Upgrade Network Adapter

[SierraSky]

I'm connecting a Nighthawk AC1900 router and would like to upgrade my network adapter, currently installed is the Ralink RT539OR, what can you recomend for fastest connectivity speeds?

[A4Apollo · Accepted solution]

Hey there! @SierraSky, Thank you for visiting the HP Forums! A great place where you can find solutions for your issues, with help from the community!

I understand you would like to upgrade the wireless card on your PC.

Don't worry I'd like to help you out.

As you mentioned you are using a Nighthawk AC1900 router.

To connect an AC router you would need a dual band N wireless card on your PC.

Chances are you have an add-in WiFi card so you should be able to remove that card and replace it with an 'ac' card, as long as the card fits the slot and is compatible with whichever version of Windows you're running.

I would suggest you using a Wireless Dual-Band Mini USB Adapter. Instead of upgrading the wireless adapter.

This would be cheaper than upgrading the wireless card.

You can try buying Edimax EW-7811UTC which delivers speeds of up to 433Mbps at 5GHz.

If the solution provided worked for you, please mark accepted solution for this post.

Hope this answers your query!

Have a wonderful day ahead! 🙂

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[SierraSky]

Thank you very much for the detailed information, this is all new to me.  I have another question, in the list of devices it says there is a virtual network card called MS virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter, can you explain to me what that is?  Also this:

Realtek PCZe Bgt Family Controller, what does it do? purpose?  Thanks in advance for your expertise, I really appreciate it.

[A4Apollo]

@SierraSky, It's great to hear from you again.

Thanks for writing back to us.

Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter is a virtual adapter for sharing your internet connection (ie. making a wifi hotspot, or 'hosted network').

To disable this, open an elevated command prompt (cmd as admin) and type in the following commands, in order:

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork This stops the hosted network

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow This disables the hotspot.

And the Realtek PCZe Bgt Family Controller is the ethernet (LAN) drivers for your PC.

Hope this answers your query!

Have a great day ahead! 🙂

[SierraSky]

So does that mean with a virtual card like that you can use the PC for your wireless devices like phones, etc? and I don't need a wireless router? because the only reason we're hooking it up is for the phones and other devices, we're going to keep our wired connection for the PC's just because it's faster.

[A4Apollo]

@SierraSky, Thanks for your quick response and time.

You will still need a wireless router to connect to the internet. However, you can use your laptop as a hotspot to connect other devices to the same network.

However, to know if you PC support hosted network you have to run the following commands.

type "netsh wlan show drivers" and press the Enter key.

Scroll up until you see a line that says "Hosted Network Support

If the setting says Yes, your computer's hardware supports the creation of wireless hosted networks. 

If not then your PC will not support hosted networks.

Take Care!

Have a great day ahead! 🙂

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!