Test wifi adapters

Hello all! And today we are parsing another letter with the question: "How to test wifi on a laptop". First of all we need to understand, and what exactly the person expects from the tests. And whether there are any initial problems with the connection. The article will be divided into several parts, in the first I will tell – a few options for turning on the Wi-Fi module. Then we will go through the problems that can arise when turning on the wifi adapter. At the very end, I will tell you how you can test the internet speed through such WiFi in two ways.

Rating of TOP 8 Wi-Fi adapters for TV: how to connect, review and characteristics of the best models 2023

Why do you need such a thing as a TV adapter? What models are the most popular at the moment? Let's get to the bottom of it.

Many people still look at the TV as a miracle, despite the fact that many years have passed since its creation.

Improving and improving, this technique is becoming more and more popular, there are interesting additions and attachments to them. Let's take a look at one of these devices.

What is a Wi-Fi adapter for TV?

TV Wi-Fi adapter – module, thanks to which the user can receive and send signals to a wireless wi-fi network according to specially created protocols and along a certain route: from the router to the TV port.

Synopsis! Smart TVs also have this feature: look for information on the box or in the manual.

• There are no interfering wires.
• The device Synchronizes easily with PCsNotebooks, cell phones, and other devices to send photos, videos, and audio files to the big screen.
  Imagine watching comedies with the whole family or flipping through family photos at a higher resolution!
• A cable connected to the router will deliver not only Internet but also TV over the network.
• You can control the device via a tablet or smartphone, but not every model supports this.

TOTOLINK N150PE

The cheapest model. Has support for all known standards of 2.4 GHz – 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11b. Works on all modern operating systems. It costs only 550 rubles. Maximum speed up to 150 Mbit per second. The antenna power is 20 dBm. Many people complain about connectivity problems if there is a budget router model at home.

TP-LINK TL-WN881ND

And so, we have a model adapter, not from some unknown company, but from itself – TP-Link. As it turned out, this is the most popular model on the Russian market. Also has support for only 2.4 GHz. The price is more expensive – 900 rubles. Supports speeds up to 300 Mbit per second. Antenna power – absolutely the same, but there are two, which can not but rejoice. The range is supposed to be a little wider.

Installing the Drivers

I'm not going to write that here, as I have a detailed article for all laptops. So go to this link. Don't mind that it is written for Windows 7, as it doesn't matter. The instructions explain in detail how to install drivers for all operating systems in the Microsoft family.

The easiest way, perhaps, is simply to connect to a wireless network with the Internet and go to any site. If it sinks in fast enough, and you don't see any problems – then the module is probably working correctly. You can also go to any video hosting like YouTube and try watching videos.

To check the internet speed you can use our "tester" which you should see just above. For a more detailed speed test – go through all 4 tests one by one. But there is a small problem in that you check the speed of the Internet this way, not the Wi-Fi.

Let me remind you that the Internet and WiFi are different things. The second one is just a wireless local area network that exists in a certain area. The principle is that if you disconnect the internet – for example, pull the internet cord out of the router – the wifi will also exist. What I'm saying is that if you really want to check the speed specifically within the local network over Wi-Fi, you do it differently. I have already written a separate and very detailed instruction about it here.

Problem with connection

Here we need to understand right away what is wrong. To solve the problem with the connection via Wi-Fi we have a separate article here. It describes almost all the basic options for when a wireless network fails to work.

It happens when the Wi-Fi works, but there is no Internet, and you see a sign on the connection "No access to the Internet. The connection may also have a yellow triangle on top. And there is a separate article on this problem. So welcome to it.

TrashExpert's Wi-Fi Adapter Rating

TP-Link Archer T9UH

TP-Link Archer T9UH (AC1900) has the best overall performance among all tested adapters. As a result, the home office wall is almost transparent to the signal. The T9UH is 12.5mm thick and 87.5mm long when closed, and about 150mm tall when open. You can connect it directly to a laptop or use the included USB 3.0 cradle. A small blue LED on the adapter indicates that it is working.

On a 5 GHz 802.11ac network, the signal improvement averaged 11 dB in four places, and there was the smallest overall speed loss. There were times when the speeds in the office were faster than those near the router. This may depend on the load from the other users. This shows that the T9UH is capable of going through a wall. The adapter did not work well on a 2.4 GHz network and refused to connect to it over a couple of meters, so don't use a 2.4 GHz network with it. It is good for boosting a 5 GHz signal. The T9UH was the winner among the tested adapters.

2. D-Link DWA-X1850 Wi-Fi 6

The first Wi-Fi 6 USB adapter extends the 2.4 GHz range, but does not give record peak speeds. Testing the D-Link AX1850 with the Wi-Fi 6 router and measuring its signal strength showed theoretical advantages over the Wi-Fi 5. Maybe because this AX1800 device is slightly slower than its AC1900 competitors, those advantages didn't translate into higher data transfer speeds over distance.

