Dongle for PC

[#1]

I am having Plusnet FTTC broadband installed soon. My PC is not adapted for wireless broadband but I would like to connect it to the new Netgear N150 router wire less. Can anyone advise me what dongle spec. I should aim to buy so as not to lose the speed benefit of fibre to cabinet .
trymyluck

[#2]

Would that be as in "The modem in the Netgear N150 Wireless Modem Router DGN1000..."
It connects to your telephone line (ADSL2), not to an ethernet style connection from your cable modem.
BTW I doubt that a N150 device ever reaches 150Mbs - the g standard is supposed to be able to do 54Mbs, but is lucky to achive 20Mbs.

[#3]

I think the OP wants to connect his (non-wireless) computer to his modem via a wireless dongle....
the clue is in this bit......

Quote

My PC is not adapted for wireless broadband

[#4]

If you want to maximize the use of line speed, latency, etc. You can't beat a wired connection...
If you really want to go wireless,    you'll need  to select  wireless adapter which supports 802.11N at 300mbs.  and for a desktop PC,  you'd be better off with an internal card than a USB dongle.

[#5]

I think the OP had better not try to connect an ADSL modem to his FTTC connection.

[#6]

Quote from: kmilburn

... you'd be better off with an internal card than a USB dongle.

This statement is often made on this forum but I do not see why it should be true.
Any device that lets you move the aerial away from the computer chassis will be much better than a device that does not.  With a USB dongle you can always use a USB extension cable to do this; many USB dongles are supplied  with their own extension lead and stand. 

[#7]

Well, one reason is that the internal integrated antenna of a USB stick may be fairly poor, so no matter where you put the stick it still won't be very good.
The other reason is that the computer may struggle to move 300Mbps over USB, it is less than the 480Mbps maximum bandwidth of USB2, but there is the USB protocol overhead, USB bandwidth may be shared between several devices, and transferring a lot of data over USB eats up a lot of CPU time.

[#8]

Rather than USB WiFi dongles which presumably require drivers to be installed, I have always used WiFi bridges that plug into the PC ethernet socket and don't require any additional drivers - as all the configuration is done via a web page.
My current favorite is the Netgear WNCE2001 - http://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/hometheater/networking-for-home-theater-and-gaming/WNCE2001.a...
Another advantage of using a wireless bridge (instead of USB dongle) is that as your requirements expand and you want to connect more networked items, such as printers or NAS drives, then instead of having the bridge plugged directly into the PC all you do is add a network switch and plug the bridge into the upstream port - then you can have a cluster of wireless connected equipment.
The other option to consider is mains homeplugs such as Devolo - http://www.devolo.co.uk/consumer/dlan-mains-supply-network-fastest-200-mbit.html?l=en
If you live in  built up area where there are lots of houses with wireless connections, then your own wireless link will have to compete for wireless channel space with your neighbours and possibly suffer poor throughput.  By using mains networking you avoid this issue.

[#9]

Quote from: ejs

Well, one reason is that the internal integrated antenna of a USB stick may be fairly poor, so no matter where you put the stick it still won't be very good.

I don't buy this.  The best aerial may struggle when stuck behind the large metal box that is the chassis of a full-size desktop computer.
 

Quote from: ejs

The other reason is that the computer may struggle to move 300Mbps over USB, it is less than the 480Mbps maximum bandwidth of USB2, but there is the USB protocol overhead, USB bandwidth may be shared between several devices, and transferring a lot of data over USB eats up a lot of CPU time.

I can see this might be a problem if you really did achieve a data rate of 300Mbps, but how often does this happen?

[#10]

Thanks all for your advice and comments. If I stick with my original idea of buying a suitable USB dongle it seems I should go for one that supports 802.11N at 300mps and possibly accept some loss in performance when compared to a wired connection. Perhaps I shall hedge my bets and get the Open Reach engineer to provide a data extension cable anyway so that I have the choice to run wired or go for the tidier wireless option.

[#11]

I had a wireless adapter Netgear WGT111 when I had ADSL which linked to my Netgear Router DG834GT and did very well for the six years I had them. 
When I moved to fibre last month my adapter became the weak link in the chain.  I was getting 36mbs wired and 12mbps with my adapter.  I could get 25mbps on my wife's laptop.  I bought a new adapter Netgear WNA1100 N150 for about £25 from Scan Computers.  I now get 33mbps download speed wirelessly.