best usb wireless adapter for laptop windows 10

WiFi is the easiest way to ditch the ethernet cable and make the internet connection wireless. Like a parabolic reflector antenna almost is useless for short range. There's many type of antenna with different purpose. General rule of thumb is bigger the antenna, better the coverage. At least 50% more.Īs the WiFi transmit power is very limited, antennas play a huge role in range. Range and coverage of any WiFi network depends on many factors like WiFi band, output power, receiver sensitivity, antenna gain and type of antenna.Īlso depends on channel bandwidth and modulation technique.Īs example if the WiFi is operating on 802.11b mode, it provides better coverage compared 802.11n, however maximum speed is less.Ģ.4 GHz WiFi has better range compared to a 5 GHz WiFi network. No matter how costly the WiFi hardware is. Always expect about half of the maximum advertised speed. This type of multiple antenna setup is called MIMO. While with 4 antennas, it could theoretically reach 600 Mbps.

Which can dramatically improve speed.Īs example, a single antenna 2.4 GHz b/g/n could deliver maximum speed of 150 Mbps, theoretically. It means there's more than 1 antenna on the both WiFi devices. Generally speaking, 5 GHz ac WiFi provides more than double speed compared to 802.11 b/g/n network under most scenario.īut the 5 GHz ac WiFi support must be on both the router and PC to take advantage of it. The most used protocols are 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n and 5 GHz ac. WiFi has many different speed category and frequency band. So, check carefully about the driver compatibility before buying any product. Many time you've to build the linux driver yourself for the particular WiFi adapter. In most cases, the manufacturer provide a working driver for Windows and mac OS. You might face driver issue with many newer WiFi cards. OS and driver compatibilityĪnother big issue related with any WiFi adapter. The easiest option left is to use the USB adapters. There's another advantage, you can't easily add another WiFi card to the modern laptops. As the WiFi chipsets are not of that great quality.Īlso there's a speed limitation due to USB protocol and length of USB cable.ĭue to their relatively smaller size, most USB WiFi adapter have a crappy antenna. In most cases they're just plug and play.īut generally they lack the performance compared to PCIe cards.

USB cards - On the other hand, USB WiFi dongles are much easier to remove and use on another PC.

Best usb wireless adapter for laptop windows 10