I am considering upgrades to the family gaming desktop and my 5 year old laptop to use the 5 Ghz wi-fi option that my routers provide.

 

The desktop has a regular Zycel 2.4 GHz NIC. I am assuming that changing that up to a card that also handles the 5 GHz band, the kids can get a better, faster gaming experience. Correct?

 

Is a plug-in USB type 5 GHz network adapter a better option?

 

For the laptop, the USB dongle is the only way to go so any recommendations would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

NL

Depending on how far away from your router the laptop is, a 20 metre CAT6 cable from Lazada @ Bht 210 is far faster than any WiFI......1000Mb/s.

If its about gaming, ethernet (cable) is always best but if you can't have cables running around your 5 Ghz wifi is an option.

CAT cabling is an option but not a preference right now. Although the house was built with CAT5 (10 years ago?) outlets in each room, the actual wiring was never run since wi-fi was good enough and the wiring job went on a back-burner, then we moved away. It might be one of those jobs to do in the cooler months while I'm idle. I assume that the wall-mounted Haco brand LAN connectors will be OK and I just need to use CAT6 cable behind them?

 

The distance between the router and desktop is about 12 m through one, regular red-brick, cement-faced, interior wall. I will stick the router(s) up high in the corner of the master bedroom to see what signal improvement I get.

3 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Depending on how far away from your router the laptop is, a 20 metre CAT6 cable from Lazada @ Bht 210 is far faster than any WiFI......1000Mb/s.

It's 1000Mbs max if the router is a gigabit router. If not, he will get 100Mbs making the wifi a better option.

I just ordered this one..

https://shoptenda.com/product/tenda-u12-1300mbps-wireless-usb-network-cards-ac-dual-band-2-4g-5-0ghz-wifi-usb-network-adapterusb-3-0-gigabit-router-partner/

 

Lazada has it as well for B200 more but you will get it a lot faster.

23 minutes ago, Jeffrey346 said:

I just ordered this one..

https://shoptenda.com/product/tenda-u12-1300mbps-wireless-usb-network-cards-ac-dual-band-2-4g-5-0ghz-wifi-usb-network-adapterusb-3-0-gigabit-router-partner/

 

Lazada has it as well for B200 more but you will get it a lot faster.

It will support up to 1300Mb/s but that depends on what you put into it, as you said previously. I think most modern routers are Gigabit outputs.