USB vs PCI wireless adapter

[dmagro]

Went to the store and looked at the various wireless adapters they had. Was surprised to find a large amount of USB devices, some with, and some without antennas. They ranged from €15 to €55. The cheaper ones had no antenna.

The PCI cards had between 1 & 3 antennas, and cost around €30...

I assumed PCI would be better than USB, but held off on purchasing anything until seeking advice here. I'm looking for something that doesn't really need huge range, or to be cutting edge, although I'd like the best bang for the buck.

Any feedback would be appreciated, Thanks.

 

[Hallis]

For s desktop PC Given the choice i'd pick PCI any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Get a good brand name that you know, Linksys, Netgear, etc. Don't buy the cheapy Trendnet or Airlink stuff.

I've used USB adapters long term before and got maybe a year out of one.

 

[evilsofa]

USB wireless adapters may have disconnection problems unless you use a powered hub:

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.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1495205&highlight=USB

 

[dmagro]

Thanks for the replies, I´ll steer clear of the USB devices as I really despise dropped connections.

 

[Lateralus]

I would choose PCI.

That being said, I have used several of the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless adapters with great success. Always used them plugged directly into a USB port; never used with a powered hub. Strong signal and no dropped connections. That is a very solid product IME.

However, I've had much less luck with the "USB stick" type adapters (example here). I've tried a Netgear unit similar to the one I linked, as well as several 3Com units at work. Pure junk. They may be OK for a laptop located close to a wireless router/AP, but based on my experience I can't recommend them at all.

 

[evilsofa]

That being said, I have used several of the Zonet ZEW2500P wireless adapters with great success. Always used them plugged directly into a USB port; never used with a powered hub. Strong signal and no dropped connections. That is a very solid product IME.

How fast was your internet connection? The one I got (yes, a Zonet ZEW2500P) would drop connections on my Verizon FIOS 15/5 connection, typically when viewing a Youtube video or downloading a large file, but did not drop connection at all on my brother-in-law's 768K DSL connection. My obvious conclusion is that more data = more power required, and that his connection was slow enough that it never needed more than 100mA, while my connection was fast enough to need more than 100mA.