Advice on New Wireless Card/ Adapter

I have diagnosed my problem with slow download speeds and weak connection strength (< 30%) as being the USB wireless adaptor. It only picks up a decent signal when in the same room as the router, which is no use for the PC. My laptop has no signal or speed problems in the room the PC is in when using its PCMCIA wireless card.

Can anyone recommend a decent wireless card/adapter for my PC which will pick up a decent signal from a wireless router based only a few rooms away? I would prefer USB for convenience, but can go the PCI card route if it is necessary for a decent connection. Obviously I'd like to spend as little as possible to meet my requirements too. I knew a cheap USB adapter wasn't going to be brilliant but I never would have thought it would be an issue to connect properly to a wireless router 30ft away!

what do you have now ? Have you tried putting it on a USB extension and waving it about to find a better signal.

I have a Dynamode USB adapter. I've not got an extension cable to try doing that with unfortunately.

In reply to:

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I've not got an extension cable to try doing that with unfortunately.

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So get one ?

I might do, but I may as well buy a decent adaptor instead. I've tried the USB adapter in a laptop which can be moved around the room, and the signal is still very weak.The adapter is only any good when in the same room as the router. I need a decent one. Can a USB adapter be decent or do I need to go down the PCI route?

no reason a USB adapter should be bad because its USB. There's a finite number of wi-fi chips produced and the guts of a USB device could be the same as the guts of a PCI device.

My brother-in-law got such a usb adapter device - works from ground floor to first floor, but he had to move things around a bit with a (supplied) extension cable in order to achieve a solid connection.

One reason that a PCI card may have a stronger signal. (This is all theory based on the specification of USB vs PCI.) Less current available to the USB port compared to a PCI slot made even worse if other USB powered devices are sharing the USB.