Most stable USB Wifi adapter for gaming

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Messages
362
Hey all,

I'm looking for a solution for wireless gaming. I have a router at the other end of the house (roughly 45 feet away). I currently have a ASUS (RT-AC68U) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router and a Asus (USB-AC56) Dual-band Wireless-AC1200 USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter.

The issue is a few times a night I will lose internet access during a game and I will check my iphone that is connected to the same router and it doesn't seem to lose internet. I have updated both the firmware on the router and the drivers for the wifi card to the latest versions. That didn't seem to help. The other reason I suspect it could be the usb wifi is sometimes I can't see the 5G network of my router and I only see the 2.4G.

Any thoughts on if this card is a good model and what else I can do to troubleshoot? Or if not do you have a recommendation for a stable usb wifi card I can get as a replacement? Thanks!
 
Frankly I would suggest an add-in card. The issue with a lot of USB WLAN adapters is that they'll overheat from long-usage scenarios and flake out. That or as suggested bridge the WLAN and plug straight into the bridge via cable.
 
Agreed with Mchart

If you can go with a PCI-E or PCI solution you'd have much better results.
 
I've been using a hand me down Netgear A6210 usb 3.0 adapter for a few months now with no real issues at all. I was somewhat hesitant at first, but she's been working out great. I ultimately plan on running an ethernet cable soon, but in the mean time, this will do. I'm using that adapter with an ubiquity AC LR AP and game at 1440p gsync 144hz monitor if that makes any difference and everything has been great.
 
I like my Netis WF2190

NETIS WF2190 AC1200 Wireless High Gain USB 3.0 Adapter with Dual 5dBi Antenna & USB Cradle Extension Compatible with Windows MAC Linux OS - Newegg.com

I don't remember spending $35 for it... More like $20 and I bought it from Fry's on sale. I think you could probably find a newer one but I have had 0 issues with this device and I spend hours a day playing DOTA. The only issue I have is for when I reformat since windows WILL NOT auto install the drivers. Well at least 7/8.1 will not.
 
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Why not use a powerline adapter? If you are playing games like CS and what-not every bit helps.
 
99% of the posts I read on here show great results, including me in my 100+ year old house. I'm just saying - you wouldn't have to deal with network settings, latency, network drops, congestion, etc. You can get a starter kit for just as much as you're going to spend on an adapter.
 
I laugh every time I see wifi+gaming. no serious gamer will use wifi. go hard line or go home! either run a cable or get power line adapters as suggested above.
 
pendragon1 said:
I laugh every time I see wifi+gaming. no serious gamer will use wifi. go hard line or go home! either run a cable or get power line adapters as suggested above.
Click to expand...
Some people just don't realize their options. Power line adapters work pretty great.
 
The Fragile said:
Some people just don't realize their options. Power line adapters work pretty great.
Click to expand...


Powerline adapters "work pretty great" depends entirely on the building you are in, the household appliances, and how well its electrical is built out and to what electrical code it was built to. For every "it works pretty great" you'll find dozens of "damn this sucks so bad, how do they keep manufacturing this crap?".

Generally it is safer economically to never bother with powerline as it so seldom works well IRL
 
Skripka said:
Powerline adapters "work pretty great" depends entirely on the building you are in, the household appliances, and how well its electrical is built out and to what electrical code it was built to. For every "it works pretty great" you'll find dozens of "damn this sucks so bad, how do they keep manufacturing this crap?".

Generally it is safer economically to never bother with powerline as it so seldom works well IRL
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so do you have advice for the op or you just criticizing ours?
 
Skripka said:
Powerline adapters "work pretty great" depends entirely on the building you are in, the household appliances, and how well its electrical is built out and to what electrical code it was built to. For every "it works pretty great" you'll find dozens of "damn this sucks so bad, how do they keep manufacturing this crap?".

Generally it is safer economically to never bother with powerline as it so seldom works well IRL
Click to expand...

That's been my personal experience, the buildings I've been in sometimes even have isolated circuits so the powerline adapters didn't even work, but I have a coworker who swears by his setup.
 
Skripka said:
Powerline adapters "work pretty great" depends entirely on the building you are in, the household appliances, and how well its electrical is built out and to what electrical code it was built to. For every "it works pretty great" you'll find dozens of "damn this sucks so bad, how do they keep manufacturing this crap?".

Generally it is safer economically to never bother with powerline as it so seldom works well IRL
Click to expand...
It is honestly terrible advice to tell someone to never try something cuz there's a chance it won't work. He won't know if it doesn't work unless he tries it. That is the point. And this is also why returns exist, you know, in case things don't work. And economically? These things don't cost very much. He's looking for a solution and this could possibly be one of them. And throwing out completely baseless, arbitrary ratios of who it does and does not work for is also unhelpful. Don't make up statistics to try and validate your point.
 
Check out this site : Best USB Wifi Adapters. From this blog you will get perfect wifi adapter for gaming as per your requirement . If you don't know how to choose Adapters than check below info graphic.

454ddd2c0556103e7c4d92dbf3e97f02.jpg
 
any way to convert a pci-e wireless card to run over usb 3.0? (my sli setup is blocking the pci-e 1x slot)
 
 
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pendragon1 said:
I laugh every time I see wifi+gaming. no serious gamer will use wifi. go hard line or go home! either run a cable or get power line adapters as suggested above.
Click to expand...

I use wireless when I take my laptop somewhere. And honestly, the pings are not that much higher than if I was wired. Maybe 5ms more or so. You just need a good signal.
 
 
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I'll second (third, fourth?) the bridge idea. It's external, you can place it for best signal strength, you can plug it into a switch to connect multiple devices to WiFi (many already have a few ports built in), and you don't need a WiFi driver for your computer or device - it just acts like regular Ethernet as far as your computers and devices are concerned.

Some routers have a bridge option in their firmware, if you have one laying about.
 
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Brian_B said:
I'll second (third, fourth?) the bridge idea. It's external, you can place it for best signal strength, you can plug it into a switch to connect multiple devices to WiFi (many already have a few ports built in), and you don't need a WiFi driver for your computer or device - it just acts like regular Ethernet as far as your computers and devices are concerned.

Some routers have a bridge option in their firmware, if you have one laying about.
Click to expand...
yea ive done the bridge route a while back but with trying to reduce cablles i thought i would try the usb route...but it seems to be disconnecting not sure if its because its hopping between two different access points
 
I've been using this for give or take 2 years now and it has been really solid for me (read: never dropped the connection). I used to have power line adapters and I got tired of having to reset it every couple of days or so because it stopped working for no good reason.
I do game (MP) and it has been reliable and fast. This obviously may differ in your environment depending on your other devices, connection strength and etc. My computer is in the basement with the main AP being on the floor above. Judging by BF1//BF4/Titanfall 2 performance, it worksperfectly for gaming in my case.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704244
 
Thans for all the inputs...forgot i had the tmobile asus routers...just gonna try to mod it to be able to use it as a bridge
 
pendragon1 said:
I laugh every time I see wifi+gaming. no serious gamer will use wifi. go hard line or go home! either run a cable or get power line adapters as suggested above.
Click to expand...

Nothing will fix the latency issues.
 
well no but if its hardline he'll never have the connection drop like it does now.
 
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