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, system units of computers, televisions, game consoles and more. 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information technology is constantly evolving, it often turns out that a device released 2-3 years ago is irrevocably outdated today. Every day devices are produced more and more miniature, while the functions and parameters are increased. 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 pull twisted pair cables through the apartment, but today everything is much easier. It is enough to install a USB adapter on the Wifii PC, which is compatible with all versions of operating systems, and that's it - the network is ready. You can connect multiple wireless devices to such an impromptu access point. For example, communicators, laptops and other computers. To support such networks using specialized software Virtual Wi-Fi. This software is the basis of the Windows 7 operating system. This wireless network supports high-level encryption WPA2 PSK.
Communication Standards for Wireless Networks
When choosing a Wifi USB adapter, you must first pay attention to the standard that this device supports. This parameter should match your router. Since, having bought a device that is incompatible with the main equipment, you will not be able to coordinate and set up a wireless network. In this case, an important parameter is the frequency of the radio signal transmission. To date, two frequency ranges (2.4 MHz and 5 MHz) are widely used. In addition, when choosing an adapter, you need to pay attention to the number of transmitting and receiving devices that the device is capable of supporting.
Interfaces that support Wi-Fi receivers
A few years ago it was possible to meet Wi-Fi adapters with various types of connectors: PCMCI, PCI, micro-PCI, USB and others. However, to date, the USB standard has superseded all other types of interfaces. This is very convenient, since, 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
A 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 increases wireless performance 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 an access point
Thanks to Wi-Fi Virtual technology, any adapter that supports this technology in the drivers can be used as a Wi-Fi signal distributor for client devices. For debugging the system, installing drivers is not necessary; just use a personal computer with the Windows 7 operating system. This software contains built-in installation utilities. And when installing the equipment will offer to download the latest version of 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 essence, Virtual Router is a graphical shell that works with the netsh snap-in through the console. This program makes the process visual and user-friendly, in addition, it is completely free and has all the necessary functionality. It is capable, in addition to its main purpose, to put the adapter into Ad-hoc mode, which allows you to create peer-to-peer networks. Almost all laptops and personal computers are able to support this standard.
How to connect and set up a Wifi USB adapter with Virtual Router system?
First of all, you need to install the necessary software on your PC (for example, Connectify), it converts 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 independently installs drivers; for this, the PC must be connected to the Internet. After that, run 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 reliable protection, it is recommended to specify a password of eight characters or more, which uses uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, as well as special characters. In the future, it must be entered on each wireless client at the first connection. In the "Internet" field, you must select the connected network adapter with which the personal computer gains access to 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 by default, and if several, then it is necessary to specify exactly the device that will be used as an access point. This completes the setting, it remains only to turn on the device. In fact, we created a Wi-Fi router from a regular adapter and 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 given password. After that, the device is ready for operation.
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 amounts to 10-20 US dollars, depending on the model chosen.