Wireless Network Adapter

[Oswyn]

So I'm almost done with my PC build and now I just need to find a wireless network adapter

(And before you ask no using a wire is not an option for me)

 

I don't quite understand what's the best option for me would be. The TP-Link TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express is $45.99 And has some pretty good reviews

but there is also TP-LINK TL-WN881ND Wireless N300 PCI Express and it is $18.99

Is the $45 one really worth it or are both of these horrible options if you could explain what is good and not would be awesome because I have no idea what is good and what is bad???

 

Or is the Panda Wireless PAU06 300Mbps N USB  or something like it a better option???

thanks in advance

[JefferyD90]

3 minutes ago, Oswyn said:

 

So I'm almost done with my PC build and now I just need to find a wireless network adapter

(And before you ask no using a wire is not an option for me)

 

I don't quite understand what's the best option for me would be. The TP-Link TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express is $45.99 And has some pretty good reviews

but there is also TP-LINK TL-WN881ND Wireless N300 PCI Express and it is $18.99

Is the $45 one really worth it or are both of these horrible options if you could explain what is good and not would be awesome because I have no idea what is good and what is bad???

 

Or is the Panda Wireless PAU06 300Mbps N USB  or something like it a better option???

thanks in advance

This really depends on your modem, router, and access point.

 

If you have a combo unit, like the one you would receive from your ISP, my recommendation is to throw it away and get something else.  But if that isn't a option, I'd go for any PCI based solution, like the one from TP-Link that you suggested.  TP-Link is really one of the best value brands in networking.  Their products do exactly what they say they're going to do without any extra buttons or light shows.

 

But if you have a nice router, like a ASUS RT-AC1900 (or better) or a Nighthawk, or really anything like that, then you should look into getting a matching PCI-E based adapter.  For example, I have the ASUS RT-AC1900 router with a PCE-AC68 adapter.  And I FREQUENTLY get 120MBps, or about 900Mbps, transfer speeds on my network.  And I have quite a bit of distance between them as well.

 

If you still have any questions let me know and I'll be glad to come up with a good solution for you once I have more information about what you're doing, what internet options you subscribe to, what other devices you have on your network, and so on.

 

[Bananasplit_00]

STAY AWAY FROM TOILET PAPER LINK. THEY ARE COMPLETE SHIIIIIIIIIIT atlesast from my experience, drivers dont work, bad connectivity, bad range, bad speed, overheating and pacadge loss and connectivity issues. get something from either D-Link, Gigabyte or ASUS for the love of PCMR.... please just dont make the same mistake i did and get TP-Links utter shit and have a happy wifi experience rather then mine which was about 90% rage over the fact that the pice of shit didnt work like it should EVER

[Bananasplit_00]

4 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

This really depends on your modem, router, and access point.

 

If you have a combo unit, like the one you would receive from your ISP, my recommendation is to throw it away and get something else.  But if that isn't a option, I'd go for any PCI based solution, like the one from TP-Link that you suggested.  TP-Link is really one of the best value brands in networking.  Their products do exactly what they say they're going to do without any extra buttons or light shows.

 

But if you have a nice router, like a ASUS RT-AC1900 (or better) or a Nighthawk, or really anything like that, then you should look into getting a matching PCI-E based adapter.  For example, I have the ASUS RT-AC1900 router with a PCE-AC68 adapter.  And I FREQUENTLY get 120MBps, or about 900Mbps, transfer speeds on my network.  And I have quite a bit of distance between them as well.

 

If you still have any questions let me know and I'll be glad to come up with a good solution for you once I have more information about what you're doing, what internet options you subscribe to, what other devices you have on your network, and so on.

 

speaking from pure personal experience here. TP-Link have never failed to dissapont me with drivers that dont work and overheating on everything. they are shit and not even value IMO

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

TP Link's products are fine. You probably had a bad unit or bought a model with a well known defect.

For example LTT tested the Google OnHub (made by TP Link) and it exceeded expectations.

i just know there wifi adapters i have had had no working windows 10 drivers and was just really really really bad

[JefferyD90]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

speaking from pure personal experience here. TP-Link have never failed to dissapont me with drivers that dont work and overheating on everything. they are shit and not even value IMO

That's just it, it seems like you're expecting it to have this thrills where its suppose to get excellent range, or it should be able to manage packets of data for hours on end.  A typical wireless connection isn't going to do those things.  TP-Link is a GREAT options for normal people, and the OP didn't say he wanted it for hours without end MMORPG gaming or anything.  So that is why I made the suggestion I did.

 

And if he has just a average run of the mill modem/router combo unit, then his/her experience is going to suck anyways.

[Oswyn]

12 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

This really depends on your modem, router, and access point.

 

If you have a combo unit, like the one you would receive from your ISP, my recommendation is to throw it away and get something else.  But if that isn't a option, I'd go for any PCI based solution, like the one from TP-Link that you suggested.  TP-Link is really one of the best value brands in networking.  Their products do exactly what they say they're going to do without any extra buttons or light shows.

