January 19, 201511 yr Last mid year our PC took a dive, and we had to purchase another PC for our home, and it was kind of a blessing in disguise as this PC I am now typing on, is pretty danged cool, it's like a new pair of glasses. Our old PC was purchased in 2006, so it was old as far as PC's go, but a good PC, a Gateway, heavy as heck too! This is the 3rd time we have replaced a PC in the 23 years we have been married, so we are doing pretty good by making them last. And as we replace them, we'll hold on to the tower for a couple years till it finally just gets in our way, and we'll run down and dispose it at the electronics recycle yard across town, minus the hard drive, I hold onto those. I held onto our last PC, and yesterday, (I was supposed to be working on my rocker) I plugged it in and decided to do some first aid on it. Long story short it works pretty good. Good enough to make it a shop PC, not too worried about dust and such, I'll break open the rear panel and blow it out every other month, and I am keeping it covered during non use. The only problem was I did not have internet, these days a PC is virtually useless without some communication to the world, so I was scratching my head, thought of hard wiring internet to my shop PC from our box in our home, no, too lazy to do that, then I came across this device, NETGEAR N600 Dual Band WiFi USB Adapter WNDA3100 I purchased it at Staples office supply locally for 38 bucks, inserted the disc into my pc, followed the instructions and plugged in the WiFi USB and in 5 minutes I had internet in my shop! This is a pretty big deal for me on many fronts, but I am a really happy camper now. I may get a voyure camera now and podcast activity in my shop! The old PC had limited wireless options, and connecting with a router wirelessly was not one of them, it was too early of a PC to have it. My wife has a laptop that hooks right up to our WiFi, our two older children who have cell phones hook right up to our household Wifi, but that old PC just did not have the capacity. Download and Upload speeds are the same out in the shop as they are at our family PC, I do not notice any deprecation in internet speed at all. That being said, the shop PC is not that far away from our WiFi, as the crow flies it's about 25 feet, through one wall. But hey, a very cheap way to get Wifi to a PC that is not set up for wireless connections! The old PC is running Vista for your reference.
January 19, 201511 yr These are great little devices! I carry one in my computer repair bag for helping to diagnose connectivity problems.
January 19, 201511 yr Author If I only had a WiFi router..... My stuff is about as old..... Does your comm company provide your router Larry?
January 19, 201511 yr Author These are great little devices! I carry one in my computer repair bag for helping to diagnose connectivity problems. Pretty cool stuff Lew. I know it's been around a long time, but not till I actually needed one did I really look into it. I cannot believe there seems to be no loss at all in connectivity and download upload speeds via this tiny usb contraption.
January 19, 201511 yr Prior to upgrading most of the desktop PCs at my school, we used these devices in just about every classroom. They worked great even for streaming videos and multimedia stuff. With mine, I can even get connectivity two houses away
January 19, 201511 yr Sounds great John. I have a wifi router myself and my phone even runs off it most of the time, This computer I type on is a 2007 gateway. Unfortunately though I have not had as good of luck with it. I have had to replace virtually EVERYTHING in it except the motherboard and processor. I have also been through a half dozen or so keyboards and 3-4 monitors. They last just long enough to go out of warranty and they die. Yea we all know how that goes LOL. I have even replaced the hard drive 3 times LOL, but once was on me because i just wanted to upgrade, the other 2 failed so I am hoping against hope I don't have anymore issues, or I will be without one, as I cannot afford to get another. If something inexpensive dies like a video card, I can take care of that, but something that is going to cost 100-150 or more I cannot do it anymore. I just don't get enough money.
January 20, 201511 yr We have been using those for sometime at work on computers that don't have built in WiFi. I even have one on my Smart TV so I can get the Internet on the TV. Just recently put a TV in the shop and connected to my Directv and I can get music along with all the other junk on it. I don't watch it unless I am doing a mindless task like sanding.
January 21, 201511 yr John and John, I am clueless about things like this. If I put a smart tv in the shop, I can get internet on it with that gadget? Or, If I take my wifi laptop to the shop it will do what? I can already get a signal from my wifi router out there.
January 22, 201511 yr John and John, I am clueless about things like this. If I put a smart tv in the shop, I can get internet on it with that gadget? Or, If I take my wifi laptop to the shop it will do what? I can already get a signal from my wifi router out there. If you have a wifi router for your computer that this can connect to then yes. Most routers these days do have wifi connectivity but if you have a router that is 5 or more years old, it may not. Since you say you can get a signal out there already, then yep just plug this thing into the smart TV and let it connect or follow the prompts it gives you
January 22, 201511 yr Author Gene, like Charles said, yes you can get an internet connection on your smart tv out in the shop, the smart tv has wireless built into it. What do you want to use our smart tv for out there, streaming videos? Your laptop can do what it does, get internet out in your shop. So based on your question, your devices have wireless built into them, so no need for the gadget.
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