Looking for a solid PCI-E Wireless Networking Card

[Spev]

Looking for a great reliable wireless card hopefully with 5ghz. Right now I'm looking at this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Express-Adapter-TL-WDN4800/dp/B007GMPZ0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1495231332&sr=1-1&keywords=tp-link+wireless+networking+adapter

 

There are a few different versions of it. The more expensive one has "beamforming" technology...idk if that's worth worrying about. Other than that it just looks like it supports higher speeds. Not sure if any other features would be worth getting for the more expensive versions. The minimum version supports far more bandwidth than what I have.

 

Any other good recommendations? It would be used for gaming so yeah.

[Vandorlot]

4 minutes ago, Spev said:

Looking for a great reliable wireless card hopefully with 5ghz. Right now I'm looking at this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Express-Adapter-TL-WDN4800/dp/B007GMPZ0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1495231332&sr=1-1&keywords=tp-link+wireless+networking+adapter

 

There are a few different versions of it. The more expensive one has "beamforming" technology...idk if that's worth worrying about. Other than that it just looks like it supports higher speeds. Not sure if any other features would be worth getting for the more expensive versions. The minimum version supports far more bandwidth than what I have.

 

Any other good recommendations? It would be used for gaming so yeah.

1

The regular version is fine. But a quicker solution (if you need it) is to use powerline adapter. They are quicker than wireless. Here is one.

 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWRUICG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=sl1&tag=awesomenetw07-20&linkId=8e5ad85a28af42690e611abdc1d9a82d

The way they work is they use your house power grid and send information across it. You won't have to deal with running a wire across the house and its quicker than wireless. Its also not too expensive. Bitwit did a video on this.

 

[Donut417]

17 minutes ago, Spev said:

Looking for a great reliable wireless card hopefully with 5ghz. Right now I'm looking at this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Express-Adapter-TL-WDN4800/dp/B007GMPZ0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1495231332&sr=1-1&keywords=tp-link+wireless+networking+adapter

 

There are a few different versions of it. The more expensive one has "beamforming" technology...idk if that's worth worrying about. Other than that it just looks like it supports higher speeds. Not sure if any other features would be worth getting for the more expensive versions. The minimum version supports far more bandwidth than what I have.

 

Any other good recommendations? It would be used for gaming so yeah.

I used the N900 version of that card, my mom now uses it. The only issue with the N900 version is you have to rely on Microsoft for the drivers, at least for Windows 10 as TP Link no longer supports that card directly, however the card does work fairly well. 

[Spev]

16 minutes ago, Vandorlot said:

The regular version is fine. But a quicker solution (if you need it) is to use powerline adapter. They are quicker than wireless. Here is one.

 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AWRUICG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=sl1&tag=awesomenetw07-20&linkId=8e5ad85a28af42690e611abdc1d9a82d

The way they work is they use your house power grid and send information across it. You won't have to deal with running a wire across the house and its quicker than wireless. Its also not too expensive. Bitwit did a video on this.

 

I have heard of issues with powerline adapters in the past...but I might give it a shot. 

[dave01978]

I would get an AC Wi-Fi card. With my ac card and actually access point I have no issues with speed

[luigi90210]

if you have a decent wifi setup at your house and can get good 5ghz signal you shouldnt have an issue with speeds

off my 5ghz network i can pull 80Mbps and i pay for 100Mbps and i can get near 1Gbps when streaming off my NAS

power line is great but if the plugs are on separate breakers you will lose a lot of speed

[Spev]

6 hours ago, luigi90210 said:

if you have a decent wifi setup at your house and can get good 5ghz signal you shouldnt have an issue with speeds

off my 5ghz network i can pull 80Mbps and i pay for 100Mbps and i can get near 1Gbps when streaming off my NAS

power line is great but if the plugs are on separate breakers you will lose a lot of speed

Yeah. It's more about ping than speeds though.

[Spev]

Update: I got some Netgear powerline adapters at a local store. They were simple to setup and I got a connection to my room. So far my ping is very consistent on online games. However it's too high and consistent. I have just under 100 ping. It holds very steady but it's too much in the games I play. It's problem enough where I will probably return these and try a wireless networking card.

[luigi90210]

9 hours ago, Spev said:

Update: I got some Netgear powerline adapters at a local store. They were simple to setup and I got a connection to my room. So far my ping is very consistent on online games. However it's too high and consistent. I have just under 100 ping. It holds very steady but it's too much in the games I play. It's problem enough where I will probably return these and try a wireless networking card.

sorry i should have been clearer, jumping through breakers adds more latency which in turns affects speeds and ping

either way before you return them have you tried different plugs? i know its a long shot but it might improve ping if you can get the 2 adapters closer together

 

edit also make sure they are not plugged into power strips and plugged directly into the wall

[Spev]

53 minutes ago, luigi90210 said:

sorry i should have been clearer, jumping through breakers adds more latency which in turns affects speeds and ping

either way before you return them have you tried different plugs? i know its a long shot but it might improve ping if you can get the 2 adapters closer together

 

edit also make sure they are not plugged into power strips and plugged directly into the wall

Yeah I made sure they were not in power strips. My apartment was literally just built so I know the wiring in the apartment is not old. Currently my router isn't in its permanent location. I'm going to get it moved today. It will be closer to the inline from outside for the internet so potentially the ping will be better because the distance to the router will have to go through less cabling. Maybe that might impact my powerline performance as well. I will post an update later. I did order a wireless card (can always be returned though if the new location turns out to be better). 

[Spev]

1 minute ago, Spev said:

 

[dlink377]

for powerline, usually the culprit that kills powerline network is shitty electrical equipment. 

 

in my case the culprit is cheap fluorescent tube desk lamp.

[Spev]

1 minute ago, dlink377 said:

for powerline, usually the culprit that kills powerline network is shitty electrical equipment. 

 

in my case the culprit is cheap fluorescent tube desk lamp.

You mean on the same outlet? If so I had each on their own separate outlet. 

[dlink377]

Just now, Spev said:

You mean on the same outlet? If so I had each on their own separate outlet. 

not necessarily same outlet. it could be the whole electrical group managed by a single breaker.