Will NIC speed up my wifi connection

[Doug8765]

I have been gifted with a network interface card - NIC. The giver said to me that it will speed up my wifi connection. Is this true?

My family's house has a Netgear Orbi wifi setup. I get network access, but it is not very fast, at least for me. My computer is a Dell desktop. I don't do anything that requires large bandwidth, like games. Mostly I read news stories and Excel spreadsheet work.

Should I just install the NIC and see if it makes a difference?

Thanks for your help.

Doug8765

 

[Gabriel Pike]

It is possible you could get a better connection from a new NIC. How does your desktop connect currently to the network?
Also what model is the new NIC?

 

[DelJo63]

Lets be clear -- the NIC runs at the speed of your Router Lan connections while the WiFi is independent and runs at the 802.11* protocol speed

 

[DelJo63]

The slowness of your Orbi is part of the network design used to make it work. The more stations chained off the primary, the slower it gets -- by design.

 

[Doug8765]

It is possible you could get a better connection from a new NIC. How does your desktop connect currently to the network?
Also what model is the new NIC?

My desktop connects to a NetGear Orbi router, which uses oval shaped repeaters to create a wifi network. The new NIC is a tp-link 300Mbps WirelessN PCI Express Adapter.
Thanks for your help.

Doug8765

 

[Doug8765]

Hi -

Lets be clear -- the NIC runs at the speed of your Router Lan connections while the WiFi is independent and runs at the 802.11* protocol speed

You have been repeatedly helpful over a long period of time; thank you.

What is the impact that has on me using a NIC to speed up my network connection?

I live with 3 generations of 7 human folk, all attached to this Netgear Orbi household network, playing games (with direct, non-wifi connections), watching YouTube, movies, TV shows, and me playing music from YouTube. Weekends are everybody at the same time, but weekdays usage is sporadic and dispersed.

My Dell 8930 is an Intel Core i7-8700 3.2GHz with 16 GB memory. I also have two monitors setup to use the two screens as a single desktop. I don't tax it really. I was doing a lot more spreadsheet work when I bought it. Mostly browsing and Word. I enjoy it.

I always have Task Manager up and usually it is visible. Usually I kill the browser when its memory is sucked up by the browser - and then restart, but that's not the point. The point is that fairly often there's little going on at all in Task Manager and still I'm waiting for pages to load. So I'm assuming that it's the darn wifi.

I'll answer what questions I can. Thanks.

Doug8765

 

[DelJo63]

May I suggest:

1. use Firefox as your browser
2. under the Privacy settings,

Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed

when you Quit the browser

This will eleminate an accumulation of them that no one needs. I've setup my wife's browser and mine to behave this way which also contribs to security.

 

[Endymio]

Are you sure your desktop doesn't already have a wired ethernet port?

You can do an online speed test to see what sort of bandwidth you're getting already. If you're just unhappy because your browser seems sluggish (and since you have Task Manager up already) check what sorts of CPU and disk utilizations you're seeing. It may need be a bandwidth problem at all.

 

[DelJo63]

@Endymio; Did you note the Orbi Mesh router??

 

[Endymio]

Yes....and?

 

[DelJo63]

The Orbi Mesh system exhibits a 1/n^2 degredation for every extra node

 

[Endymio]

The Orbi Mesh system exhibits a 1/n^2 degredation for every extra node

No, not truel. First of all, mesh networks experience degradation for every extra hop, not per extra node. Secondly, an inverse-square degradation is a worst-case scenario which rarely occurs. Third, and most importantly, when I suggested there may be other potential bottlenecks, I certainly wasn't discounting the router -- which is why I suggested he perform a bandwidth check.

 

[DelJo63]

Read the the spec. The design is very 'talkitive' and needs to communicate uplink info to every downlink. All nodes at the same level sufferer alike while those downstream will be worse. Node vs Hop?

 

[Endymio]

I'm familiar with the spec. The assumption that he's more multiple hops away from the base is unwarranted, and even if he is, there should still be enough bandwidth to not cause basic web browsing to be extremely slow. If the problem is indeed the Wifi and not something else, it's more likely a signal strength issue than mesh overhead.

In any case -- assumptions aren't needed here. Data is. A simple bandwidth test will determine if it's network or system related. If it's the network, then repeat the test again with a wired connection. That should allow the issue to be diagnosed.

 

[DelJo63]

We all have opinions, you, me and the O.P.

 

[Doug8765]

Are you sure your desktop doesn't already have a wired ethernet port?

You can do an online speed test to see what sort of bandwidth you're getting already. If you're just unhappy because your browser seems sluggish (and since you have Task Manager up already) check what sorts of CPU and disk utilizations you're seeing. It may need be a bandwidth problem at all.

Hi Endymio -
Yes, I'm sure there's no wire going from my computer to the access point for the house's internet connection.

Thanks.
Doug8765

 

[Doug8765]

May I suggest:

1. use Firefox as your browser
2. under the Privacy settings,

Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed

when you Quit the browser

This will eleminate an accumulation of them that no one needs. I've setup my wife's browser and mine to behave this way which also contribs to security.

Thank you. So just put the NIC in the box with all the other old computer parts.

Doug8765

 

[Endymio]

Hi Endymio -
Yes, I'm sure there's no wire going from my computer to the access point for the house's internet connection.

That's not what I meant. Most Dell desktops have a port to allow a wired connection, whether or not you are using it at present.

Do this. Google "internet speed test" and run one of the online tests. If you're paying for 100mb or better broadband, and the results of that test are much less than what your ISP says you should be getting, then you have a problem, probably with the wireless portion of your network.

 

[DelJo63]

IF you endup with multiple interfaces, you will need to ensure you physically connect the new one to your router. It is helpful to disable the other via the Device Mgr

 

[Doug8765]

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.