Advice on a wireless card (USB)

Crash Override

Okay so I have a Sitecom USB adapter 54G Turbo g WL-172 #2 802.11 bg WLAN.

It's about 4 years old and I have a feeling it's not exactly the best one you can get. The problem really is that It keeps dropping out and can sometimes take forever to reconnect.

Please note: I have checked that my PC is not turning off the device to save power or anything like that. I posted a thread a while ago and nobdy seemed to know why it kept dropping out. I'm confident that the Wireless USB is the problem because my sisters laptop never drops out, I know it's a build in WLAN card and is expected to be stronger but still.

I've come to the conclusion that it's just on it's way out.

So I was thinking of heading Maplins or something during the week to pick up a new one. I just want to know, what one should I get that's Faster and better at picking up signals than my current one? I'm not sure how the b and g letters work on things like that. Also does it matter what router I have? It's a ZyXEL but my Wireless USB is Sitecom so I wouldn' think so.

Crash Override

Bump

akamossie

all wireless usb adapters are compatible with any router, and mostly support a/b/g and the new one is n.

i am guessing you have an old router which i mean doesnt support N, so make sure dont buy it as it will a little expensive.

to be honest any adapter should be fine, i myself use an adapter from the company called Buffalo. Not sure if they sell them in Maplin but pretty good and works fine.

Crash Override

akamossie wrote: »

i am guessing you have an old router which i mean doesnt support N, so make sure dont buy it as it will a little expensive.

Did you mean that I shouldn't buy an 'n' Wireless card because my router is prob too old (which it is - ZyXEL p-600 series) to support 'n'?

I would be under the assumption that If I bought a Wireless card that supported 'n' , that it would support a/b/g as well?

akamossie

it does support all the bands a/b/g/n but it would too expensive and not getting much out of it, thats why i advise to buy a cheaper where it support a/b/g as your router is old

bonzodog2

An 'n' card will work with a 'g' router but you won't get any advantage. An 'n' router will only run at 'n' speed if all connected devices are 'n'. Get a cheaper 'g' dongle.

Viper_JB

Crash Override wrote: »

Did you mean that I shouldn't buy an 'n' Wireless card because my router is prob too old (which it is - ZyXEL p-600 series) to support 'n'?

I would be under the assumption that If I bought a Wireless card that supported 'n' , that it would support a/b/g as well?

I would buy a 802.11n one off of ebay or dealextreme it'll cost you less then a tenner and should arrive within the week off of ebay (depending on the buyer) the n ones are pretty much the same price, so there are no advantages to buying a g card, just doesn't make sense.

It will be backwards compatable with g and b based networks as it uses the same frequency.