Netgear Nighthawk WiFi adapter??

So, I recently picked up this Netgear Nighthawk Wi-Fi adapter, and I’m feeling a little bit lost regarding what its actual purpose is—I mean, from what I can gather, it acts like an external receiver for the Wi-Fi signal, right?
I suppose I'm wondering what the point of it really is, considering that almost every laptop out there nowadays comes with built-in Wi-Fi already

Here is the link

Look, not everyone is rolling with a laptop. A ton of people swear by their desktop setups because they can pack in those beefier processors and high-end graphics cards. If they're stuck without a way to just plug in a standard Ethernet cable, they'll just pop one of these into a USB port and boom—instant Wi-Fi.
A lot of laptop users actually prefer using an external adapter over the built-in Wi-Fi too, mostly because the antenna on these things is way better, giving you much better range.

Aha, I see—so that’s mostly intended for desktop setups, then.
I was actually wondering if I could potentially use it with a laptop? I tend to head out to my sister's place on the coast quite often, and the Wi-Fi signal in her bedroom is pretty much non-existent—just one measly little bar.
Do you think using an adapter like that would give me even a slightly better signal?

Brenda Cruz23 said:Aha, I see—so that’s mostly intended for desktop setups, then.
I was actually wondering if I could potentially use it with a laptop? I tend to head out to my sister's place on the coast quite often, and the Wi-Fi signal in her bedroom is pretty much non-existent—just one measly little bar.
Do you think using an adapter like that would give me even a slightly better signal?

Give it a shot, but honestly? It probably won't do jack for you.

Honestly, you might find it useful if you pick up a Netgear Nighthawk extender... but if you're just rocking a laptop, you definitely don't need it.

"A Wi-Fi booster"? And a Netgear Nighthawk at that?

The WN722N definitely has better range than the built-in Wi-Fi card in a laptop... I've tested it myself.

wearymason4 said:"A Wi-Fi booster"? And a Netgear Nighthawk at that?

The WN722N definitely has better range than the built-in Wi-Fi card in a laptop... I've tested it myself.

I don't know, maybe I just got lucky, but Netgear has always been rock solid for me. In my old place, my PC was about 115 feet away from the router—pretty far. Using that cheap TP-Link thing with the two antennas, I was barely pulling two bars. Then I popped in that Netgear, synced up with the router, and suddenly had a full signal on that new network halfway through the house.

So, look, we’re not actually talking about a Wi-Fi "amplifier" here—it’s a Wi-Fi range extender. Honestly? I wouldn't even touch one if I were you. I live in a crowded apartment complex, and let me tell you, Wi-Fi stability basically comes down to how much interference you're getting from everyone else on the same channel. It doesn't matter what brand you buy; most Wi-Fi devices are capped at 20dBm anyway.
Beyond just the AP mode option, those extenders basically cut your max speed in half. That’s not even counting the signal interference. If you've got a decent connection from your modem that's pulling more than 50Mbps, you’re going to feel that massive drop immediately.

wearymason4 said:So, look, we’re not actually talking about a Wi-Fi "amplifier" here—it’s a Wi-Fi range extender. Honestly? I wouldn't even touch one if I were you. I live in a crowded apartment complex, and let me tell you, Wi-Fi stability basically comes down to how much interference you're getting from everyone else on the same channel. It doesn't matter what brand you buy; most Wi-Fi devices are capped at 20dBm anyway.
Beyond just the AP mode option, those extenders basically cut your max speed in half. That’s not even counting the signal interference. If you've got a decent connection from your modem that's pulling more than 50Mbps, you’re going to feel that massive drop immediately.

Yeah, true. I've got fiber at 150Mbps... and I'm usually running my laptop, desktop, and TV all at once. Speedtest on the laptop shows 70, so maybe the TV grabs another 30... then the PC gets about 30 most of the time. So where's the other 20? Plus, I know my "150" isn't actually a clean 150.

You can't just stack those device speeds together because they aren't downloading data at the exact same moment.
A LAN connection is full duplex—meaning it handles sending and receiving data simultaneously. That’s nothing like WiFi, which basically takes one millisecond to receive and the next millisecond to send packets since it operates on a simplex principle.
Plus, if there's any other WiFi signal floating around nearby, the system has to wait for that noise to clear before it can push the next packet through... and honestly, that’s usually why your WiFi crawls, especially if you've got a bunch of different devices all fighting for space on the same channel.
If you're running a WiFi device in "n300" mode (that's a 40MHz width), you're looking at a practical speed of maybe 150Mbps under perfect conditions. But, if you toss a range extender in the middle to try and boost the range, that top speed is going to tank down to about 75Mbps. If those devices are stuck in "n150" mode, the speed is cut in half again, and don't even get me started on the old "g" standard...
Also, if your WiFi settings are set to "auto" for b, g, or n modes, the hardware will actually switch itself over to a slower mode if it detects interference. It does this because the slower modes have a bit more reach since their broadcast width is narrower.

Alright, thanks for clearing that up. Got it—N300 at 40MHz.