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[banger]

I have a cheap wifi dongle on my downstairs desktop and get about 200 mbits file transfer on my Asus AC1200G+. It is a realtek 1200 mbps £12.99 dongle and seems sufficient. Looking at a few reviews online 2 reviews rated the Asus USB-AC56 dongle as the best with speeds of 400 mbits at 9 feet. But even second hand it runs around £30 and new I have seen £60. You can get a decent router for that why so expensive?

[tubaman]

That is a crazy price. As I don't do many file transfers between machines, any wireless device that runs at least as fast as my broadband connection (circa 40Mbps) is considered adequate .
 

[banger]

That is what I thought when originally sourcing a 1200mbit dongle.

[Weaver]

If it has to be USB then it might be worth looking for USB3.x. If you are talking to other machines on your local network then you will be able to take advantage of much greater speeds nothing to do with the limits of your internet connection.

Have you considered a suitable card that will plug into your machine ? Should easily be able to get 300 Mbps then and possibly a lot more depending on your WAP or wireless router.

[banger]

If it has to be USB then it might be worth looking for USB3.x.

My cheapo dongle is USB 3 but the machine ports are 2.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I think a point about Wifi that’s often forgotten is, like ADSL products over phone lines, the speed specifications are strictly “up to”.

The fact a device is technically  capable of (say) 600 Mbps, or even the fact that you witnessed it achieving that speed yesterday, is no guarantee it will achieve a fraction of that speed tomorrow.   The root problem is it operates in frequency bands that are shared with many other legitimate applications and when they interfere, WiFi’s “up to” becomes a “less than”.

WiFi is not useless, I am using it right now to compose this post. I even use it for media streaming to one of my STBs, about 5-10 Mbps, and it mostly works.    But given the limitations I’d be reluctant to invest much money in WiFi apparatus, or to pin my hopes on its performance beyond a few tens of Mbps.

[Weaver]

I have benchmarked 802.11n at nearly 300 Mbps effective TCP throughout using a card on a laptop. Wifi isn’t useless, agreed, not unless you are living in an area with intervening impenetrable walls or heavy interference. In the latter case you need to explore 5GHz. I get superb refinance on iPad with 802.11n even through a wall albeit only wooden so not much of a shielding structure.

[Alex Atkin UK]

For desktops, you can get cheap PCIe adapters with (or add your own) Intel AX200 laptop cards in them which are better than any compact USB device.  Although currently this one that doesn't seem to be socketed, its the cheapest and in stock. https://amzn.to/2zBtH6m  Also having an external antenna you can put on top of your PC case means you have a better chance of good reception.

As for decent routers for £60, that's mainly due to how quickly new models come out so older models devalue and economy of scale.  Far more demand for routers than USB WiFi adapters.

I have a deep hatred of USB networking devices, having been through many WiFi and wired adapters over the years and there is almost always some issue with them.  WiFi it just tends to be the tiny antennas making for poor reception or the physical size causing overheating.

[Weaver]

What Alex said.

[Chunkers]

Great advice, I wish I had read this thread a couple of weeks ago (and also followed my own advice about TP-Link) .  I moved my wifes PC to another room and instead of wiring it up with network cable I decided to go wireless and in an attempt to make sure she gets the best possible connection I bought one of these TP-Link AC1900 USB adapters.

I should have known better, I don't know what came over me :

1. TP-Link is generally pretty horrible - I always tell people not to buy TP-Link as I have had nothing but issues with lack of firmware updates and flakey support
2. I was convinced by positive Amazon reviews - the reviews are mostly written by idiots or people who have been given free stuff in exchange for a positive review
3. I always buy Intel based networking stuff for my PC's and it didn't occur to me to get a PCIE card

Anyway, unsuprisingly the USB adapter is a flakey piece of crap, maybe faster than the micro-adapter it replaced but at least that can hold a connection.

<Ashamed>

I think for the most part, unless absolutely necessary USB wifi adapters are to be avoided. Time to start drilling holes in walls!

C

[Weaver]

Wireful ethernet is great - fast and 100% reliable. It’s just that sometimes it is a nightmare to install it. I had to grovel around in an attic at a customer’s site and that isn’t an experience that I would want to repeat. I have very good wireless networking conditions so the amount of long distance wire running is minimal as there hasn’t been the motivation for it.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Yeah, I only bought TP-Link routers to flash them with OpenWRT.  The hardware is okay, the software is clearly where they save money to sell their stuff at such a lot price.

Although I do have a TP-Link USB adapter which wasn't awful, especially compared to an unbranded dongle with identical chipset but far inferior reception and wouldn't hit nearly the same speeds.  So again, their hardware seems to be okay.  Maybe if you find generic drivers?  I NEVER use vendor drivers, they are almost always out of date and buggy for ANY company.