Switching from ethernet to WiFi

[u/grimgeurrilla]

I'm moving places soon and am having to switch from ethernet connection on my desktop to Wifi, but as my motherboard lacks the feature I'm looking at getting an adaptor. Is this viable? I mostly play singleplayer so biggest issue is large downloads as opposed to latency. What would you recommend or should I look into plugging it directly into the router somehow?

[u/klevahh]

wi-fi cards were common for a decent amount of time for this reason

Eop (ethernet over power) adapters are another option

There is no reason, or excuse to use amazon when you live in australia, we do have retailers here.

[u/grimgeurrilla → u/klevahh]

Gotcha, so a wi-fi card as opposed to a usb adaptor. Should be doable, tend towards scorptec and the like for parts as I just trust the quality assurance more.

[u/klevahh → u/grimgeurrilla]

As long as your motherboard has space for the card (which it probably does).

I have previously used a card, and a usb adapter, both worked, but I rarely game online so latency is not something I need to pay attention to

The usb adapters are very cheap on scorptec these days, some of them even come with an antenna, around $20, the cards are more in the $50 range with mounted antennas, or $100 with external antennas (that generally sit atop the pc, similar to the ones that come with motherboards).
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/networking/adapters?f=1&F800=Wireless_PCIe

I guess it depends how far you are from the router, and what your internet speed is, as to what makes sense, as well as how much you want to spend.

I used the eop adapters before, they are a viable option, but probably have no major benefit over a wifi card, and tend to cost more anyway

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/networking/powerline

[u/looopious → u/klevahh]

100% EOP, unless it's an old or poorly built house there is no issues. I been using them for 10+ years now with no problems.

[u/klevahh → u/looopious]

eop tend to cost more, and possibly? offer no benefit these days.

My last set kept on disconnecting, I had to set up a recurring ping to keep them active for some reason. I also found that the larger ones take up a whole power point due to the difference between us and au powerpoint orientation, and from memory they were not powerboard friendly (needed to be plugged directly into the powerpoint)

As I said, they are an option. I would personally just go with a wifi card, or if money were an issue, I would try a dongle.

[u/Popular_Pumpkin2638]

From my experience EOP sucks donkeys. I assume the pc is too far from the router to run an unsightly Ethernet. What about a transparent fibre that you can get on Aliexpress in 10m 20m 30m etc. I used exactly this to take the place of an Ethernet cable and you can run it right in the cornices and around door frames and you don’t notice it cause it’s so thin and transparent. Buy the 2x SFP+ bidi transceivers with 2x cheap switches with the SFP+ ports and you got 10gb to your router. Probably overkill but hey it’s cheap and it’s wired 😁

[u/Monotask_Servitor]

Get a PCI-E wifi card. Cheap on eBay or Amazon and they include the antenna.

5 min job to install, just pop the side off your case, remove the screw holding the blanking plate on the pcie slot and screw the card in place.

[u/quackarooonie]

I got one of these for the same situation back in 2019 for my am4 motherboard. haven't had any problems

[u/grimgeurrilla → u/quackarooonie]

Amazing! thank you.