New laptop must use wifi

[#1]

I have brought a new laptop, my office where I do my St John Ambulance work is separated from the house. I have a cable from the router in the house to the office, no problem. New laptop has only wifi connection cannot use cable connection to routher.  less good contecsion, lower speed, not good. How do I get back to acceptrable conmnection speeds?  What is the best solution?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Assuming its got a. USB3 port then something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CD1H9X6K?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details 

To get the best performance make sure whatever you get is usb3 and Gigabit capable

[#3]

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from Broadband to Tech Help.

[#4]

@GerardLKIng 

Excellent suggestion by @MisterW ......  I had similar problem with my LInux mini laptop.  would not connect via the "normal" Ethernet socket... could only use WIFI to connect.  Got one of those USB connectors and it worked perfectly.

[#5]

@shutter, I'm just going to assume that it wouldn't connect via regular ethernet ports, due to a missing network driver. 

[#6]

@ghamilton123  No, I had the correct ethernet driver installed, but there was something  on the motherboard not compatible within the Linux system.

When I changed the HDD to a Windows version, the Ethernet port worked.

The only way that particular 10inch laptop would connect via ethernet cable to my router, was via the USB conversion stick.

Here is the full story !    https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/Laptop-won-t-connect-via-ethernet-cabl...

Thanks for your interest

[#7]

@shutter interesting topic, am assuming that "Gerry" is your nickname 😂, if so we have the same nickname. 

[#8]

Thank myou very much for your quick responce and informatiom. I was beginning to wonder if I would have to move my office into the house to get a usable connection. Having spend a lot on a new laptop, I wonderewd if I had made the right decision.

A questions, here3 via FTTC about 200 metres from my house and get 68mb download now, how much benefit will I gwt when fibre arrives. Openreach are working on this in the road. I/we do not use system for gaming, nor download films, look at items on Iplayer, etc.

[#9]

@GerardLKIng FTTP is seen as being more reliable than FTTC as it uses fibre optic cables all the way to the home, eliminating signal degradation from copper lines and avoiding maintenance issues from decades-old copper phone infrastructure.

It also enables much faster speeds, although in your case that's probably no advantage. There are a number of FTTP options available from Plusnet , from the Full Fibre 74 which will give similar speeds to those you are getting on FTTC, up to Full Fibre 900 which gives 900Mb down and 115Mb up.

[#10]

With the fear that I'll be flagged as wandering off-topic...

"FTTP is seen as being more reliable than FTTC as it uses fibre optic cables all the way to the home, eliminating signal degradation from copper lines and avoiding maintenance issues from decades-old copper phone infrastructure."

Copper cabling has been susceptible to theft (recycled metals black market).

Fibre optic cabling much less so.

Someone in BT should remember when a portion of London was removed from the internet as someone broke into one place and removed a lot of copper cabling. That was well over a decade ago. Affecting consumers and businesses alike.

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/crimes-and-scams/report-cable-theft

And it happens (and has happened) elsewhere around the globe.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/09/openreach-uk-highlights-mass-of-copper-cable-thefts-in...

https://www.smart-energy.com/industry-sectors/energy-grid-management/cable-theft-a-growing-problem-a...

(My 'off-topic' stuff is purely speculative. It may bring me back into contact with people I used to work with. My personal situation has had some major 'restructuring' this year).

[#11]

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@greygit1 wrote:

With the fear that I'll be flagged as wandering off-topic...

<snip>

Copper cabling has been susceptible to theft (recycled metals black market).

<snip>

(My 'off-topic' stuff is purely speculative. It may bring me back into contact with people I used to work with. My personal situation has had some major 'restructuring' this year).

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Scrap metal dealers?