This means that there is a cable with a USB plug on the end of it that plugs into the USB slot at the back of your desktop. If your spare USB slots are at the back of your desktop computer, you can get a USB WiFi adapter with a cradle arrangement. But this is never going to be the same as having a PCI-E card that has three antennas. These days, you can find USB wireless adapters that have an external antenna. This meant that it was not that easy to pick up a strong signal from the WiFi router. I mean what could be simpler? Unfortunately, when USB wireless adapters first hit the market, most did not have an external antenna.
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So you will not need to take the cover off of your computer at all, which will probably be a significant relief to you if you are scared to death of doing this kind of thing!Īll that you need to do is just plug the USB WiFi adapter into a free USB slot. The clear advantage of using a USB wireless adapter to connect with your WiFi router is that no cards are installed. Advantages and Disadvantages of USB WiFi Adapters
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The only real disadvantages of a PCI-E wireless adapter are that you have to install them into your computer physically and are often more expensive than a USB wireless adapter. This is not something that you have to worry about with a PCI-E WiFi adapter. When I was testing the USB WiFi adapters I found that one of them became really hot when I was using the Internet a lot for downloading and other things. PCI-E wireless adapter slots straight into your computer motherboard and does not require the use of a USB slot. These days, you need USB ports for just about everything and if you use a USB wireless adapter, you will permanently take up one of these precious slots. This means that you should be able to pick up a stronger signal from your WiFi router. Some of the better quality cards have more than one antenna – having three antennas is fairly common. You cannot say the same about a USB adapter.Īnother advantage of a PCI-E wireless adapter is that they usually always have at least one external antenna. This means that the connectivity is a lot faster as there is nothing between the PCI-E card and your mainboard. One of the main reasons for this is that the PCI-E card connects directly to the motherboard of your computer. Usually, PCI-E WiFi cards are more powerful than USB WiFi adapters. Advantages and Disadvantages of PCI-E WiFi Cards So at this point, you may be thinking “why should I bother even considering a PCI-E WiFi adapter if the USB solution is so much easier to install and setup?” I had the same thoughts but there are advantages and disadvantages to both of these types of WiFi adapters. I tried a few different USB wireless adapters and they were all very easy to plug in and get going. It is just simply a matter of plugging the USB WiFi adapter into a spare USB slot in your computer. You do not have to install anything and never need to take the cover off of your computer. One of the best things about a USB wireless adapter is that anyone can use one to quickly and easily establish a connection to the Internet. Any price and availability information displayed on at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on: Also, most desktop computers have a number of USB slots available and as long as you have one free, you can use a USB wireless adapter.
Not all USB adapters come with an external antenna, but a lot do these days. This is a USB device that provides connectivity with your WiFi router. If you really don’t fancy doing this, you can always ask a computer shop to do it for you or a friend or family member who knows a bit about computers. It is actually a pretty easy thing to do. This was OK for me as I have many years of experience working on computers but you might feel nervous about doing this. Of course, if you want to go down this route, then it will involve opening up your computer and installing the PCI-E WiFi card. In that case, you can get a wireless adapter that has at least one antenna that will communicate directly with your WiFi router. However, suppose you have a desktop computer that has a spare PCI-E slot available. The first part of my research was to find out what kinds of PCI-E WiFi adapters were available as I wasn’t 100% sure.
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