 

But if you have a nice router, like a ASUS RT-AC1900 (or better) or a Nighthawk, or really anything like that, then you should look into getting a matching PCI-E based adapter.  For example, I have the ASUS RT-AC1900 router with a PCE-AC68 adapter.  And I FREQUENTLY get 120MBps, or about 900Mbps, transfer speeds on my network.  And I have quite a bit of distance between them as well.

 

If you still have any questions let me know and I'll be glad to come up with a good solution for you once I have more information about what you're doing, what internet options you subscribe to, what other devices you have on your network, and so on.

 

I have ubee wireless router and cisco linksys ea3500 And it is three rooms down from me

[JefferyD90]

6 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

i just know there wifi adapters i have had had no working windows 10 drivers and was just really really really bad

Their 4 year old adapter was supported for 3 operating systems...

http://www.tp-link.com/en/download/TL-WDN3800.html#Driver

 

Their cheapest current generation USB adapter offers Windows 10 and Mac OSX support:

http://www.tp-link.com/en/download/Archer-T1U.html#Driver

 

You're claims are misleading.  While the card you might have doesn't have official Windows 10 support, they do offer adapters that do have official Windows 10 support.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, JefferyD90 said:

That's just it, it seems like you're expecting it to have this thrills where its suppose to get excellent range, or it should be able to manage packets of data for hours on end.  A typical wireless connection isn't going to do those things.  TP-Link is a GREAT options for normal people, and the OP didn't say he wanted it for hours without end MMORPG gaming or anything.  So that is why I made the suggestion I did.

 

And if he has just a average run of the mill modem/router combo unit, then his/her experience is going to suck anyways.

my router is admittedly pretty shit but i have had my TP-Link adapter (currently in my PC but not used because i just got a cable :D) straight up not work when i turned on my PC, i have had it drop in speed for seemingly no reason from a nice and steady 12mbit/s to 20ish kbit/s because it got extremely hot after about an hour of use, the only time it was actually GOOD was when i had a 120mm fan i ripped from a server sitting on my GPU blowing cool air over the adapter, that way it would stay cool and keep going but after i got a new CPU cooler it was all hell, it sometimes would just disconnect from the network and i needed to connect to the network again whilst everything else wireless i had was fine and sometimes it just straight up didnt work. thats my experience with my adapter and thats what i base my opinion on. if you have had a different experience then cool but thats what i dealt with for 6 months before i raged hard enough to rip open the cable shaft in my house and halfasedly installed a cable  

[JefferyD90]

2 minutes ago, Oswyn said:

I have ubee wireless router and cisco linksys ea3500 And it is three rooms down from me

Okay, I was going to ask which one you use, but I looked them both up and their both fairly run of the mill, so it doesn't matter.  The TP-Link one would work fine I guess.

 

Although I highly recommend you scrap your whole network and start from scratch.

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

Their 4 year old adapter was supported for 3 operating systems...

http://www.tp-link.com/en/download/TL-WDN3800.html#Driver

 

Their cheapest current generation USB adapter offers Windows 10 and Mac OSX support:

http://www.tp-link.com/en/download/Archer-T1U.html#Driver

 

You're claims are misleading.  While the card you might have doesn't have official Windows 10 support, they do offer adapters that do have official Windows 10 support.

good info, thanks for telling me  i have a pretty new adapter, and there drivers didnt work on windows 10 last time i tried anyway there might be newer drivers out now but still 

[JefferyD90]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

my router is admittedly pretty shit but i have had my TP-Link adapter (currently in my PC but not used because i just got a cable :D) straight up not work when i turned on my PC, i have had it drop in speed for seemingly no reason from a nice and steady 12mbit/s to 20ish kbit/s because it got extremely hot after about an hour of use, the only time it was actually GOOD was when i had a 120mm fan i ripped from a server sitting on my GPU blowing cool air over the adapter, that way it would stay cool and keep going but after i got a new CPU cooler it was all hell, it sometimes would just disconnect from the network and i needed to connect to the network again whilst everything else wireless i had was fine and sometimes it just straight up didnt work. thats my experience with my adapter and thats what i base my opinion on. if you have had a different experience then cool but thats what i dealt with for 6 months before i raged hard enough to rip open the cable shaft in my house and halfasedly installed a cable  

I'm going to take a wild guess at this (keep in mind that I'm not a networking guru, just a enthusiast), I'm going to take a guess that you're asking too much from the TP link card and the router isn't being extremely helpful either.

 

While I do agree that the TP Link adapter probably shouldn't have been used for a hour straight, (because it wasn't made to do that) I can see your frustration.  What you should have done is bought up a model or two, maybe even got a more "gaming" oriented brand.

 

Running a wire, is not a solution to a wireless problem.  It is just a lazy work around and you should put some effort (some day, not today) into fixing the issue at its source.

