Fibre Broadband and Wireless Adapters

[#1]

I have a few queries since upgrading to Fibre last week. I using the supplied Netgear N150 Wireless Router along with the BT-supplied modem.  I had to connect up the router myself as it hadn't arrived by the time the engineer did. Speeds have been very 'up and down' since I had it which I can understand at first but also seems to vary with one particular desktop PC which is experiencing poor wifi connectivity (often low signal) and therefore very low speed, often around 3 or 4mbps.
I have a few questions initially. The N150 supports Wireless-N and Wireless-G. If I wanted to purchase a new USB wireless adapter around the £20 mark what type would be recommended to try and improve my speed.
I have seen a Wiress-N 150mbps 802.11n high gain OR one which says 802.11n 300mbps (which is cheaper) or can Plusnet recommend one?
Also on the Netgear site is says the N150 is an ADSL Router (modem + router combined).. Why is it that with fibre it can't be used this way and you need the separate modem?
I have no extension kit. I ordered one at the time but given the location of my modem/router, one wasn't used.
Any advice, specific or general around this area and how I can make it better would be good.
Is it to be expected that WIFI speeds would be less than wired?
Thanks for any replies I may get.
Nick

[#2]

Welcome to the forums
Wireless will almost always be less than wired the headline speed that you see (e.g. 300mbps) needs to be halved and over heads taken off so at best under totally ideal conditions you'd expect to get max of 75mbps.
However there are very few cases where you can expect ideal, move the pc more than about 8 feet away and you lose signal strenght and therefore throughput, interference from other electrical appliances and your speed will drop off noticeably.
To get the best wireless signal you'd need a 5GHz banded router and adapter as this is less prone to interferance and also less common - but is more expensive and you'd need new adapters for all your kit.
If your pc is static, i.e. not a laptop it might be worth looking into powerline adapters to get an improved speed, getting a better wireless signal would be difficult.
As to why you can't get a fibre modem and router all in one i'm not sure, but all suppliers are like this both in this country and abroad.

[#3]

Thanks for the quick response. The powerline adapters are certainly an option but I will try and dismiss the wireless adapter first if I can. I seem to get better signals off laptops in the house so wondering if it's just the wireles PCI-card I have in the desktop which is not very good. Another option is for me to move the modem/router into the same room as the desktop but I would have needed the extension cabling for that.
Question. If it's ok to use extension cabling from the master socket (up to 30m ?) then why is it not also ok to use secondary telephone sockets to plug the modem into? That would have been my ideal solution as the previous modem was plugged into a secondary socket which meant it was closer to the desktop but now I am told the fibre modem has to be plugged into the master socket. Is this crucial for it to work properly?
Thanks again
Nick

[#4]

If the aerial on your desktop PC wireless card is a short,fixed one, the signal is probably weakened by all the metal in the PC chassis. It is possible to buy high gain antennas which are connected to the card by cable so that the antenna can be positioned away from the body of the PC. Worked for me when I couldn't get a reliable wireless signal on an upstairs PC.

[#5]

That sounds like good advice too. Thanks. Don't know if I can just connect one to my adapter but I will have a look later.  Also the nature of the pci card/aerial is that it tend to be low to the floor and next to a wall so can't be ideal.

[#6]

The cheapo wireless card I was using had a detachable aerial - I bought an aerial which had 1 m cable with an SMA connector which fitted straight onto the screw fitting -think I paid around £10 a few years back.

[#7]

Or if you use a USB wireless adaptor, put it on the end of a USB extension cable rather than plugged directly into the PC.

[#8]

My daughter has improved her wireless signal with one these.
http://is.gd/VEGyaQ

[#9]

Thanks to everyone for their replies so far, gives me a few thing to consider.

[#10]

Having recently had fibre installed, I definitely see improved performance if wired compared to wireless. I lose about 10M of speed on average, but that could partly be down to capping in peak hours.
My desktop is a fair distance away from the router and the onboard wireless card was hopeless. It couldn't keep a stable connection to save its life. I bought a TP-Link TL-WN822N 300MBPS High Gain Wireless N USB Adapter and it has proved to be a godsend and enabled me to get back to online gaming. I can see the wifi signals from half the street (!) and I get good speeds too.
Worth a look on reputable sites and should retail between around £10-15.

[#11]

A few things that I think have not been answered so far, or not fully...
I don't know for sure that the N150 is an ADSL modem/router. But even if it is, FTTC uses a different modem standard (VDSL), which ADSL modems cannot handle. For that reason, you generally need a separate VDSL modem (the BT box). VDSL modem/routers do exist but are a) expensive b) not really 'allowed' as BT are responsible for up to and including the VDSL modem.
VDSL squeezes a lot more out of the wires it runs over (from the cabinet to the modem). In order to be reliable, it needs as few connections as possible, which is why it isn't 'possible' to connect the VDSL modem to anything except the master socket. However, there are things you can do... such as a) use a longer phone/modem cable between the master socket and the VDSL modem (use a good quality one) - which is all that a data extension kit is b) use a longer ethernet cable between the VDSL modem and the router c) both!
The router that plusnet supply is just a cheap router and as such it does not have the ultimate in wireless performance - though it will be quite sufficient for many situations, and it might well be fine for yours, if it is the case that your wireless adapter is the weak link. For a desktop, assuming wired is out of the question, I would be looking either for a PCI card wireless adapter that has at least one and preferably three external aerials, or a USB adapter that can be repositioned so that you can experiment to see where the best reception is. Whichever you go for, you can't benefit from a 300Mbps adapter with your current router, or from a 5GHz adapter either - both will work, neither will do any harm and they may be no more expensive. Don't rule out the powerline adapters either.

[#12]

Thanks again for the very detailed and helpful replies to this. Really does help a lot even it's just to explain a few things and give me ideas.
My main problem with my set-up is the inconvenient place the builders of the house put the master socket (IMO). It's basically in the Living room but almost behind the door therefore cabling (phone cable or lan cable) to a different/better location would mean going via the front door  which is tricky/messy but not something I've dismissed completely. I could at least test it out prior to drilling holes etc.
I have currently got a USB wireless adapter plugged (via a cable) into the PC (USB 2.0) and that is marginally better than the PCI card but still not great. I like the idea of the high gain USB adapter. If it really does get a much better reception that sounds worth a shot otherwise I am sticking wires over my front door!
Thanks again all
Nick.