Best Wifi Cards?

[Maxisthemoose]

I want an option to be able to connect to my phones hot spot in case my internet decides to stop working. (It does that a lot). I have a budget of about 30-50$ and I live in the US. Thanks!

[mynameisjuan]

I would suggest buying a cheap router and putting it in repeater mode. When your internet drops just unplug your WAN from your router and plug it into the repeater and turn on your hotspot. This way your wired devices can remain wired and its less taxing on the hotspot. 

[Onoria]

8 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

I would suggest buying a cheap router and putting it in repeater mode. When your internet drops just unplug your WAN from your router and plug it into the repeater and turn on your hotspot. This way your wired devices can remain wired and its less taxing on the hotspot. 

What might be a better solution is to buy a dedicated repeater/extender, then when your internet goes down, you turn on your hotspot and then repeat the signal from your phone.

 

Maybe something like this: https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-AC750-Range-Extender-EX3700-100NAS/dp/B00R92CL5E

 

However I think you are asking about an actual WiFi card for your PC? If this is what you are saying then you need to decide between internal or external.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Archer-T6E-Wireless-Technology/dp/B016K0896K

or

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-A6200-WiFi-USB-Adapter/dp/B00FKD6OC0

[SegueMan]

I wouldn't use repeater mode (products will be marketed as "range extenders") since it cuts maximum throughput in half by introducing an additional wireless hop + contends for airspace, typically on the same WLAN channel.  I'd go with wireless client mode, sometimes also known as wireless bridge mode or media bridge mode.  I've had great results using an older wireless router flashed with DD-WRT firmware.

 

So when you experience an upstream (ISP) outage, turn on your phone's Wi-Fi hotspot (LTE tether), and then:

 

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Wireless client bridge] -------- [Your normal router's WAN interface]

 

 

Legend:

- - - - - Wi-Fi (aka WLAN)

-------- Wired ethernet

[Onoria]

1 hour ago, dahoff said:

I wouldn't use repeater mode (products will be marketed as "range extenders") since it cuts maximum throughput in half by introducing an additional wireless hop + contends for airspace, typically on the same WLAN channel.  I'd go with wireless client mode, sometimes also known as wireless bridge mode or media bridge mode.  I've had great results using an older wireless router flashed with DD-WRT firmware.

 

So when you experience an upstream (ISP) outage, turn on your phone's Wi-Fi hotspot (LTE tether), and then:

 

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Wireless client bridge] -------- [Your normal router's WAN interface]

 

 

Legend:

- - - - - Wi-Fi (aka WLAN)

-------- Wired ethernet

Both repeaters and extenders (unless they have a separate radio for connecting to the client and for broadcasting) will half your throughput. If you were to do it properly you would get a dual/triple radio extender, however this would be outside the budget.

[SegueMan]

A Wi-Fi range extender is just a marketing term for a radio repeater; i.e., they're the same thing:  a range extender is actually a repeater.  They are terrible consumer devices, and I wish they didn't exist, as they serve to clog the airwaves and increase the WLAN noise floor for everybody within range.  My point was to not use that mode at all, pretty much ever.  I assume the OP already has a wireless router as their edge device, so if the goal is simply to reroute WAN traffic from an existing, wired setup (such as from a cable modem or fiber optic bridge), then it makes sense to bridge LTE straight to Ethernet, straight to the wireless router's WAN interface.  No need to introduce an extraneous hop over WLAN compared to Ethernet.

 

In other words (if that was clear as mud):

 

Ideal:

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Wireless client bridge] -------- [normal router's WAN interface] [normal router's LAN interface] ------- [existing desktop PC]

 

Not ideal:

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Range extender] - - - - - [existing desktop PC]

 

Legend:

- - - - - Wi-Fi (aka WLAN)

-------- Wired ethernet

 

 

The difference between the two scenarios above:

1.  Extra wireless hop -- even if on a different channel so full duplex is attained -- will yield less performance than using wired.

2.  We assume OP has other devices on his LAN that need Internet access if there is an upstream ISP outage.  By simply "replacing" the WAN with 4G LTE via the phone, it's essentially a drop-in replacement.  In other words, we get WAN failover.  This is best practice and is exactly how it's done in the enterprise (except instead of the phone, there's a 4G LTE radio or USB modem attached directly into the edge router.)

 

 

OP:  Use an old wireless router you may already have lying around (free), even if it's 802.11n or 802.11g.  If your budget is $30-50, I'd get the most reliable wireless router you can find that allows its firmware to be flashed to DD-WRT or OpenWRT, and you can set the wireless mode to "Client Bridge."  You can pre-configure this device so that everything is already set up (e.g. it connects to your phone's hotspot via Wi-Fi to "suck" it in + it automatically bridges that to your current router's WAN interface).  Then connect cables, power on, and done!  Manual failover for your entire house!

