifi, instead of bluetooth and 5ghz, etc?

Disabling b/g will prevent your network card from connecting to any 2.4GHz networks, and instead, use only 5GHz (n/ac) networks. Please note that the T6E wireless card does not support Bluetooth, you'll need a separate USB dongle for that.

Edited January 11, 2019 by Homeless Pineapple
correction about bluetooth support

[TempestCatto]

1 minute ago, Homeless Pineapple said:

Disabling b/g will prevent your network card from connecting to any 2.4GHz networks, and instead, use only 5GHz (n/ac) networks. Please note that most wireless cards do not support Bluetooth, you'll need a separate USB dongle for that.

The Asus card he linked has built in Bluetooth. He can select between 2.4 and 5.2 GHZ bands when connecting to any wifi access point. There's really no need to disable it.

[PorkishPig]

27 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

The Asus card he linked has built in Bluetooth. He can select between 2.4 and 5.2 GHZ bands when connecting to any wifi access point. There's really no need to disable it.

Missed the second card, I edited my post. Thanks for letting me know. I've suggested disabling a/b/g networks due to most colleges keeping 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks on the same SSID, which can often cause problems with network reliability. You are not able to select which band you are utilizing when connecting to these networks.

[Psych Reaper]

Another question, will I be able to install the card out of the box, and connect to the internet, or will I need to be connected already to install drivers? I won't have internet obviously with the lack of a hard line connection, and my computer doesn't have a cd drive, so am I screwed either way?

[PorkishPig]

2 minutes ago, Psych Reaper said:

Another question, will I be able to install the card out of the box, and connect to the internet, or will I need to be connected already to install drivers? I won't have internet obviously with the lack of a hard line connection, and my computer doesn't have a cd drive, so am I screwed either way?

Depends on which network card you are getting. From experience, TP-Link Archer network cards will not connect to the internet without first installing a driver. I can't quite speak for the ASUS PCE-AC55BT.

[mxk]

1 hour ago, TempestCatto said:

Nonsense. I have mine in a full size slot, it works fine and my gpu is still in x16 mode. As long as there's an available slot, it'll work fine.

I have a TP-Link TL-WDN4800 N900 and I can easily recommend it, but I can't find it new so I guess it's not made anymore. But most things from Asus and TP-Link will do you solid. A few others have made dandy recommendations. I don't recommend USB wireless though, not as strong, reliable, or fast.

oops. I thought they usually go in the small slots that their connectors fit into.

[TempestCatto]

15 minutes ago, Homeless Pineapple said:

Missed the second card, I edited my post. Thanks for letting me know. I've suggested disabling a/b/g networks due to most colleges keeping 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks on the same SSID, which can often cause problems with network reliability. You are not able to select which band you are utilizing when connecting to these networks.

Those schools suck then, my schools always let us choose. lol I guess I was spoiled.