What is the wi-fi adapter

Wi-Fi adapters are used to implement the wireless Internet connection on the devices in which such support is absent. The adapters are typically installed in the USB port of the computer, and are supported by the transmission speed and the reception level of the signal.

Types of adapters

In addition to USB adapters exist for PCI, PCI-Express and PCMCI adapters. They are a fully-fledged network card capable of transmitting data at speeds exceeding 600 Mbps. These devices are installed inside the computer and connected via the appropriate slot on the motherboard.

The advantage of USB adapters is their portability – they can easily be transferred and used in other computers. However, the speed of data transmission and the level of reception of the signal of such devices may be lower than those of expensive PCI-E cards. This is due to restrictions of the USB interface. It is worth noting that some USB adapters support connection speeds of 150 and 300 Mbps. Such indicators are usually enough for a home wireless network and a comfortable surfing the Internet.

Work with the device

The installation of the adapter is made in the appropriate slot on the computer case according to the instructions that comes with the device. After the installation of the device in the slot is set up, i.e. installing the necessary drivers to support wireless data transmission through the adapter in the system. The driver can be installed from the disk, which usually comes in one package with the device, or by downloading the driver installation file through the Internet from official website manufacturer. After the driver was installed, setup starts the network parameters, i.e. the existing access point to the Internet. The application of the parameters can be directly used on the computer system.

Choice

When choosing an adapter it is necessary to pay attention not only to its performance characteristics, but also on the company-manufacturer. The most popular and high-quality adapters are produced by such companies as D-Link, Asus, TP-Link, Zyxel, LinkSys. The most expensive models from these manufacturers have the opportunity to not only receive, but also the distribution of the Internet signal. Thus, some adapters can act as a routerso you can connect via phone or any other device to a wireless network Wi-Fi.

When choosing pay attention to the network standard that the device uses for data transmission. So, the fastest standard is 802.11 n, which supports data rate up to 600 Mbit/s when creating the ideal conditions.