The Kestrel Minority

Hey guys/girls,

I just bought a new computer and unfortunately where I live there are only Wireless Network's available to us (Curse the tight government!) so I had to order a Wireless LAN Card for it as well. However, the signal is not nearly as good as I was receiving on my Laptop (Which is going on 3 years old at this point!)

I've been looking around on the internet for a wireless card that might be a little better as I'm currently using a TP-Link TL-WN851N (Allegedly 300Mbps On 'N') PCI adaptor.

It appears to be a good enough signal in-games but to download anything I'm hitting speeds of only about 300kbp/s compared to about 600-700 kbp/s on the Laptop (The ISP here is rubbish!)

Does anyone on here use a Wireless Adaptor for their PC?

Also, does anyone have any idea what is better: A PCI-Adaptor or a USB-Adaptor?

Also, on another sidenote, despite the fact it is a TP-Link manufactured adaptor my device manager INSISTS it is a 'Atheros AR922X' and I'm having great difficulty getting window's to uninstall that driver without it automatically reinstalling a driver for it!

Thanks

'scratches head' have you tried rebooting...

Well.. I tried hitting it with a rock but that didn't work

Ah! the old rock in a sock approach.

Hmm.. that's strange. For the driver issue you have to disable Windows' automatic driver installer. I'm assuming you have Vista or 7, right? This is one of those big /facepalm things about Windows: making this so damn hard. Try this:

Go to Start–>Search type in gpedit.msc

Click the file to open the Local Group Policy Editor

You want to go here: Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->System->Device Installation. Click on the subfolder Device Installation on the left and on the right side you will see the possible restrictions.

Right Click on Prevent Installation of Devices not described by other policy settings and edit this option, set it on ENABLED.

Reboot Windows open gpedit.msc again and revert the change so you will be able to install your driver.


I couldn't try this myself since my own PC fried and I'm using my girlfriends MacBook. I accept condolences for this, by the way.

Nilat wrote:I'm using my girlfriends MacBook. I accept condolences for this, by the way.

I thought I had problems!


Thank's for the advice! Going to try it now! I will let you know of the outcome, trying to circumvent Window's own Skynet-Rivalling A.I. is like trying to get a release date on TOR though!

Nilat wrote:I couldn't try this myself since my own PC fried and I'm using my girlfriends MacBook. I accept condolences for this, by the way.

Ah, you're using the one that works and never has driver issues, right? (I mean the Macbook, not your girlfriend, even if it possibly applies to both)
I'll stop right there. I'm not one to get into this discussion but couldn't leave it

Anyways, I have better experiences with PCI cards than with USB ones so I'd recommend the former rather than the latter.

The connection seems to be better today, maybe it was quite busy on the demand last night for some bizarre midweek downloading!


Anyway, some cable tidying and pci-slot swapping seems to have resolved the issue... for now...

Slide wrote:Ah, you're using the one that works and never has driver issues, right? (I mean the Macbook, not your girlfriend, even if it possibly applies to both)
I'll stop right there. I'm not one to get into this discussion but couldn't leave it

She doesn't work and she's a terrible driver so according to your logic, she's worse than a MacBook!

But in reality, actually, using her MacBook is actually not half bad. I mean for the kind of stuff I do now (browsing, writing job applications etc) it's ace. It's refreshing to use an OS which does not make me groan by its idiocy every two days!

Nilat wrote: I couldn't try this myself since my own PC fried.

Ah so your PC fried itself, my old one PC cooked its own chips in January Blowing the Mobo and all 3 HDD's including an external 2TB one I had to cry with that last one.

The Good thing is my Monitor was unharmed but had to wait a whole week to get a new PC. I went for a Monster PC I will refrain from typing the SPecs unless you ask me.

oh back on topic about WLAN cards, I personally prefer a wired connetction, but thats just me, though two laptops on my netwrk are connected through the Router Wirelessly.

P.S. Nilat I noticed you put your location as Aberystywth, wow so close