Wifi USB adapter: description, purpose, device specifications
Wifi USB adapter is a device for connecting a personal computer or other device to a wireless network.
What are Wi-Fi devices for?
When building a radio network in an office or at home, you have to use devices that do not have wireless functions. For example, computer system units, TVs, game consoles, and so on. Even if the device is equipped with a wireless client, you often have to buy and install a more modern Wifi USB adapter that supports faster communication formats. After all, information technologies are constantly developing, it often turns out that a device released 2-3 years ago is now irretrievably outdated. Every day, devices are being produced smaller and smaller, and the functions and parameters are increasing at the same time. If a couple of years ago, in order to connect the Internet to two personal computers at once, it was necessary to install switches and run twisted-pair cables around the apartment, but today everything is much simpler. It is enough to install a Wifii USB adapter on your PC, which is compatible with all versions of operating systems, and that's it - the network is ready. Several wireless devices can be connected to such an impromptu access point at the same time. For example, communicators, laptops and other computers. To support such networks, specialized Virtual Wi-Fi software is used. This software is the basis of the Windows 7 operating system. This wireless network supports WPA2 PSK high-level encryption.
Communication standards for wireless networks
When choosing a Wifi USB adapter, you must first of all pay attention to the standard that this device supports. This setting must match your router. Since, by purchasing a device that is incompatible with the main equipment, you will not be able to coordinate and configure the wireless network. In this case, an important parameter is the frequency of radio signal transmission. To date, two are widely used (2.4 MHz and 5 MHz). In addition, when choosing an adapter, it is necessary to pay attention to the number of transceivers that the device is capable of supporting.
Interfaces that support Wi-Fi receivers
A few years ago it could be found with various types of connectors: PCMCI, PCI, and others. However, today the USB standard has supplanted all other types of interfaces. This is very convenient, because, having acquired the mentioned device, the user can use it with any personal computer. And even when replacing a PC with a new one or upgrading an old one, you can always use this adapter.
Specifications
Wireless USB Wifi-adapter transmits data at a speed of 300 Mbps, and some models are capable of transmitting information at a speed of 450 Mbps. There are Wi-Fi devices with three antennas, which significantly increase the performance of the wireless connection and signal stability. In the Russian market, the leaders in sales are adapters manufactured by Asus, D-Link and TP-Link.
Turning a Wi-Fi USB adapter into a hotspot
Thanks to Wi-Fi Virtual technology, any adapter whose drivers support this technology can be used as a Wi-Fi signal distributor for client devices. To debug the system, installation of drivers is optional; it is enough to use a personal computer with the Windows 7 operating system. This software contains built-in installation utilities. And when installing the equipment, it will offer to download the latest version of the software. A list of adapter models that are compatible with the Virtual system can be found on the official website of the software developers. In fact, it is a graphical shell that works with the netsh snap-in through the console. This program makes the process visual and user-friendly, besides it is completely free and has all the necessary functionality. In addition to its main purpose, it is capable of switching the adapter to Ad-hoc mode, which allows you to create peer-to-peer networks. Almost all laptops and personal computers are capable of supporting this standard.
How to connect and set up Wifi USB adapter with Virtual Router system?
The first step is to install the necessary software on the PC (for example, Connectify), it will convert the Wi-Fi receiver into an access point. After that, we connect the adapter to the USB port of the personal computer. The Windows 7 operating system installs drivers on its own; for this, the PC must be connected to the Internet. After that we start the program. The first step is to set the name of the wireless network, which is indicated in the HotspotName field. Next, in the Password section, you need to set a password for access to the created system. For strong security, it is recommended that you specify a password of eight characters or more, which uses uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. In the future, it must be entered on each wireless client when connecting for the first time. In the "Internet" field, you must select the connected personal computer with which it accesses the World Wide Web. For example, it could be a network card. Then select "Local Area Connection".
Next, in the Advanced field, specify the Wi-Fi adapter. If only one device is connected to the computer, then we select the default, and if there are several, then it is necessary to specify exactly the device that will be used as an access point. This completes the setup, it remains only to turn on the device. In fact, we created a Wi-Fi router from an ordinary adapter and a PC. After clicking the Start Hotspot button, another NAT server appears on the network. After that, you can connect the first clients: laptop, tablet or smartphone. To do this, we search for wireless networks and “connect” to ours using the specified password. After that, the device is ready to work.
How much can a USB Wifi adapter cost?
The price of such a device will depend primarily on the manufacturer and on the parameters of the device. In any case, the cost of a USB Wi-Fi adapter will be affordable for almost everyone, it is 10-20 US dollars, depending on the chosen model.
