Can anyone recommend me a new WiFi adapter?

[Dalius]

Hi all. I've been having problems with my Linksys WMP300N (Draft N) PCI Wireless Adapter. I have been constantly getting sound pops and clicks when audio is being played (whether mp3, or game, or internet video) and the source seems to be the PCI WiFi Card:

I used this prograp DPC Latency Checker to see if anything was happening and lo and behold, I'm getting crazy latency readings ONLY when my WiFi card is enabled.

Wireless On

Wireless Off

I've searched the internets, and there seems to be no solution other than replacing the card So I'd like to go out tomorrow and pick up a replacement. So can anyone suggest one? I'd rather not go with Linksys again after seeing how they basically ignored customers with this issue (and after searching, there seems to be quite a few of them). Any D-Link wifi adapters good? I saw they have a PCI-express WiFi adapter, that could be good for low latency. I just want to be able to listen to music while connected to the internet without constant poppings... it's quite distracting.

Cliffnotes: Linksys WiFi Adapter sucks and causes constant sound artifacts, no physical way to get wired internet, need new wifi adapter, suggestions please!

 

[fss69]

Wouldn't a USB wifi adapter be a better remedy to your sound problems?

 

[Dalius]

Well I have a Linksys WRT300N Router at home that I'd like to take full advantage of... but if I could get the same speeds that I do now with a USB adapter then I would be all for it.

I don't think it's the PCI ports themselves causing the problem... I've sat the card in all 3 of my PCI ports and I have the same problem each time so I think it's safe to say it's the actual wireless adapter causing the sound issues. Perhaps a better card or a PCI-express card would fix it?

 

[Dalius]

Now that I've been reading about it... do USB Network Adapters perform as well as PCI ones do? Currently I get 270Mbps speed with my network adapter. If I could maintain that speed & my connection with a USB adapter then I might as well just use one. I googled but couldn't really find anything comparing PCI & USB network adapters. Anyone have any ideas or experience with them?

 

[Electrofreak]

Now that I've been reading about it... do USB Network Adapters perform as well as PCI ones do? Currently I get 270Mbps speed with my network adapter. If I could maintain that speed & my connection with a USB adapter then I might as well just use one. I googled but couldn't really find anything comparing PCI & USB network adapters. Anyone have any ideas or experience with them?

I would NEVER recommend a USB wireless adapter if a PCI slot adapter is optional.

Seriously. I cannot express how much trouble I've had with them over the years, even across multiple brands.

they tend to do a lot of strange and inexplainable things (random disconnects, signal fluctuations, random changes in performance). I tend to suspect poorly written drivers, but I can't tell you for sure why they're so flakey.

I'm sure there are USB RF adapters out there that can be reliable and perform well. But personally, I've never encountered one.

 

[Dalius]

Oh wow... thanks for the response. Yeah I had a feeling that a USB network adapter would not perform as well as one connected via PCI. Thanks for the headsup. Sigh, this is quite difficult. I've been searching online, looking at D-Link's PCI Wireless N card (D-Link DWA-552) and the PCI-Express card (D-Link DWA 556). They both seem to have decent reviews from users with a similar set uo (Windows 7 Pro, x64). I'm still open to recommendations if anyone has any experience with buying a new network adapter recently!

 

[mr_sativa]

I am in with this one with ya. I heard those d-links work great but the compatibility are iffy. I wouldn mind esting on ot as i too bough a new wireless router/modem. I juss hink drivers are the biggest issues for W7 yet with hese wifi cards

 

[curlysir]

Oh wow... thanks for the response. Yeah I had a feeling that a USB network adapter would not perform as well as one connected via PCI. Thanks for the headsup. Sigh, this is quite difficult. I've been searching online, looking at D-Link's PCI Wireless N card (D-Link DWA-552) and the PCI-Express card (D-Link DWA 556). They both seem to have decent reviews from users with a similar set uo (Windows 7 Pro, x64). I'm still open to recommendations if anyone has any experience with buying a new network adapter recently!

I have a DWA-556 and it works great with Windows 7 Pro, x64. I had to upgrade my wireless card when I upgraded to Win 7 and my old Linksys card would not work. It installed and worked with the Win 7 x64 drivers without any problems.

 

[Staples]

I have a Belkin one I bought a few days ago at Best Buy. It was $60 or so, N 150Mbps it said. Connects on the N band and have not had any drop outs but the reception sucks and I have it no where near the computer as I have a USB extension cable connected to it. I have had a few wireless adapters and the only one with good reception was an old Motorola one which I still use but it does not even support WPA (well says it supports WPA-WKIP but I have never gotten it to work). This is not a stick form factor so the antenna is probably a lot bigger.