3. Netgear Nighthawk AC1900

Windows

Some of the commands run only through PowerShell, the other part works fine in the standard command line as well.
It is possible to generate an automatic report, but it is not very informative.

It is possible to collect a raw dump of wireless traffic, but even if you find a suitable adapter, you will have to try hard. One of the ways is described here.

Information about the current connection (signal level, channel, BSSID, etc.)

Detailed network scan results (SSID, BSSID, channels, levels)

List of known networks in order of connection priority:

Get-NetRoute -DestinationPrefix "0.0.0.0/0" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "NextHop"

Get-NetRoute -DestinationPrefix "::/0" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "NextHop"

Generate automatic report (administrator rights required)

Automate this

The manual commands are inconvenient, so I wrote a script in python which automatically collects all the necessary diagnostics from macOS and Linux. Windows is in the plans.

In addition, the availability of user-selected resources (gateway, 8.8.8.8, facebook.com, etc.) is checked, and a handy report in several formats (markdown, json, plaintext) is saved to disk.

All source code is open, MIT-licensed – use it at your pleasure, or better yet, come back to counter-buy it.

As I wrote, this question could be worth a separate article. Or a series of articles.
I'll leave the canonical diagram from the WirelessLANProfessionals' trablushing guide as an introduction.

Ugreen CM4926 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Adapter Review: the ultimate gadget to save an old laptop

You may not believe it, but I'm still using a laptop that turned 11 years old this year. For its age, the laptop has held up well, but not without its losses. Lately, I've been concerned about the WiFi connection and occasionally getting network dropouts. And if we take into account the fact that other devices in the network worked in normal mode, then most probably the problem was with the standard WiFi controller. And at one point it had to be replaced by Ugreen AC1300 Dual-Band, and the result is shown below.

At first I disassembled the laptop and cleaned the pins of the WiFi board and maybe it helped for a while. Or maybe I thought it did. But still the laptop worked on the wireless connection without any dips. But since mid-October, the wireless connection just disappeared for no reason and the controller itself was just missing from devices and hardware. Searching for devices and reinstalling drivers didn't solve the problem, so it worked for a while on a wired connection. And for that I even had to remember where the crimp and connectors were and remember the combination (BO/OR/BZ/C… OK/K). To update my laptop in my plans did not enter, as it suits me completely as a working typewriter and a screen diagonal of 17.3 inches. In the toys I do not play, if only in Saper.

That is why I decided to order an external WiFi adapter with USB connection. As an option, I will need it in the future if I will use a computer. In addition to that, the USB adapter supports dual band mode, WPS connection and the declared working speed up to 1300 Mbps.

Technical specifications

• the chip installed is RTL8812AU;
• USB3.0 connection interface;
• Built-in Wi-Fi antenna – 2T2R;
• Operating frequencies – 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz;
• Wireless connectivity standards – IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/a, IEEE 802.11 ac;
• transmission speed – 5.8 GHz: 900 Mbps; 2.4 GHz: 400 Mbps;
• supported encryption modes – WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, 64/128 WEP;
• compatibility with operating systems – Windows / mac OS / Linux;
• Built-in WPS button – Yes.

How CHIP tests Powerline adapters

To get near real-world results, we test the adapters in a private apartment at a baseline 1 and at four different test points 2 — 5 . You will find the test results for all adapters in the summary table at the end of the material on the next page.

What's slowing down Powerline

Between the baseline 1 and the test point 2 the connection is good – equal phase and no interference. The reference point 3 is in a different phase, causing a phase shift А . The control point 4 is at a distance, and the point 5 there is interference B .

Test results

The good news is that Powerline adapters have become fast enough, even in adverse conditions, to stream HD video from a NAS or computer to a content playback device located completely elsewhere in the apartment without delay.

On the other hand, this technology, when copying large data sets, is more or less comparable in speed with a gigabit wired network, and only if it is not necessary to travel long distances and there are no sources of interference in the way – otherwise it is better to use a network cable.

An interesting option for the home would be to combine the high speed standard Homeplug AV2 in Wi-Fi signal boosters and fast ac-Wi-Fi.

The winner of the test is the adapter AVM FritzPowerline 1000E. Among the participants of the test it is the only one that provides high performance up to 1000 Mbit/s. At the same time it consumes the least amount of power.

The disadvantage of lack of built-in socket can be ignored. This device is rare on the Russian market, but you can buy it, for example, on computeruniverse.ru.

On the price/quality ratio wins Zyxel PLA5215. This inexpensive device shows decent performance and is equipped with a built-in power outlet.

PHOTO: Klaus Satzinger; manufacturing companies

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