WiFi range

Hello, I have a toshiba satellite A300 laptop, and I want to be able to connect to routers which are far away from the laptop.

I found this TP-Link TL-WN722NC Wireless USB Adapter N150 (150Mbps, MIMO) -

Will it extend the range? If yes, about how far awai should I be able to get a signal with this?
Thanks in advance.

 

It's unlikely to help. You'd be better off replacing an internal card in your laptop with a better one.
If you insist on an external card go for a high powered one (something like this one).

Also remember that the signal has to travel both ways- so while your super-card may be able to transmit to the router- the router has to have enough transmit power to reach you- so even with a high powered card there's no guarantee.

Since I have no idea what distances are we talking about, I can't be any more specific.

 

Eehh, 30 meters I guess. I can detect the network with my laptop, but the problem is, the signal is too low, and sometimes it disconnects because of that, and when it connects, it's slow of course.

Btw, why do you say so? There are 7 reviews on the product, and they all say it works great, and one reviewer claims he can get signal from 300(!) meters away, although that is too hard to believe

PS: I am thinking about that, because it says the antenna is wireless. So I will have a USB plugged in to my laptop, but I can move the antenna anywhere to get better signal.

 

Well the antenna isn't great on TP-Link. It's better than normal USB Wi-Fi card with an internal antenna but it's not necessarily any better than what you have in your laptop already. TP-Link has 5dB gain antenna while Alfa I linked to has 9dB gain.

Also transmit power on Alfa is significantly higher (TP-Link has normal transmit power within Wi-Fi Org standards).

Don't get me wrong- TP-Link in question is quite a good card but it's not really a high-power card for long distances- then again 30m is not that far away.

If I was to make a purchase I would buy an internal card like Intel 5300 or 6200 and replace whatever you have in your notebook now. It would be more convenient to use and no worse than TP-Link (and possibly better).

 

That can only happen outdoors with line of sight view and no obstruction maybe then you can get 300' that is the only way that can happen in theory.

 

The problem is, -even though I have no idea how to do that, I could possibly search it on the net- that I don't see any electronic store selling internal WiFi cards! :|

 

There are lots of mini-PCI Express cards on eBay.

 

Is the Alfa unit (above) that you linked to useful when traveling?

I got my Intel Centrino 6205 from eBay (for my X220 laptop, which had a Centrino 1000). Since Lenovo white-lists wifi cards, I made sure it was a Lenovo specific unit.

You mentioned the older Intel 5300 and 6200 units, in the context of distance. Are they really better than the 6205/1000 for being able to get stable wifi i/o from a nearby router?

 

That depends on where are you traveling. If the router has week radio (and hotel routers are usually as cheap as it gets) even the best high-powered card won't help a bit.

There's almost no difference between 6200 and 6205 so I treat it as one card. I mentioned 5300, 6200 and there's also 6300 because these are the only good cards Intel has ever produced. People seem to think that Intel cards are good but most of them are useless.

As for replacing a 1000 with a 6205-good call.