 

[evilsofa]

I got a Zonet ZEW2500P USB wireless adapter, and I wish I hadn't - even though the signal strength was always excellent, it would drop connection all the time, so I have given up on wireless for now and went back to the ethernet cable laying on the floor.

But one very interesting comment in the newegg reviews for the Zonet suggests that a fundamental problem with USB adapters may be a lack of power: "Works great as long as it's plugged into a powered hub and not directly into the computer's USB port. It would drop connection repeatedly when plugged directly into the computer. It appears that the power from the direct connection wasn't enough to keep it going."

I have no interest in getting a powered hub just for this thing, though, so I guess I'm in the market for a good PCI-E wireless adapter. A cheap g would be fine, since our Verizon router doesn't have n.

 

[daytripper67mi]

I just bought an ASUS PCE-N13(ralink) PCI-E adapter,It will not connect @N speeds.
works well@G speeds and this may be a Windows Vista Issue,

 

[Electrofreak]

I just bought an ASUS PCE-N13(ralink) PCI-E adapter,It will not connect @N speeds.
works well@G speeds and this may be a Windows Vista Issue,

Eh.. shouldn't be a Vista issue... I can't think of any problems Vista has with Wireless N.

I'd take a closer look a some of the settings on your wireless router.

...But one very interesting comment in the newegg reviews for the Zonet suggests that a fundamental problem with USB adapters may be a lack of power: "Works great as long as it's plugged into a powered hub and not directly into the computer's USB port. It would drop connection repeatedly when plugged directly into the computer. It appears that the power from the direct connection wasn't enough to keep it going."...

I'd heard that, but I've never actually gotten around to hooking one up to a powered hub. I've just done a bit of reading, and it appears that USB devices connected to a USB 2.0 port will pull 100 mA by default, but if more power is needed, the device driver can request up to 500 mA to be sent to the port. A powered USB hub, on the other hand, provides the maximum 500 mA to each port by default. (In contrast, an unpowered hub will not provide more than 100 mA per port, even if no other devices are plugged in to other ports).

So, likely the USB adapters have drivers that are not requesting the additional power when it is needed, or perhaps are simply not capable of accurately predicting when more power will be needed before the device encounters a situation where it does not have sufficient power and thus drops the connection. Either way, it would make sense that using a powered hub would resolve the problem. I'll have to take a closer look at it some time when I've got the spare time.

 

[evilsofa]

Did a little research on newegg for powered USB hubs; the GWC HU2G40 seems to be relatively cheap with high ratings, and it isn't a Belkin or Rosewill so I might try it.

 

[Electrofreak]

Did a little research on newegg for powered USB hubs; the GWC HU2G40 seems to be relatively cheap with high ratings, and it isn't a Belkin or Rosewill so I might try it.

I'd still stick with a PCI-E adapter over a USB adapter until I can be sure an adapter on a powered hub would work effectively.

Then again, for $14, you might get a return on your investment. Keep us posted if that's what you decide to do.

 

[evilsofa]

The point of going wireless was to remove clutter, so rather than get another doohickey that needs to be plugged in to both the computer and the wall, I think I'll just look for a wireless card.

 

[daytripper67mi]

Eh.. shouldn't be a Vista issue... I can't think of any problems Vista has with Wireless N.

I'd take a closer look a some of the settings on your wireless router.



I'd heard that, but I've never actually gotten around to hooking one up to a powered hub. I've just done a bit of reading, and it appears that USB devices connected to a USB 2.0 port will pull 100 mA by default, but if more power is needed, the device driver can request up to 500 mA to be sent to the port. A powered USB hub, on the other hand, provides the maximum 500 mA to each port by default. (In contrast, an unpowered hub will not provide more than 100 mA per port, even if no other devices are plugged in to other ports).

So, likely the USB adapters have drivers that are not requesting the additional power when it is needed, or perhaps are simply not capable of accurately predicting when more power will be needed before the device encounters a situation where it does not have sufficient power and thus drops the connection. Either way, it would make sense that using a powered hub would resolve the problem. I'll have to take a closer look at it some time when I've got the spare time.

Yeah It was the wep security,I changed to WPA-2 now it connects @ 135Mbps still not as fast as my other client(Ralink pci turbo connects @ 270Mbps) but for the $17 I'll live with it.

 

[evilsofa]

Yeah It was the wep security,I changed to WPA-2 now it connects @ 135Mbps still not as fast as my other client(Ralink pci turbo connects @ 270Mbps) but for the $17 I'll live with it.

This also makes sense in the context of lack of power. The one i used would lose connection when it was doing something heavy in bandwidth, like loading a YouTube video or downloading a large email file. If you've got some other issue that's preventing the adapter from working at full speed, then it never requires more than 100 mA and thus does not suffer the disconnect.