[Oswyn]

7 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

Okay, I was going to ask which one you use, but I looked them both up and their both fairly run of the mill, so it doesn't matter.  The TP-Link one would work fine I guess.

 

Although I highly recommend you scrap your whole network and start from scratch.

Redoing the whole network is not my choice since I am 15 years old but I do plan on doing gaming and using it for more than an hour are you saying that it can't handle usage for longer than 1 hour?

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

I'm going to take a wild guess at this (keep in mind that I'm not a networking guru, just a enthusiast), I'm going to take a guess that you're asking too much from the TP link card and the router isn't being extremely helpful either.

 

While I do agree that the TP Link adapter probably shouldn't have been used for a hour straight, (because it wasn't made to do that) I can see your frustration.  What you should have done is bought up a model or two, maybe even got a more "gaming" oriented brand.

 

Running a wire, is not a solution to a wireless problem.  It is just a lazy work around and you should put some effort (some day, not today) into fixing the issue at its source.

good point  anyway the addapter is pretty bad but its what was avaiable to me and was in the store branded as something that would be awesome and for hour on end gaming, it turned out it was a pretty low end model but still the router is as you said not helping here. anyway im still going to advice against getting TP link for anything but maybe they can be value and i have just gotten a really bad one idk 

[JefferyD90]

2 minutes ago, Oswyn said:

Redoing the whole network is not my choice since I am 15 years old but I do plan on doing gaming and using it for more than an hour are you saying that it can't handle usage for longer than 1 hour?

Well the TP Link adapter is meant for "mom or dads" computer where the expected use case is "checking email", "Looking at news on CNN", "watching a few youtube videos".  TP Link (unless you buy up to their higher end models), really isn't designed for consistent use like a long running Netflix marathon or Hours on end of gaming.

[Oswyn]

1 minute ago, JefferyD90 said:

Well the TP Link adapter is meant for "mom or dads" computer where the expected use case is "checking email", "Looking at news on CNN", "watching a few youtube videos".  TP Link (unless you buy up to their higher end models), really isn't designed for consistent use like a long running Netflix marathon or Hours on end of gaming.

Even though my router system is pretty bad is there a wireless network adapter that you could recommend for me I like to do gaming so last name for longer than an hour would be nice

 

[JefferyD90]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

good point  anyway the addapter is pretty bad but its what was avaiable to me and was in the store branded as something that would be awesome and for hour on end gaming, it turned out it was a pretty low end model but still the router is as you said not helping here. anyway im still going to advice against getting TP link for anything but maybe they can be value and i have just gotten a really bad one idk 

Yea, if you're building a computer for your mom or dad and all they are going to do is "normal" people stuff...  don't hesitate to put a TP Link adapter in their machine.

 

And I feel bad for you if you were "sold" this adapter with higher expectations than it was capable of.  I mean TP Link is a cheaper brand, but they do good for their cheaper price points

 

[JefferyD90]

3 minutes ago, Oswyn said:

 

Even though my router system is pretty bad is there a wireless network adapter that you could recommend for me I like to do gaming so last name for longer than an hour would be nice

 

I don't know how much you're willing to spend, but here is my price break down for you:

 

$100: https://amzn.com/B00F42V83C

$75: https://amzn.com/B00TQEX7AQ

$65: https://amzn.com/B00JNA337K

$50: https://amzn.com/B00PVCVZ74 

 

And that's the kind of price you was looking at anyways...

 

Obviously, the more you spend the better the product you get.

 

@Bananasplit_00 take a look at the $75 offering in this post.  It is a high end TP-Link product.  I bet you can tell just by looking at it that it is much more robust than the TPLink product you're use to.

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

I don't know how much you're willing to spend, but here is my price break down for you:

 

$100: https://amzn.com/B00F42V83C

$75: https://amzn.com/B00TQEX7AQ

$65: https://amzn.com/B00JNA337K

$50: https://amzn.com/B00PVCVZ74 

 

And that's the kind of price you was looking at anyways...

 

Obviously, the more you spend the better the product you get.

 

@Bananasplit_00 take a look at the $75 offering in this post.  It is a high end TP-Link product.  I bet you can tell just by looking at it that it is much more robust than the TPLink product you're use to.

that looks like something that could actiually be used lol  thanks for showing a side of TP-Link i didnt know of  

[Oswyn]

3 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

I don't know how much you're willing to spend, but here is my price break down for you:

 

$100: https://amzn.com/B00F42V83C

$75: https://amzn.com/B00TQEX7AQ

$65: https://amzn.com/B00JNA337K

$50: https://amzn.com/B00PVCVZ74 

 

And that's the kind of price you was looking at anyways...

 

Obviously, the more you spend the better the product you get.

 

@Bananasplit_00 take a look at the $75 offering in this post.  It is a high end TP-Link product.  I bet you can tell just by looking at it that it is much more robust than the TPLink product you're use to.

Thank you for  your time I will look over them with my dad

 

Thank you all for you help