 

I actually did this a couple months ago.  The Comcast Xfinity cable service (ughhhh) crapped out, so I hooked up an ancient Linksys WRT54GS (the legendary blue Linksys) with DD-WRT already pre-configured, and it "sucked" in Wi-Fi from an open network across the street and patched it into the house router's WAN interface.  All 20+ devices in the house were none the wiser -- Internet is Internet.

[LinusOnLine]

5 hours ago, dahoff said:

I wouldn't use repeater mode (products will be marketed as "range extenders") since it cuts maximum throughput in half by introducing an additional wireless hop + contends for airspace, typically on the same WLAN channel.  I'd go with wireless client mode, sometimes also known as wireless bridge mode or media bridge mode.  I've had great results using an older wireless router flashed with DD-WRT firmware.

 

So when you experience an upstream (ISP) outage, turn on your phone's Wi-Fi hotspot (LTE tether), and then:

 

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Wireless client bridge] -------- [Your normal router's WAN interface]

 

 

Legend:

- - - - - Wi-Fi (aka WLAN)

-------- Wired ethernet

I did that a few weeks ago as well with my old Linksys EA6500 with DD-WRT that acts as a wireless repeater bridge to my new Linksys WRT3200ACM. Works pretty good and good to find a use for the old router.

[Maxisthemoose]

7 hours ago, LinusOnLine said:

I did that a few weeks ago as well with my old Linksys EA6500 with DD-WRT that acts as a wireless repeater bridge to my new Linksys WRT3200ACM. Works pretty good and good to find a use for the old router.

 

11 hours ago, dahoff said:

A Wi-Fi range extender is just a marketing term for a radio repeater; i.e., they're the same thing:  a range extender is actually a repeater.  They are terrible consumer devices, and I wish they didn't exist, as they serve to clog the airwaves and increase the WLAN noise floor for everybody within range.  My point was to not use that mode at all, pretty much ever.  I assume the OP already has a wireless router as their edge device, so if the goal is simply to reroute WAN traffic from an existing, wired setup (such as from a cable modem or fiber optic bridge), then it makes sense to bridge LTE straight to Ethernet, straight to the wireless router's WAN interface.  No need to introduce an extraneous hop over WLAN compared to Ethernet.

 

In other words (if that was clear as mud):

 

Ideal:

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Wireless client bridge] -------- [normal router's WAN interface] [normal router's LAN interface] ------- [existing desktop PC]

 

Not ideal:

 

[Phone] - - - - - [Range extender] - - - - - [existing desktop PC]

 

Legend:

- - - - - Wi-Fi (aka WLAN)

-------- Wired ethernet

 

 

The difference between the two scenarios above:

1.  Extra wireless hop -- even if on a different channel so full duplex is attained -- will yield less performance than using wired.

2.  We assume OP has other devices on his LAN that need Internet access if there is an upstream ISP outage.  By simply "replacing" the WAN with 4G LTE via the phone, it's essentially a drop-in replacement.  In other words, we get WAN failover.  This is best practice and is exactly how it's done in the enterprise (except instead of the phone, there's a 4G LTE radio or USB modem attached directly into the edge router.)

 

 

OP:  Use an old wireless router you may already have lying around (free), even if it's 802.11n or 802.11g.  If your budget is $30-50, I'd get the most reliable wireless router you can find that allows its firmware to be flashed to DD-WRT or OpenWRT, and you can set the wireless mode to "Client Bridge."  You can pre-configure this device so that everything is already set up (e.g. it connects to your phone's hotspot via Wi-Fi to "suck" it in + it automatically bridges that to your current router's WAN interface).  Then connect cables, power on, and done!  Manual failover for your entire house!

 

I actually did this a couple months ago.  The Comcast Xfinity cable service (ughhhh) crapped out, so I hooked up an ancient Linksys WRT54GS (the legendary blue Linksys) with DD-WRT already pre-configured, and it "sucked" in Wi-Fi from an open network across the street and patched it into the house router's WAN interface.  All 20+ devices in the house were none the wiser -- Internet is Internet.

 

11 hours ago, Onoria said:

Both repeaters and extenders (unless they have a separate radio for connecting to the client and for broadcasting) will half your throughput. If you were to do it properly you would get a dual/triple radio extender, however this would be outside the budget.

I just want a Wifi Card... Thank you for all the help though

 

[Onoria]

6 hours ago, Maxisthemoose said:

I just want a Wifi Card... Thank you for all the help though

 

21 hours ago, Onoria said:

However I think you are asking about an actual WiFi card for your PC? If this is what you are saying then you need to decide between internal or external.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Archer-T6E-Wireless-Technology/dp/B016K0896K

or

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-A6200-WiFi-USB-Adapter/dp/B00FKD6OC0